It's everywhere! Your best friend may have it, your coworkers might have gotten it weeks ago, and you might be sitting there with it right now. Yes, it's the Starbucks Free-Iced-Coffee-On-Wednesdays card, which came in an insert of the New York Post in early June. We've been sitting pretty on ours for a while now, but redeeming it at the city's various Starbucks locations is getting uglier. Why the trouble? It seems that counterfeiting of the card is running rampant.
Sure, the deal is pretty sweet: each time you present the flimsy card on Wednesdays until July 23rd you get a free tall iced coffee. The card does not need to be handed over, thus ensuring that the city is well-caffeinated every hump day. As the weeks wear on, however, baristas have been getting noticeably grabbier with the cards and one divulged that it was due to paper fakes.
An Estée Lauder promotion has thrown shoppers into a tizzy at Bloomies. "'Who's coming? The Queen?' a typically jaded New Yorker asked nobody in particular in response to the growing crowd on Bloomingdale's cosmetics floor. 'Gwyneth Paltrow,' was the swift response, and the blasé shopper suddenly perked up, immediately understanding that the impending crowd frenzy was perfectly justified, rendering Gwyneth more important than a fusty, old Monarch." [The Shophound]
It was a cold day in retail hell recently, as we caught a glimpse of the elusive Girl Props Roadster (GirlPropster!) taking a break from its urban safari. What is this "Girl Props" store of which we speak? Why, it's a cheap accessories shop at 153 Prince Street and West Broadway. Oops, we almost forgot their motto: "Inexpensive! We *never* say cheap!"
Although what the store sells might be unclear, one thing is for sure: this convertible doesn't give a damn about subtle branding, causing it to stand out from the other promotional Smarts and Mini Coopers tooling about the city.
· Girl Props [Official Site]
Mark your calendars for what will surely be an event of hilarious confusion and irony: the cast of the Broadway musical Hair will be selling merchandise and performing on July 9th inside the Theory store at 40 Gansevoort. While this stunt is probably less about selling wrap tops than theater tickets, the choice of Theory is still baffling. Fashionista explains the conundrum: "Hair is a show about individualism, free love, sacrifice, art, rebellion, society's unraveling, and the power (and sometimes the weakness) of youth in America. Meanwhile, Theory is a store built on $300 slacks and a stable black-white-gray color palette."
Seems like it's the age of aquarius no more.
· Hair Leaves Vogue; Goes to Meatpacking Boutique [Fashionista]
· Music and Fashion Are Always a Passion [Broadway World]
Disney just can't seem to catch a break from naughty news these days, but then they aren't really helping with events like this: Saturdays throughout the rest of this month, Fifth Avenue's World of Disney store will have cheerleaders organizing a dance-along to the High School Musical pep rally. Obviously this is no storytime at a mall Disney Store; the location at 711 Fifth Avenue is the only World of Disney outside of the theme parks. Aside from cheerleaders and pirate lessons, the store specializes in NY-themed merchandise, as evidenced by the above re-creation of the Statue of Liberty's torch done with stuffed Mickeys. Intense.
When word leaked from Hamptons-cum-Bowery fashion retailer Blue & Cream last month that they'd applied for a permit to have beach chairs out front of the store on the sidewalk this summer, we felt happy. Visions of Saturday afternoons, Pimm's Cup in hand, reclining on The Bowery in a fabulous lounge creation, danced in our heads.
Since blasting the Bowery with a photo montage of Hamptons-going celebrities like Howard Stern, Lizzie Grubman and Russell Simmons, new boutique Blue & Cream has laid relatively low. Sure, we've heard rumblings of sales and store events, but the B&C crew hasn't done anything too outlandish...yet. Perhaps they've just been biding their time until the weather improves? A Racked source tells us that owner Jeffrey Goldstein has applied for a permit to have beach chairs out front of the store on the sidewalk this summer. Apparently, the plan is to hire models who'll be handing out espressos—something a Hamptons-familiar Racked staffer says they do out there at the beach. Models frolicking on the Bowery? Curbside lounging? It's sure to be a big hit with a certain Bowery crowd, but probably not the types that can drop $400 on an Alexander Wang t-shirt.
· The Bowery Gets Its Blue & Cream [Racked]
· Storecasting: Blue & Cream's Wall Of Fame [Racked]
· Blue & Cream Update: Just A White Hole At The Moment [Racked]
· Storecasting: Bowery Whole Foods Gets An Upscale Neighbor [Racked]
SOHO—For the zillionth time, a brand's opening a pop-up store in Soho. The Supima Cotton shop, landing in the nabe on March 14th, will be much different than its predecessors, though. The Cut reports they're going to promote the thing by somehow setting up a faux-cotton field on Houston Street. "According to a Supima rep, employees will have 'actual bales of cotton and hand them out to people walking by.'" Why, that's not wasteful at all. [The Cut]
NATIONAL—Rumor has it that the Starbucksshutterings tonight from 5:30 to 8:30pm are taking place so that the coffee chain can switch its wifi over from T-Mobile to AT&T. Of course, the official word from the company is that they're retraining all their baristas. If so, that coffee should taste extra-special tomorrow morning. [RackedWire Inbox]
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