The Shophound

Employee Of The Week:The Shop Clerk Returns!Meet Veronica Leslie,Macy's Longest Standing Employee...Literally

New York Magazine has quietly resurrected one of our favorite features: Ask A Shop Clerk.
Once a weekly treat, the shop clerk slowed down to a monthly, and then disappeared altogether for a while, but has been popping up here and there over the past few months.
This week, our heart goes out to Ms. Veronica Leslie who has been working at Macy's since 1960 when she was paid forty-six dollars a week at the Flatbush branch for what was supposed to be a temporary position. That's since before The Shophound was born (and by that we mean the person, not the blog).
God bless her, she's still standing, and we hope they treat her like a queen because she surely deserves it for all those decades on her feet.
Now in the Coat Department at Herald Square, Ms. Leslie has absorbed the expertise of a pro:

Any plans to retire?
I’m thinking about it. I’ll reach my 50th anniversary in two more years. By that time, the younger generation will be able to take over for me, keeping in mind what I’ve taught them.
Like what?
You have to know how to ask the customer to try on another size. Sometimes someone thinks she’s a size 10 but really she’s a 12. Younger people like to wear their coats so tight now, but if you get on a bus and have to reach for the rail, you’re in trouble—your sleeves will burst.

Truly, there's nobody we would rather buy a coat from in Macy's than Ms. Leslie. Frankly, there's probably nobody else we would rather buy anything from in Macy's.
We do think it's rather optimistic of her to think that in only a couple of years, the younger generation of Macy's staff will finally be ready to take over for her. If they haven't learned her lessons by now (and we're pretty sure they haven't) they probably never will.
We strongly suggest that Macy's try to hang on to her at all costs, but we doubt they will. Ms. Leslie informs us that the store is celebrating its big 150^th anniversary by treating the staff to cupcakes.
150^th anniversary.
Cupcakes.
Ask A Shop Clerk: Veronica Leslie of Macy's (NYMag)

Mike Albo Goes Shopping: '90s Nostalgia Editon

In Today's Thursday Styles, this week's Critical Shopper, Mike Albo visits Den, currently featuring Tim Hamilton's collection, and offers an opportunity to reflect on just how much the East Village has changed.

SOMETIMES when I walk through the East Village, I feel a gust of nostalgia for 1993, when I first moved to New York and lived with my artsy friend Jill in a two-bedroom on 12th Street. It was a carefree, de-gorgeous era, when I often wore girl’s-size thermals printed with snowflakes or flowers and $3 thrift store bell-bottoms. I even knotted my hair in Björk buns.

This brings to mind an alarming image, unless, of course, you lived in New York in the early 1990s. Back then, the East Village was cheap, charming and a reliable freak show every day. The neighborhood's fashion icons were Deee-lite's Lady Miss Kier and RuPaul who were both just becoming stars. Patricia Field was a local cult retailer and Avenue B was more known for junkies than chi-chi restaurants. People wore wild costumes to nightclubs and to the supermarket. Mike's outfit wouldn't have gotten a second glance from your typical New Yorker. It was a far cry from the gentrified neighborhood it has become today. Opening a designer store like Den or its parent next door, Odin in the East Village would have been a laughable concept. How things have changed. Albo is alarmed by Hamilton's prices (not entirely without good reason) but he does neglect to mention that the label Den debuted with, Cheap Monday is, in fact, much more affordable, so Den is not necessarily tied to expensive luxury vendors.
As for the rest of the article, we felt we had been there, and we had, a couple of weeks ago.
Since we're on the topic of our regular media items, we might as well mention that New York Magazine found another Shop Clerk this week, though they have become so few and far between that they are easy to miss. Brandy Cusamano labors at Space NK in SoHo, and if you were expecting to find some insight into what it's like to tend to customers' faces on a daily basis, you will, as we were, be disappointed to find a list of products instead. Brandy's opinions and personality remain frustratingly hidden, and we hope that one of our favorite "Strategist" features escapes from the product placement trap in which it appears to have been caught.
Critical Shopper: Come Out of Your Cave and Get Used to the Price by Mike Albo (NYTimes)
Ask A Shop Clerk: Brandy Cusamano of Space NK (New York)

