Marshalls — Attraction in New York

Several things.

First, do we really need Marshalls, Burlington Coat Factory, and TJ Maxx all within a two block stretch of 125th Street? They are literally the same, exact store. It's freaky. And it feels like a botched government-developer planned gentrification of commercial spaces that used to house small black owned businesses. They are pretty much centered on Martin Luther King Blvd and Malcolm X Blvd. This is one of the largest black owned small business districts in the nation, and probably the most symbolically important. Precious few such districts exist. Unlike other ethnic groups, whose small businesses commonly proliferate in cities across America, Black Americans have a different experience -- one without an international trading center back home to develop an import/export based, culturally specific niche in business. So 125th Street is important. Too important for three oversized, identical stores like Marshalls displacing the smaller businesses that existed before there.

Second, I have never actually made it through the line. Are they serious?: I have actually spent an hour or two in there before, picking over various synthetic woven shirts and underwear (good luck finding a medium anything), winding back to the home section and finding a set of reasonably priced sheets and maybe some towels, and then what's that?! a really great deal on a casserole dish? Throw it in the cart. Feeling pretty good about my savvy shopping, I make my way through the suburban sized aisles back to the check out and then my jaw drops. The line is ridiculously long, full of others who have filled their carts with all sorts of off-sized, synthetic, and generally unnecessary wares that I have. Oh, but then the other shoe drops. That wasn't the whole line, because it winds around three times before you get to the actual checkout, as if you were in line for a popular roller coaster at an amusement park. Unamused, I invariably abandon my shopping cart at this point and stay away until the experience fades long enough from my memory that I repeat the...

So I shop in the store relatively regularly and I have only a few criticisms of my experiences there. One is that the front door is almost always being held by some sort of really? gnarly junkie. Now I know everybody needs to try and do what they can to make a living, but I'll be damned if I'm going to be paying anybody to hold the door open for me. I am a Southerner. Any man that would hold the door open for you and expect money for it isn't worth piss, homeless, junkie or no. They do often get robbed here. In spite of the relatively regular police presence on cameras all over the place, so you'll see guys running out with bag usually. I've never seen a woman burglarize the place but I guess that happens there too. My only other criticism is one that I delivered to their manager in person. They hired a muslima about 2 months ago. Who followed me around the store everywhere. I went until I turned around and followed her. At this point I asked to speak with a manager and she followed me over to the manager and found some reason to interrupt our exchange. My complaint was as it is here. I've shopped here many times over the years and have never been treated like this woman has treated me and she is clearly a new employee, but this is unacceptable. Should I come in here in experience this again? Trust I will a letter to corporate. I explained that one of the reasons I shop in that store is because I don't get harassed like in some of the other stores in Harlem. The manager who was a Latina said that she apologized for the behavior and would take care of it. That said, I didn't see a woman who followed me around while I was shopping on my visit there the following month. So maybe they found a place where not in the back. Can't harass people. Other than that you can't beat this place on tennis shoes, candles, bath soap, greeting cards and seasonal items. Sometimes there's a line but borrowing this one incident I've recounted I haven't had an issue with people disrespecting me while I'm shopping. It can get a little...

UPPER MANHATTAN ! On our second vacation in New York, NY my wife and I decided to rent an Airbnb for 2 weeks in Upper Manhattan...right on the edge of Harlem. We figured a 2 bed/ 2 bath brownstone on the 3rd floor would be more comfortable than the 21st floor hotel suite at the Hotel Beacon on Broadway in Downtown Manhattan where we stayed in 2021. YES AND NO ! The key word here being Downtown because that's where all the cool stuff is. We were staying in an area known as Uptown and it didn't look too good. In fact most of Amsterdam Ave looked downtrodden, slummy, dirty with homeless black folks everywhere...ghettoville. We needed to buy groceries and there was nothing near us so we took the subway to the Whole Foods Market in Harlem. After the subway ride we headed straight into the huge 2 level store and asked a male employee where were the restrooms...we don't have any. WHY ? I asked why is that as I've never been inside a Whole Foods Market without restrooms. Look outside was his reply. OKAY ! We had noticed the very crowded sidewalk with lots of black folks flogging various stuff but surely that would not be enough reason not to have customer restrooms. The same dude said the Marshalls across the site had public restrooms so we headed straight over here. CLEAN RESTROOMS ! Up to 3rd floor and bingo....male and female restrooms. After that we headed down a level as my wife wanted to buy a couple of soft pillows....the pillows supplied in our Airbnb were pretty average. Friendly service at the checkout. We left with our 2 pillows and walked back over to Whole Foods Market to do some...