I was hoping for a perfect autumn week in New York, but instead got winter as I arrived to work on a TV show, go to some meetings and check up on what’s new in town.

The great thing about fall in New York City is that even if you don’t get crisp air and gorgeous leaves, there’s still a lot of energy on the streets and new stuff is constantly being introduced to catch your attention.

DANGEROUS ARRIVAL

Of course, I’m somewhat lucky to have even gotten to Manhattan as I almost fell into an unlucky liaison at the taxi stand at JFK. I arrived at the newly opened, ever so spiffy Terminal 8 on American Airlines about 11 p.m.

Learn more about Travel Safety & Security here.

Outside I was immediately hustled by the usual suspects but of course knew to search for official taxi drivers. There were none. To escape the herd of wannabe chauffeurs, I fled to the taxi dispatch hut where I found a gentleman in a uniform with a yellow stripe down the side of the trouser leg, a name plate, a cap, and a headset.

I told him the general area in Manhattan where I needed to go, not the exact address and asked why there were no yellow cabs. He explained to me that after 10 p.m. the cabs only go to Brooklyn and Queens and that I had to step over to another lane of traffic to get my cab for Manhattan. Having been in Hong Kong just a month ago, where the taxi lanes are divided by destination, I thought this made sense. Besides, in the dark of night, I couldn’t see his nose grow long when he told a lie.

When the man tried to lead me into the heart of darkness and away from civilization, I fled. By the time I got back to the dispatcher hut, there was a “real” dispatcher and a file of waiting yellow cabs. My heart was pounding, but I was totally safe.

Fare into the city is fixed at $45 with another $5 for the bridge toll. The real dispatcher—not the one in the costume—gave me a ticket in hand with official policy, prices, my taxi medallion number, and even a lost property phone contact. This was frightening as I had never seen a fake driver in a uniform before and the scam was so sophisticated. Traveler beware!

Explore New York City:

• Off the Brochure Travel Guide to New York City
• Three Days, Nine Meals: New York City
• Lady Liberty’s Crown Reopening July 4th
• Where Are the Best Free Views of Manhattan’s Skyline?
• Discovering South Asia in Jackson Heights, Queens
• Rego Park’s Bukhari Community, Queens, New York

FREE STUFF

One of the most amazing parts of the visit was the amount of sampling going on in streets and in stores. Starbucks was launching Via, its “ready brew” (read: instant) coffee so I had a tasting as well as a free sample pack to take home.

At Bloomingdales, where I went to inspect the newly opened renovated cosmetics department, Clinique was handing out free full-size lipsticks. Even at B&J Fabrics there were goodies to enjoy—an entire fishbowl filled with mini-candy bars.

I can’t say I was knocked out by the “new” Bloomingdales. The department looked very much as it did last time I visited. Millions of dollars have been poured into the store to change around the lower level men’s departments and to expand the street floor cosmetics areas into 3 miles of beauty products.

To me, it was just another day at the races with bored-looking makeup artists trying to entice you to sit in the chair for a free makeover.

Find great shopping worldwide in our Shopping section.

NEW STORES

I didn’t find too many thrilling new stores in Manhattan. The one that really got my attention is called Little Miss Matched, which I have dubbed Miss Mix Match, which is somewhat confusing, but explains much.

The brand is 5 years old and its flagship on Fifth Avenue just opened two months ago.

Before now they were a wholesale brand sold in department and specialty stores. The store sells mostly kids and infant clothing, accessories, toys, and home style.

Their niche is the way the looks fit together in miss-matched format, i.e., you buy a package of three different socks and mix them up according to whim. Note that the store is one block from American Girl Place on 5th Avenue and may attract the same shopper and her mom.

New to New Yorkers are the Muji stores which recently came to the U.S. (from Japan via Europe) at the MoMA and now have several free standing units. At Times Square, in the base of the New York Times Building, there is a brand-new and modern Dean & Deluca gourmet food store and snack shop and separately, to the other side of the newspaper office front door,  a full Muji store.

Muji had much the same merchandise I had recently seen in its Hong Kong and Shanghai stores. Hong Kong International Airport has recently opened a Muji To Go store for travel and snack goods, but this NYC store was more traditional in its wide range of simple Muji style, from T-shirts in a cube to $12 rain coats that you cut to fit to travel cases, and cleverly created plastic storage gear.

Plastic Japanese Kisses,
SuzyKG

By Suzy Gershman for PeterGreenberg.com. Visit Suzy on the Web at www.suzygershman.com and join her on a shopping research tour of Vietnam this fall! She’ll be scouting locations for her spring tour from November 5-13, 2009, complete with her trademark shop & show lectures, market visits, food tastings and cooking lessons. For more information, contact Sarah at srlahey @ gmail.com.

• Suzy’s Roadtrip from San Antonio to San Francisco.
• Suzy’s Postcard from Shanghai, China.
• Suzy’s Postcard from El Paso, Texas.
• Suzy’s Postcard from Paris, France.
• Suzy’s Adventures in Las Vegas.