SHOPPING ANTIqUes • BICYCles • ChOCOlATe • deNs Of UNIqUITY fUrNITUre • GrOCerIes • hArdWAre & pAINT hOMe GOOds • WINe The first towns and cities formed for a single reason: People had more of one thing than they wanted, and less of another thing than they needed. So they came looking for others who were willing to trade. From this primordial dynamic sprang the invention of money, new means of transportation, and skyscrapers that puncture the clouds, among many, many other dividends. Fast forward 11,000 years, and it is perhaps too easy to arch an eyebrow at the occasional excesses and more-than-occasional absurdities of our I-Shop-Therefore-I-Am orthodoxy. But it is worth remembering that all the other, higher forms of culture we cherish could not have emerged without the lower one we sometimes disdain. In this sense, con- sumer culture is the opposite of a contradiction in terms. It is a redundant truth, repeated for emphasis. For there would be no marketplace of ideas, had there not first been markets for chickens, and spices, and tapestries, and much more. ANTIQUES, CURIOS, UNIQUE CONCEPTS, MUSEUM SHOPS Abhaya 145 hudson street 212-431-6931 abhayatribeca.com Best Made 36 White street 646-478-7092 bestmadeco.com Fraunces Tavern Museum Gift Shop 54 pearl street 212-425-1778 frauncestavernmuseum.org Museum of Jewish Heritage pickman Museum shop 36 Battery place 646-437-4213 mjhnyc.org/dining-shopping National Museum of the American Indian One Bowling Green 212-514-3700 nmai.si.edu Nova Octo 88 laight street 212-219-2288 novaocto.com extraordinary dress rental Pearl River Mart 395 Broadway 212-431-4770 pearlriver.com Shinola Flagship 177 franklin street 917-728-3000 shinola.com Skyscraper Museum 39 Battery place 212-968-1961 skyscraper.org 50 shopping (see ad on page 25) (see ad on page 24)