When the NY Times article on how the economy shrunk 6.2% last quarter starts off with, "The economy is spiraling down at an accelerating pace, threatening to undermine the Obama administration’s spending plans..." is it any surprise that over a thousand brides-to-be flocked to the Union Square Filene's Basement to participate in the "Running of the Brides"? The annual event (in NYC; it's held twice a year in Boston) offers wedding gowns—which usually retail for $700 to $10,000—at $249, $499 and $699.
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The CEO of Swich, John Gargiulo, has hipped us to a serious lunch special tomorrow at his sleek and tasty pressed sandwich shop on Eighth Avenue between 15th & 16th. All their "Swiches" and "Deconstructeds" will be sold for $.67 cents to commemorate the anniversary of the stock market crash of 1929. Gargiulo writes: "It's a crappy time for everyone out there and we thought we'd cheer NYC up! I personally would take a train for a .67 cent sandwich and I imagine many Gothamist readers would too (wait, I am a Gothamist reader). We're doing it from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. tomorrow (Wednesday) and it is sure to be a madhouse (it is between 12-1 already!)" So to beat the madhouse you'll probably want to start lining up tonight—an inconsequential sacrifice for delicious, steeply discounted panini.
On Monday Mayor Bloomberg announced a lawsuit against the Poospatuck Indian reservation on Long Island, in an attempt to stop the untaxed sale of 11.3 million cartons of cigarettes on the reservation per year. Today the Times has a great, long article about how the smokes travel from the wholesaler through the reservation and to the streets of New York, where "$5 Men" like "Paco" stand on corners and whisper, "Newports. Loosies. Shorts. Longs." Reporters at the reservation describe a booming business, where cigarette sales are made on a bustling main street and even out of residential trailers. One reporter saw a sign for Justin’s Smokes "on a tree outside a residential trailer. An occupant of the trailer ordered the reporter off the property, telling her it was not a cigarette shop. 'That’s just a sign on a tree,' the woman yelled."
Starting today and running through Labor Day, Starbucks will be helping customers succumbing to afternoon drowsiness with a special discount. After 2 p.m., anyone who produces a receipt from a previous Starbucks purchase that morning can buy any iced grande beverage for $2. (Drinks like their grande iced latte typically costs about $4.) The new discount is part of an aggressive attempt by the faltering coffee giant – which is closing hundreds of locations and recently posted a loss for the first time – to retain customers. But a commenter on Starbucks Gossip seems to reflect a growing consensus: “I don't know, this just all seems a little desperate to me.”
Restaurant Week, which was supposed to end after Friday night, has been turned into Restaurant Summer, with 130 restaurants extending their prix-fixe deals on weekdays all the way through Labor Day. The special three course menus – $24.07 for lunch and $35.00 for dinner – have proven extra-popular with recession minded diners this month, according to NYC & Company, which organizes the biannual deal. Restaurants participating in the Labor Day extension include such well-reviewed places as Centro Vinoteca, Mai House, Artisanal, Le Cirque, City Hall, Fig & Olive, Tribeca Grill, Town and Mia Dona. The full list will be on the Restaurant Week website after midnight Friday.
A Brooklyn TKTS – the discount Broadway and Off-Broadway ticket booth – was recently unveiled at MetroTech Center in downtown Brooklyn at the corner of Jay Street and Myrtle Avenue.
Police have rounded up 38 people accused of running a credit card fraud ring out of Queens for almost a decade. Officials say hackers in China and Ukraine have been breaking into the databases of major U.S. department stores, and then sending the credit card information of thousands of shoppers to the ringleader, Kwok Chow, 36, a Flushing resident known as “Tony.”



