Saturday, July 18, 2009

The people on the Upper East Side...

...of Manhattan must have so much money that they look for things to spend it on. I have to think that's who buys the stuff that's advertised on pages A2 and A3 of the New York Times. Today there's an ad for Saks Fifth Avenue that says:

Since 1897, luggage handmade (does that really matter?) from lightweight Vulcan fiber (whatever that is; sounds like something out of Star Trek) has traveled with British royalty and luxury-seekers worldwide. The tradition continues with these orange (orange?) suitcases ($875 to $2135).

Below is a picture of four suitcases that look like something out of a Hope and Crosby movie. (The only things missing are those stickers from faraway places.) Do people on Park Avenue in New York wake up on Saturdays, pour a cup of coffee, open up the newspaper, see that ad, and think that that's what's missing from their lives? Don't they already own suitcases? So what do they do, jump in a cab and rush down to Saks to buy this luggage? I guess that's silly. They send someone down to Saks to buy it for them. Or maybe they just go online and order it themselves (it is 2009, after all). Then what? Do they throw their old luggage away? Do they give it away? There's only so much room in even the nicest pre-War buildings in Manhattan.

So the luggage finally arrives and then what, look for the next crazy thing in the NYT to buy? I guess Fitzgerald was right; the rich really are different from you and me.

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