vignettes of overconsumption

Doug Henwood dhenwood at panix.com
Tue Feb 16 06:17:40 PST 1999


A couple of vignettes from the upper west side of Manhattan, home to Lucianne Goldberg, Thomas Pynchon, Michael Moore, and about 40,000 investment bankers and 20,000 lawyers:

* Yesterday afternoon, the neighborhood was so thick with holiday shoppers that the lines at the Chase (6 machines) and Citibank (12 machines) ATMs went out the door and onto the sidewalk. Last night, the Chase was empty of cash, and this morning the Citibank was.

* One of the local booze merchants told me the other night that he bought several extra cases of Johnny Walker Red before Christmas. He hasn't sold a single bottle. But the single malt scotches, esp. the $100 and up ones, are flying off the shelves. Ditto bourbon: the Jim Beam and Jack Daniels are gathering dust, but he can't keep the limited edition $200 a bottle stuff in stock.

Good thing the American economy isn't at all bubble-like!

Doug



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