Canal Street was a great experience 😊
Geographically speaking, it sits at the sort of ‘hinge point’
of Lower Manhattan; cutting through the heart of Chinatown it forms the
Southern Edge of SoHo and the Northern boundary of Tribeca. It also marks the lower
border of what is left of the famous (and occasionally infamous) streets of Little
Italy.
We were there Midweek – having stayed a few days in the
Hyatt Place Hotel on West 24th Street, in the Chelsea District – and
it was just SO busy. I really didn’t expect to find it so incredibly populated.
Street corners were packed with throngs of people, many of whom were either
offering, or purchasing goods.
My first impression had been that there was something going
on: a march; a demonstration, maybe street theatre of some kind. But, NO, it
was just how Canal Street is: the hustle and bustle of hustlers and, I guess,
bustlers. But when you begin to take in the activities of groups of predominantly
African & Chinese Americans, you realise that Canal Street is basically the
stage of a lively, open air market. And from what I could see, there was lots
of goods for sale, the majority of these items being ‘knock-off’ designer ware:
handbags, shoulder bags, clothing, perfumes.
There were shops, and lots of them, but the real trade was
done on the street. I saw traders dragging large canvas bags from cars – big
old bags, similar in size to those you might keep bedding in – and just unzip
them right there on any available space on the sidewalk (just me slipping in a
little Americanism). The bag would unzip almost all the way around and would
fold out and flatten, acting like a canvas floormat for all the goods to be separated
for display. And there was all sorts: the aforementioned clothes, perfumes and
bags, along with Apple gear: buds, Iphones & Ipads, as well as headphones,
watches and much, much more.
As well as the ‘bag’ men and women, there were also lots of
Chinese Ladies armed with catalogues folded concertina style, so what looked
initially like a long take-away food menu would unfold to A3 poster size. I
watched them ply their trade or, more particularly, their bosses trade. These
ladies would approach female tourists and invite them to peruse their
catalogues; the one I watched showed dozens of little pictures of handbags. If
the tourist then took the bait, they would be escorted around a corner from the
main street and led to an apartment door. There, they would meet a guy – again,
usually African or Chines American – who would bring you your preferred choice
of fashion accessory and then haggle the price with you. I spoke to one of the
customers afterwards: she said they started off at $400, but that she haggled
him down to $70. And she was really pleased with the quality of her new Yves Saint
Laurent bag.
Of course, all this trade is very surreptitious. The NYPD
will often undertake a raid on the traders, but that is why they display their wares
so clandestinely; there is likely look-outs at either side of the main
thoroughfare who call in any police activity, hence the reason the traders work
from quick-zip bags and off street doorways.
I couldn’t fathom, though, how there was SO much Apple gear
on show. So far as I could see these were not knock-offs; they were presented
in real boxes still sealed in cellophane? And speaking to people who know how
the game works, they said that these items were genuine, though for them, too,
how they were amassed was a mystery of Big Apple proportions.
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