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Bianca Klotsman

To Be a Flaneur.

What is it to be a flaneur? By definition, it has the basic meaning of a "stroller" or “lounger”. For this assignment, I chose to be a flaneur at Bloomingdales department store on 59th street in New York City. It was a Monday and I had just finished an early class and had a long break ahead of me before I had to go back to Hunter. I entered the bright lobby of makeuo counters and eager employees trying to make an early sale. I noticed a woman who I assume was about 60 years old wearing an oversized long fur coat and hot pink ear muffs slowly browsing the handbag selection. I made my way to the second floor and found a comfortable couch to lounge on; this happens to be the contemporary clothing and shoe collection. Monday mornings are not the liveliest part of the day for shoppers. The store was quite quiet with the few occasional shoppers strolling the designer racks of clothing but the store mostly consisted of the young female employees dressed in black head-to-toe sorting through the clothing and organizing inventory before the customer count escalated. I noticed that the majority of early Monday morning customers were elder ladies assuming that people were either at school or at work. I began to stroll throughout the other floors of the massive department store making it up to the third floor of higher end clothing then the fourth and so on…noticing that as each floor escalated, it became quieter. I started to think I should just come back at a later hour to make my blog more interesting when I came across a few strange things that I did not expect to see at such a high end store. Coming back down to the second floor, I found a middle aged man wearing khaki pants and a black winter jacket taking a nap on one of the lounge chairs in the furthest back part of the store. Then I went to use the bathroom where I found a lady who I assume was about 30 years old using a flat iron and a large makeup bag spread across a small area of the counter as if it was her own bathroom at home. Over an hour had passed and I had to start making my way back before my next class. When I reached the lobby area which I have entered the store, I noticed the same woman in the fur coat and exotic ear muffs browsing the exact same selection. I thought that was very strange. Overall, my flaneur experience was different than I expected. As much as I shop at the Bloomingdales on 59^th street in New York City, I have never noticed the strange people wandering around and how quiet it could actually be.