Shadyness on Canal Street

Chinatown in New York City is unofficially known as the place in the city to get good knock offs of popular name brands like Coach, Rolex and Louis Vuitton. One cannot take five steps out of the train station before being assaulted by all sorts of people standing on the sidewalk, inconspicuously, saying the brand names that they offer. If you are interested in some of their knock off wares, you should acknowledge the person and they will take you to some back room of a storefront or in my case, a beat up mini van a block off Canal Street (the main street in Chinatown).
The person I was with was interested in getting a “Coach” bag. I was totally against such activities, but since the person from whom we would be buy said “Coach” bag was known by one of the people I was spending the day with, my uneasiness was abated – momentarily. We were ushered down a back street towards a beat-up mid-80’s mini van. I didn’t know what to expect, but apparently we had reached the place of business. I was planning on waiting outside the van since my instincts of self-preservation were kicking in at this point. I was ushered into the van where I found myself sitting on a wooden plank that was supported by two milk crates. Around me were hundreds of knock off bags. They were on the “after-market wooden shelving” installed in the car as well as all over the floor. While my companion and merchant were talking about the bags, I noticed that there was a thick black felt cloth that was stapled to the ceiling blocking out the visibility from behind the driver’s seat as well as heavy blackout window tint on all of the windows in the rear of the car.
Anyway, this super shady, obviously illegal, operation got me thinking as to how much money someone could make selling knock off handbags to people on the sidewalk. My friend asked him if he made good money selling bags. He responded that he had made about $1,000 bucks yesterday (Saturday). $1,000 for a weekend seemed pretty typical in the way that he responded. Assuming a 100% mark up, that would mean he and his wife (this is a two person operation) would make $1,000 profit, per weekend. Of course there would be no taxes to account for. Not bad if this is your side job! Unfortunately, this is highly contingent on many factors like the presence of the NYPD (a night in jail and $10,000 fine if caught) and weather – since not many people like walking around on the sidewalk in the rain. Not to
All in all a pretty interesting experience, one that I would not like to repeat anytime soon. Maybe I will be more accepting of this type of “back-door” business if I were to travel to Asia or Europe.
[Unfortunately I didn’t get a picture of the interior of the mini van, it would have been a sight, but I leave you with a sign of one of the “legit” street vendors.]