Employee of the Week: Duane Harriot at Other Music

We had been ignoring the "Ask A Shop Clerk" feature in New York Magazine lately because for the last few months, when they did appear, the interviews felt sort of dry and P.R. driven. This week marks a return to form with Duane Harriot of Other Music, once the loyal opposition to the commercial leviathan Tower Records across the street, now an island of indie recorded music that thankfully appears to be surviving the internet threat that is ruthlessly reshaping the music industry in general. Duane manages to debunk the store's image as a bastion of evil music snobbery,

Is there truth behind the store’s conceited-music-geek reputation?
Everyone thinks we’re from the High Fidelity school of indie-clerk asshole. But no one here is a curmudgeon jerk that jeers at customers.

but still manages to emphasize that the staff does have standards,

Why don’t boyfriends make mix tapes anymore?
You’re not meeting the right guys. When you meet someone, just beg or force him to make you a mix. If he puts Toby Keith on there, you’ll immediately know that you’re going to go wrong.

Rock on Duane!
Ask A Shop Clerk: Duane Harriott (NYMag)
Other Music 15 E. 4th St. between Broadway & Lafayette Street, NoHo

Employee of the Week: Lata Chettri-Kennedy at Flower Power Herbs & Roots

Photo by Brad Paris for New York Magazine
New York Magazine finally gets inspired this week and instead of interviewing your typical shopgirl, finds an ordained green witch.
We're not sure exactly how she differs from a black or white witch, but Lata Chettri-Kennedy doesn't seem like the type to turn an unruly customer into a frog. Apparently, Flower Power Herbs & Roots has appeal beyond the Wiccan set, and let's face it, who wouldn't turn down a nice, natural herbal remedy if it were available.

Q What ailments do New Yorkers want to heal?
A Stress, insomnia, heartbreak, sexual impotence, weight gain, hangovers.

Q And what do they take?
A For stress, there’s vibrational therapy using flower essence. If it’s a mother-related issue, I’d give them mariposa lily. For heartbreak: bleeding- heart flower-essence therapy. Impotent men take oat seed, which is very effective. We also sell a love potion, an aphrodisiac blend … It’s potent.

Lata seems to be a serious herbalist as opposed to a Janie-come-lately Harry Potter fan, and while our doctor might scoff, we say, if it works, it works.

Ask a Shop Clerk: Lata Chettri-Kennedy (NYMag)
Flower Power Herbs & Roots 406 E. 9th Street near Avenue A, East Village

Employee of the Week: Elizabeth Doyle at Doyle & Doyle

At this point, we should really just call it "Employee of the Month", and as we have seen before, Elizabeth Doyle current star of New York Magazine's Ask A Shop Clerk column, is clearly boss, not clerk.
Having established that, this week's edition is a little on the dry and service-ey side. Wasn't the point of asking the clerk to get some inside story, or even a little dirt? Elizabeth Doyle is obviously (and perfectly understandably) interested in promoting Doyle & Doyle, her Orchard Street store, and proceeds to dispense antique jewelry shopping advice, and little else.
Useful, yes, but not particularly colorful.
Ask A Shop Clerk has become the neglected stepchild of the Strategist section at the back of the book. We even forgot to check to see of it was running at all this week. Here's hoping interviewer Denise Penny finds a way to liven things up in the future, or maybe they should just let the column die already.
Nice picture, though.
Ask A Shop Clerk: Elizabeth Doyle of Doyle & Doyle (NYMag)
Doyle & Doyle 189 Orchard Street, Lower East Side

