Survive 10 hours and 32 minutes in Bergdorf Goodman

It seems wrong that a yellow mop bucket is on the ground floor of Bergdorf Goodman. Or that a Windex bottle and a dusty pink cloth should be left on a pebbled glass table next to two handbags. It's like meeting a teacher outside of school or walking into a movie theater lit by overhead lights. Looks like you're not supposed to see that right now.
Yet Bergdorf Goodman's theme this holiday season — there's a theme each year, which dictates the famous window decorations - is "magic in the making". And that's how the magic of Bergdorf Goodman happens before the doors open. It's 9:47 a.m. and the marble floors and display counters are being cleaned. There is no music yet, which means the white clicking noise of the purse security tags is still audible: a constant tapping that cannot be heard once identified.
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Or it's 9:24 a.m. in the gold jewelry lounge, where pieces are unpacked from soft beige boxes, after being locked in safes overnight. You're allowed to know some of these safes, like three that almost touch the ceiling of a cramped back office, behind a door lined with sales pitches for Bergdorf staff. (Sell for $75,000 from a luxury European luxury brand, win an $8,550 watch from that brand.) Other safes are secrets, which is deemed necessary when jewelry for sale can currently reach $1.6 million.
Or it's 10 minutes before opening, and small queues are forming in front of the entrances. Outside a revolving door on 58th Street, a blond septuagenarian wearing a black cap looks inside, sucking on a cigarette. She's lived on Park Avenue for 47 years, she says, but also lives "in France and in many places, like us Greeks." She came to shop at Saint Laurent and meet friends for lunch.
The first people in the door move with purpose and experience. They are not there at 10am to browse. So why are they here? What brings anyone in 2022 to walk through the doors of department stores, whose foot traffic has generally declined, usurped by the convenience of online shopping?
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Fashion Dec 17, 2022 0 92 Add to Reading List

Survive 10 hours and 32 minutes in Bergdorf Goodman

It seems wrong that a yellow mop bucket is on the ground floor of Bergdorf Goodman. Or that a Windex bottle and a dusty pink cloth should be left on a pebbled glass table next to two handbags. It's like meeting a teacher outside of school or walking into a movie theater lit by overhead lights. Looks like you're not supposed to see that right now.

Yet Bergdorf Goodman's theme this holiday season — there's a theme each year, which dictates the famous window decorations - is "magic in the making". And that's how the magic of Bergdorf Goodman happens before the doors open. It's 9:47 a.m. and the marble floors and display counters are being cleaned. There is no music yet, which means the white clicking noise of the purse security tags is still audible: a constant tapping that cannot be heard once identified.

Or it's 9:24 a.m. in the gold jewelry lounge, where pieces are unpacked from soft beige boxes, after being locked in safes overnight. You're allowed to know some of these safes, like three that almost touch the ceiling of a cramped back office, behind a door lined with sales pitches for Bergdorf staff. (Sell for $75,000 from a luxury European luxury brand, win an $8,550 watch from that brand.) Other safes are secrets, which is deemed necessary when jewelry for sale can currently reach $1.6 million.

Or it's 10 minutes before opening, and small queues are forming in front of the entrances. Outside a revolving door on 58th Street, a blond septuagenarian wearing a black cap looks inside, sucking on a cigarette. She's lived on Park Avenue for 47 years, she says, but also lives "in France and in many places, like us Greeks." She came to shop at Saint Laurent and meet friends for lunch.

The first people in the door move with purpose and experience. They are not there at 10am to browse. So why are they here? What brings anyone in 2022 to walk through the doors of department stores, whose foot traffic has generally declined, usurped by the convenience of online shopping?

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