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Comment by bogomipz | Hacker News Reader

So rather than go out and explore New York City via a shopping experience, you stayed inside your AirBnB and interacted with your computer? Why even bother visiting?

I can assure there is nothing unique about the Amazon experience in NYC compared to somewhere else.

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There are numerous things to do while visiting NYC that are much more interesting, and unique to the NYC experience, than physically shopping.

Shopping is probably the least interesting thing to do when in New York. There's virtually nothing in stores in New York that you cannot find elsewhere. The experiences though - the Metropolitan, Broadway etc are without peer

>"There's virtually nothing in stores in New York that you cannot find elsewhere"

This is patently untrue.

Walk down 9th Street between 1st Ave and 2nd Ave where small designers have their own retail shops and ateliers. You can't buy that stuff anywhere else.

Go up to B and H Camera in midtown that has 5 floors of camera equipment and incredibly knowledgeable staff.

Step in to the Gem Spa on 2nd avenue, a news stand in the East Village where the man behind the counters will hand make you an egg cream for a dollar.

Go to the Strand, a book store that has 15 miles of books and some great bargains on new hard cover books.

Walk into the Sunshine Mart where you feel like you've been magically transported into a grocery store in Tokyo.

Visit Old Good Things in Union Square which is basically an architectural salvage store. Many of the pieces are sourced locally.

Venture over to The Market on Mulberry where artists and designers sell their hand-made wares directly.

Step into Lobels Prime Meats on the Upper East Side and tell me its like any other butcher shop.

Visit Rough Trade in Williamsburg that is perhaps one of the best records stores anywhere, specializing in new and special release vinyl.

And the list goes on. There so many of these places. But you won't discover them spending time on Amazon.com. That was point.

You know, books, records, imported Japanese food, and camera equipment are all mass-market products. There is no argument to be made that New York City offers a unique, irreplaceable "shopping for Japanese products" experience.

You know each of the places I listed was because it is a unique shopping "experience" beyond the goods sold. From the layouts, history, locations and the people that work there.

I'm sorry you are not impressed. I'm sure nobody will mind if you don't visit.

> each of the places I listed was because it is a unique shopping "experience" beyond the goods sold.

>>> Walk into the Sunshine Mart where you feel like you've been magically transported into a grocery store in Tokyo.

These two ideas are not compatible. "It feels just like a store in Tokyo" is the opposite of a "unique experience".

I find it really sad that someone has not actually been to or experienced a particular place feels compelled to discredit it solely on semantics.

Out of a list of nine suggestions that's what was important to you?

To be fair, that is only applicable to 1 of the items on his list. The rest seem pretty unique.

And even that one which is similar to Tokyo is a different experience than amazon which is really where his list was aiming to provide contrast.

Holy shit. This is amazing.

Interesting that none of these except maybe the Market on Mulberry would interest me sufficiently for a visit. Different strokes for different folks I guess.

Hacker News, a place where someone puts together a comment that has more info than your average blog post, and the only reply is a hater.

bogomipz thanks for the recommendations. I've lived in NYC for 5 years a few of those were new to me.

You read a 'hater', I read a counter viewpoint.

Except there was no actual viewpoint expressed.

So many assumptions... Like the common mistake in assuming that everybody on the internet is from the US. I'm not. There's plenty of stuff that I can get from Amazon.com much cheaper than I can get it here. Also, there's stuff that I can't even get here (or hardly). So I ordered that stuff from the comfort of my own home before even arriving in the states.

Then, when I did arrive, I got to spend the time I had visiting interesting locations and enjoying the scenery in stead of shopping in big chain stores for stuff I knew I wanted anyway.

It's not like everyone have the kind of money to do NYC shopping experience (specially if you're not American.)

You don't have to spend money to wander in and out of stores and window shop on your way to other tourists attractions though. Unless you are in a rush that's kind of an organic thing in a walking city.

And if you have disposable income to use on Amazon.com while you are visiting NYC then presumably you could also spend a similar amount locally.

But you might have more money than you have time, in which case it makes sense to ship stuff from Amazon, and use the time you'd spend buying power adapters or extra socks or whatever to go and see the Math Museum or something.

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