Employee Of The Week: Nach Waxman at Kitchen Arts & Letters

Usually, we are ready with this bright and early on Monday, but as the previously noted Fido is now officially dead, and the long awaited Fido II has not yet arrived, we are posting a little light this week.
Having gotten that out of the way, we were happy to see that this week's Shop Clerk in New York Magazine is Nach Waxman of Kitchen Arts & Letters. It's always a little tricky to comment on a bookstore clerk, because one always has the sense that in order to provide proper service they would have to read all the books in the store, which is impossible. On top of that, in a cooking bookstore they would have to not only have read everything, but actually have cooked or eaten a substantial amount of things in the books - doubly impossible. While The Shophound is a novice cook at best, we admit to a recent addiction to America's Test Kitchen, and a frequent compulsion to browse the aisles of Williams-Sonoma for absolutely no reason. It's just sort of comforting to see all that shiny kitchen equipment, ready to be used. Reading a cookbook makes us think that we will make something wonderful from it.
We probably won't, but it looks like Nach is somewhat more advanced than we are,

NYMag: Which is your favorite cookbook of all time?
Nach Waxman: That’s like asking someone to name his favorite child. One great book is called Cucina Fresca, on Italian cold and room-temperature foods. Another is Parisian Home Cooking.
Any guilty pleasures?
The Wonder Bread Cookbook, The Twinkie Cookbook, some Star Wars cookbooks.

And yet, we see he's an unabashed junk-food-junkie.
Now exactly what would one find in the Star Wars Cookbook?
Ask A Shop Clerk: Nach Waxman (NYMag)
Kitchen Arts & Letters 1435 Lexington Ave, Upper East Side

Employee Of The Week: Folami Greene at Kirna Zabête

Well, It's about time we met a new shop clerk. Oh, how we miss the days when we could look forward to meeting a new retail warrior every Monday in New York Magazine. Today, however, we get to meet the colorfully dressed Folami Greene of Kirna Zabête, the SoHo designer emporium that is doing its share to keep the neighborhood's fashion credibility amid the onslaught of the likes of Von Dutch and...we can barely stand to type it...the Crocs store. we're not sure how long she has been working there. She seems to feel that a customer dropping $10,000 at once is an unusual occurrence, and yet, given their stock (Lanvin, Nina Ricci, Rick Owens, etc.) we would think that would happen on a daily basis. Isn't that, like, what one shoe costs there these days? Greene gives us the inside scoop on exactly how she manages to dress so well on her shop clerk's wages, a discount and a clothing allowance, which puts her ahead of most in her position. Somehow she manages to plug two other stores, which might be vexing to her employers, but she does illuminate why Harlem living is still risky.

Do you live in Soho?
No, Harlem. I love to shop at Pieces, on 135th Street. Great jackets, tees, sandals, by homegrown designers. It’s just three blocks from my house. Very dangerous.

Well, that's a big improvement over the crackhouses that were there twenty hears ago, but apparently no less addictive.
Ask a Shop Clerk: Folami Greene (NYMag)
Kirna Zabête 96 Greene St.,between Spring & Prince Street, SoHo

Employee Of The Week: Sam Buffa at Freemans Sporting Club

It's really feeling more like Employee of the Month isn't it? For whatever reason, New York Magazine can't seem to find that many shop clerks worth interviewing, or maybe they have just gotten bored with the concept. We haven't, but this week they have found Sam Buffa who sounds more like management than a clerk at Freemans Sporting Club, that little men's store by Freemans Alley that is either a brilliant imagination of a northeastern hunting lodge or ridiculously art-directed-to-death in a style we have come to know as "Authentically Fake" pioneered by the granddaddy of ye-olde-store-as-theatre, Ralph Lauren. We have learned from Ginger Hargett at Alessi that these interviews are only as good as the questions that get asked, so it's not surprising that Denise Penny has focused mostly on the store's décor and backroom barbershop as they are still its most striking features. No mention is made of its fabled basement archery range. Almost by accident, it seems, she manages to get a telling answer  regarding the store's philosophy:

NYMag: Why “Sporting Club”? Is there something to join?
Sam Buffa: We’re not exclusionary—there’s no membership or initiation. It’s pretty much a group of my friends. We all work in art and fashion. We go camping, fishing, on motorcycle rides. It’s nice to know how to start a fire, how to shoot a gun. It feels good to be a man sometimes

Ick. OK, so we're not much for camping, but, really, equating riflery with "feeling like a man" kind of makes us laugh and cringe at the same time. This is the state of modern hipsterdom? It's so blatantly symbolic that we just hope he's kidding. And yet he looks so serious in that picture.

