Just when you thought I couldn't possibly wring out one more vacation post...
In New York, I made my customary trek up Madison Avenue to replace the notebook only to find that my favorite office supply store is no longer there. Ordning&Reda has apparently decided to close its NY stores, alas. Even worse, buying from their existing stores (in Europe) poses a considerable challenge.
I was surprised that O&R abandoned New York. I had envisioned minimalism-loving New Yorkers swarming the place in the search for color-coordinated desk accessories. The Web site is oblique about their location options:
To be located close to our primary target group is imperative and decisive for our success. A high degree of accessibility is an important part of our strategy, which consequently leads us to establish Ordning&Reda stores in trendy hot spot locations. We must be where the shoppers are.
From this we can surmise that trendy hot spots apparently no longer include NY or Paris, where a shop closed last year, the site says. The Parisians probably don't care, but don't tell the New Yorkers, as this could provoke an identity crisis emergency and those people are already plenty stressed out.
Instructions for American customers, in the absence of online shopping, are similarly oblique:
WHERE TO BUY YOUR ORDNING&REDA PRODUCTS WHEN LIVING IN THE UNITED STATES
For a larger selection of our products please contact our London store on New Row (United Kingdom) which is able to handle overseas purchasing - they can ship to anywhere in the world.
Guess my color-coordinated desk supplies (matching mouse pad, notepad, scissors, and pens [the only time I've ever managed to color coordinate anything, really]) are going to have to last a while.
Posted at June 09, 2003 08:28 PM