After spending a really quite enjoyable weekend at our relatives in the Lower East Side, my sister in law mentioned the famous annual Saks Fifth Avenue sale of December 26, where everything from the season's sale is an additional 50% off from 8am until 12pm and then 40% after that until closing.
Desiring some gorgeous designer shoes, hopeful that they would be somewhat affordable I agreed to go with her. We rushed to get out of the house arriving at Saks at 9:30 am. Late.
As I walked in I heard a mother tell her daughter, "there is nothing left to buy" i looked around, to me it seemed that there was plenty, plenty to buy. Crowds pooled around the elevators, some of the more serious shoppers had furrowed brows, deep in thought as if they had a running list in their heads of how to tackle the 10 floor madness and kept reviewing it so that they wouldn't dare forget.
Others had more relaxed faces as they chatted with their shopping buddies, talking about what they already purchased on floor one, the cosmetics, perfume, and small luxury item floor and what they hoped to get on the next floor.
As we got off the elevator on floor 8, the shoe floor, we were ushered into a roped line. A roped line! Every few minutes the bouncer allowed a few more women to enter the shoe section. I was flabbergasted, blown away, I was actually really embarrassed to even be part of it. The bouncer finally allowed us on to the floor, we found the section with our sized shoes. Most of the shoes were on the floor being shoved onto hopeful feet. Others were tossed carelessly in a growing pile. Shoe sales persons were actually on all fours on the floor trying to salvage the commodities from being trampled.
I approached an interesting looking shoe and touched it, "excuse me!!!!!" I jumped aside as if struck by an electrical current, I did not realize but I had encroached upon a sacred pile of shoes set aside by a somewhat unattractive 25 year old young lady. "I was merely looking," I murmured, as she glared at me accusingly. I basically lost interest in the shoe section after that.
After sometime on the various floors I ran into a girl who confessed to me in a very frantic and worried voice that she could not understand why she had not found anything to buy. A year or two prior to this she would have found a minimum of six pairs of shoes to buy and at least ten other items. She continued to tell me that since she's had a child she finds herself spending more carefully. I listened to her, and tried to congratulate her on surpassing the stage in her life of thoughtless and mindless shopping and being more cautious with her money. After bidding her farewell, I spotted her making her rounds again, just a few more times, still looking anxious, hoping she did not make the awful mistake of NOT buying anything and making sure she did not miss the items that may call out to her.
The demographic in the NYC Saks was mostly Jewish people, lots of them religious. Many of them ultra-Orthodox. I wondered if they saved all their money to come to this annual sale and buy whatever they fancied or if they just demanded of their husbands a huge wad of cash as they fled their homes in search of the perfect silk designer scarf to add to their already huge scarf collection, making it the only colorful item in their mostly black wardrobes.
There were also a few teenagers, obviously religious, dressed in black head to toe; black blazers, black skirts, thick black tights and designer flats. Each held a bag of purchases I am almost positive they did not need nor could afford, yet the thrill of telling their friends they made it to the sale and got this and that designer item so that they can stand out from their peers was too enticing. All I could think of, was how bad I felt for their parents and how their ridiculous purchases would really not make them any happier or unique.
At last the most interesting of shoppers were the tourists, mostly orientals toting huge stacks of dollars literally sweeping their arms across the shelves of designer handbags piling them up and buying them all. Any item in the store which carried a designers logo or emblem they had to have. After all, the point of having designer items is that everyone can tell that they are designer.
After about two and half hours we left. I did not buy a thing. I am neither pleased nor displeased that I did not find anything to buy. Rather, I am intrigued by what I learned about the human race and wonder how many of the shoppers today are tossing and turning tonight wondering if they should have gotten their Jimmy Choo sandals in both the sand and the dust color.