Ask A Shop Clerk: Sam Buffa (NYMag)
Freemans Sporting Club, 8 Rivington St., near Bowery, Lower East Side
Previously: Horacio Goes Shopping: Luddite's Delight on the L.E.S.

Shop Clerk Talks Back! Ginger Hargett Defends Herself

It's always good to see who is Googling herself. We didn't see a new Shop Clerk this week, but no matter. We are reprinting Alessi employee Ginger Hargett's comment in regards to her profile a couple of weeks ago. It's not often we get a direct response, or at least an intelligent, thoughtful one.

In my defense, I must say the stand-in interviewer was decidedly, boringly retarded. For exactly one hour she bombarded me with questions solely regarding product. Not about the store, or working there, or questions about me as a real live creative being with an identity outside of Alessi. She's an assistant at [New York Magazine]; doesn't she read the column? She asked: "What do you clean the products with?" "If you were signing up for the bridal registry, what would you pick?" "What's the difference between an expensive bowl and a cheap one?" I kid you not. Not only that, but 1) I was answering these questions 1.5 weeks into my vacation a million miles from NYC, and 2) she totally misquoted me. I don't talk like that. But hey, toast anyone?

Ginger, you have our respect for speaking out. (Although we take issue with the use of the word "retarded". It's fun to say, but there is a real reason why it is so un-PC.) New York Magazine, it's on you to get the interesting info, and shame on you for interrupting a vacation!
We would have toast with you anytime, Ginger. You're still adorable.
Previously:
Employee of the Week: Ginger Hargett at Alessi

Employee Of The Week: David Reeves at Duncan Quinn

If New York had a Men's Tailoring District like Savile Row in London, then that is probably where we would find Duncan Quinn's cozy little shop, but as it doesn't, it is tucked away on a quiet block in NoLita just steps from the not so very rarefied Chinese Kitchen Supply District. That is where we encountered David Reeves, the shop clerk of choice this week in New York Magazine. It's been a while since we've had the pleasure of a face to face meeting with one of the lucky salesmen, but David promptly introduced himself and welcomed us warmly into the lush, some might say floridly decorated shop. Duncan Quinn is a practitioner of that particular subgenre of menswear known as classic with a sophisticated twist. His version of British tailoring is extra fitted and slightly shrunken but always crisp and  more than a little dandyish in vivid colors. Quinn has a penchant for details like matching covered buttons, hacking pockets and the occasional unorthodox sleeve seam. It's not for everyone, and that's why it's mostly custom made. David was extremely helpful in illuminating the shop's offerings which also include an array of ready-made shirts as well as ties, pocket squares and exclusively made silver cuff links and studs and various other accessories. Quinn rounds things out with a selection of decidedly non-traditional English shoes from Jeffery-West.
In his interview, David does a skillful job of plugging his employer without embarrassing himself, as well as warning against the dangers of excessive dry-cleaning, revealing only a no-nonsense British sense of professionalism:

Q-How long do you spend with a customer?
A-I’ve had customers occupy up to five hours of my time. It’s not like buying a packet of crisps—or chips, as you might say.

In fact, he is somewhat less prissy in person, which is good because in a shop this small, nobody wants that much attitude when they are buying a red dress shirt with navy blue lined cuffs.

Ask a Shop Clerk: David Reeves of Duncan Quinn (NYMag)
Duncan Quinn 8 Spring Street near The Bowery, NoLita