WEEK 3 - FIGHTING THE SYSTEM

According to wikitionary, the definition of a con artist is a person who defrauds or swindles others after first gaining their trust; a scam operator.

They say one learns something new everyday.  Well let this be your lesson for today. Never, never buy any electronics from any store in Times Square!  Always do your research before you buy electronics!

These stores intentionally mark up the prices of their goods, with the intention of faux slashing the prices for the unwitting customer who thinks they are getting a bargain.

In this case the unwitting customer was Kate, who decided to take matters into her own hands. Foreseeing that the shop owners would refuse to do anything to rectify the situation after reading the many on-line blog complaints (Virtual Tourist & Why Go New York), Kate rugged up against the cold and the rain, armed herself with photocopies of said complaints and readied herself to warn potential customers not to make the same mistake she did. After being asked to leave the premises with no refund offer, Kate did exactly that and spent 90 minutes outside the store effectively turning away customers. Store folk came out and told her to leave, threatening to call the police, an action which Kate warmly welcomed. When not 1 but 4 police officers arrived on the scene looking for a 5'4, blonde female, the situation turned around with police siding with the consumer and escorting her into the shop and negotiating a full store credit. RESULT!

Kate warning potential customers.

Police on the scene.

NYC cops helped Kate get a full store credit.

LET IT SNOW


NYC experienced an out of season snow storm during the week, with temperatures plummeting to -9 degrees and 2-5 inches of snow falling. It was very cool to wake up in the morning and see snow falling. The City scattered with snow is a truly beautiful sight.

Central Park

Mulberry St

Little Italy

Washington Square Park

Washington Square Park

BROOKLYN 

Bek & Tim had a very productive week, job hunting and sending out resumes to prospective employers. All that hard work deserved some downtime so we took ourselves off to Brooklyn for a day and fell in love with the bars, thrift shops, music stores and general vibe of Williamsburg, in particular.

FREE STUFF IN NYC? REALLY??!!


Yes! Walking home from the gym one evening, we noticed that our local thrift shop was having a $1 clearance sale. After looking through clothes, shoes, handbags and jewellery, we spotted a coffee table and filing cabinet that was FREE. The only condition being, we had to take the furniture immediately. 


It must have been a sight to see Tim & Bek carrying a large, glass coffee table 7 blocks through the Lower East, with Kate coming up the rear wheeling a filing cabinet. Our fellow New Yorkers didn't even bat an eyelid.

Collecting our new coffee table from Soho Thrift Shop

I

The beginning of the 7 block carry home