by AArdvark » Thu May 27, 2010 6:22 pm
I've developed a theory about all the Asians all selling the exact same tourist crap, such as I (heart) N Y t-shirts, shot glasses, belts and pink sparkly Yankee hats. First, some background.
These places are everywhere! You can't walk fifty feet without going past a sidewalk table hawking this stuff. There just cant be that big a demand to support all these people. We went into one of these places, it was an actual shop, not just some random table on Sixth Avenue, they wanted five bucks each for t-shirts. Or five shirts for ten bucks. Friends of ours who were with us, have a large family. They wanted eight shirts for fifteen dollars, here is a ten and a five dollar bill. Sales lady says 'No' They promptly replaced the pile of shirts and walked out, money still in hand. Sales lady waits until they reach the door and she shouts: 'OK! You buy!'
So it is possible to haggle, but not many tourists can do it.
Net loss to sales lady: one dollar. (There is no tax on clothes in NYC, something to do with the fashion industry, no doubt) She is probably pissed because she might have been able to sell them for five bucks each.
Anyway, my theory:
They let these people leave their homeland and come here provided that they take a huge carton of cheap goods with them. (All the stuff is made in China or Korea anyway) They have to sell the entire contents of the box within eight months and mail the profits back home or the secret clothes police show up one dark night and murder them with cheap vinyl rhinestone belts. They live in fear of that day arriving and will stop at nothing to get random tourists to cough up five bucks for a cheap fanny pack that proclaims, 'New York Fuckin' City'.
THE
WHERE'D WALDO-SAN GO
AARDVARK
I've developed a theory about all the Asians all selling the exact same tourist crap, such as I (heart) N Y t-shirts, shot glasses, belts and pink sparkly Yankee hats. First, some background.
These places are everywhere! You can't walk fifty feet without going past a sidewalk table hawking this stuff. There just cant be that big a demand to support all these people. We went into one of these places, it was an actual shop, not just some random table on Sixth Avenue, they wanted five bucks each for t-shirts. Or five shirts for ten bucks. Friends of ours who were with us, have a large family. They wanted eight shirts for fifteen dollars, here is a ten and a five dollar bill. Sales lady says 'No' They promptly replaced the pile of shirts and walked out, money still in hand. Sales lady waits until they reach the door and she shouts: 'OK! You buy!'
So it is possible to haggle, but not many tourists can do it.
Net loss to sales lady: one dollar. (There is no tax on clothes in NYC, something to do with the fashion industry, no doubt) She is probably pissed because she might have been able to sell them for five bucks each.
Anyway, my theory:
They let these people leave their homeland and come here provided that they take a huge carton of cheap goods with them. (All the stuff is made in China or Korea anyway) They have to sell the entire contents of the box within eight months and mail the profits back home or the secret clothes police show up one dark night and murder them with cheap vinyl rhinestone belts. They live in fear of that day arriving and will stop at nothing to get random tourists to cough up five bucks for a cheap fanny pack that proclaims, 'New York Fuckin' City'.
THE
WHERE'D WALDO-SAN GO
AARDVARK