Canal Street – Say It Isn’t So

We do it three or four times a year. Steffie and I, sometimes accompanied by Helaine, go to Manhattan to do something legitimate and then end up spending some of our time on Canal Street where legitimacy has a murky definition.

“Genuine” Gucci, Prada, Coach, Rolex, and others go for pennies on the dollar. Do we know they’re fakes? Of course. Is the quality as good as the real thing? Probably not – but it’s close enough, and without a microscope it certainly looks good enough.

Now, it looks like it’s all ended.

New York Daily News 12/12/04
Once hawked openly from dozens of Canal St.’s ramshackle stalls, the fake Louis Vuitton and Prada purses, the Tag and Rolex watches have gone.

Steffie asked, “Why will people go there?” Helaine said, “They might as well pave over it.”

Like getting rid of cockroaches, it is much more difficult to kill knockoffs than it seems. They will be hidden for a while, biding their time, but the lure of profit is too strong. Canal Street will be back.

Yon can bet your Breitling on that.