Shopping at Macy's

It's true you can find virtually anything you could desire, at one particular city block of Manhattan. At this one spot, you can purchase clothes for every culture, shape, size, age, species, or even era. Electronics, sports equipment, bedding, home furnishings, jewelry, cars, boats, RVs... you name it. Even, if you had enough money, a small country. Not to mention practically everything is discounted. You need a math degree just to figure out how the complicated markdown process of multiple discounts translates into a hard number.

All this, in one location, one HUGE location, at 34th and Broadway.

Macy's

Last night I decided to wobble my bike down 30 city blocks through a complicated and very narrow path of empty space that presented itself between J-walking pedestrians, impatient cabbies, other bikes, bike tour buggies, and Broadway tour buses. Why? to be a part of the huge humanitarian project that is otherwise known as: Christmas shopping at Macy's.


I have been to Macy's plenty of times since I have moved here. It's always crowded, there's always a sale on one of it's massive 9 floors, and I always seem to regret going there. But it's the same as getting really drunk and paying for it the next morning - somehow, you forget about how much you hated it, and do it all over again like a mindless automaton.

During the days leading up to Christmas, Macy's is somehow, quite unbelievably, even more crowded than usual. Since words can't really describe how crowded it is, I decided to shoot some video footage of what it's like.

Enjoy . . .