Wednesday, December 07, 2005 7:27 AM
My wife and I spent this past weekend in New York City with my sister and brother-in-law and since its getting close to Christmas, my wife and sister spent quite a bit of time shopping in Chinatown. In case you have never been to Chinatown, its a unique and interesting shopping experience. First of all, it was packed...we were standing shoulder to shoulder on the sidewalk and good luck actually getting around in any of the stores (which are all tiny, hole-in-the-wall places). Second, Chinatown is apparently well known for the availability of counterfeit stuff...like watches, perfume, luggage and DVD's. But the big thing there are fake handbags...Coach, Louis Vuitton, Cartiers, Gucci, etc...
According to my sister, all of the fake stuff used to just be out in the open on the street, but the black market industry has been driven “underground” in the past few years. Now, as you walk around the sidewalks of Chinatown, the shop keepers whisper “Coach, watch, DVD” as you walk by them. If you are interested in buying a fake handbag, you generally get taken either into a back room, or taken by someone out of the store to a remote “location” generally in another building where the fakes are kept. Its one of the most humorous experiences I have ever had shopping.
Additionally, shops with the fakes often “appear” in the alleys. We ran across one and I snapped this picture:
As you can see..its not exactly inconspicuous.
Its hysterical that all of this happens and its so obvious, and everyone knows why everyone else is there, yet everyone tries to act like nothing is going on. But when you see every other woman walking about with a non-descript black plastic bag (or in some cases 5-6 plastic bags, plus several duffel bags) its so painfully obvious that it becomes comical.
Anyways...it was quite the interesting experience, plus its only a few block from Little Italy, so you can go get dinner after.