July 6, 2008, New York -- Change in New York is constant. Whether it’s the seasons, the styles or the weather, New Yorkers are definitely used to it. Buildings are going up over night, changing the landscape of entire neighborhoods in mere months while your favorite lingerie shop is there one day and gone the next. (Ahem, Catriona MacKechnie.) Restaurants and delis turn over, hemlines rise and fall, toe boxes go from round to pointy then back again, and the Marc Jacobs billboard on Seventh Ave South is repainted over and over all in the name of keeping New York fresh and a city full of reinvention.
The subject of change in New York is oft discussed, debated and lauded, but what got me thinking about all this change was the lack of change in one small piece of New York—the price of an umbrella on the street has remained constant. Downpour or brief shower, 1989 or 2008, this immediately useful, yet easily broken item is always available for the same price.
Of all the times I’ve been caught sans umbrella over the years, it’s still $5 for a small, plastic replacement. As far as I can tell it is the one miracle of the economy, completely unaffected by inflation, fluctuating markets or the declining dollar. It is baffling when your average pair of designer shoes have gone from $300 to $500, while the special ones have gone from $500 to $750+. I’d happily pay $7, $10, maybe even $13 in a downpour for a piece of plastic protection if it meant my shoe fetish wasn’t costing as much as a year’s rent on an apartment in, say, New Amsterdam, Indiana.
This may not be an earth shattering revelation, and certainly nothing to stay up at night thinking about, but the $5 umbrella is definitely a good piece of classic NYC. –Cary Weekes
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