Watching them watch us: NYT at Fred Segal

Sloppy reductionism of Los Angeles culture: check. Lazy reliance on over-stated car-culture tropes: check. Claim that shopping in Los Angeles is ‘totemic'(?): check. Yes, today Alex Kuczynski takes her ‘Critical Shopper’ column to the Fred Segal stores and comes up with not much to say. Hey, did you know salespeople in fancy boutiques can sometimes be rude, and when old friends run into each other they like to gossip? Imagine that! Wow, LA is so different from New York!