Check it out

Bergdorf Goodman ad in the New York Times, September 13, 2012:

 

So here’s what I want to know:

Does “men’s shoe library” mean you can borrow a pair of shoes, wear them once, and return them?

Or is it a reference room—a hushed hall for perusing shoes?

When they organize the stock, do they use the Dewey Decimal or Library of Congress system?

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More on the shoe library in the Bergdorf Goodman blog.

Comments

[empty]

It reminds me of special edition cars (as in http://editorial.autos.msn.com/special-edition-cars).

[Joanne Mason]

The frustrating thing is that the BG blog post doesn't answer any of those questions!

[Michele]

Brings to mind another advertising coinage that's been annoying me lately: auto salons. They should be places where cars can get an expert wash, color touch-up and blow-dry or drive-in hairdressers. In reality they're just showrooms. Liars!

[empty]

Well, and England a sedan is a saloon car, so go figure.

By the way, if you google "shoe library" you find that other stores have used this phrase before, in Hong Kong for example.

Concerning the fantasy of a "lending library" for things other than reading material, I want to mention the fictional New-York Circulating Material Repository, where you can even find Seven-League Boots if you know where to look. http://pollyshulman.com/grimm.html

[Danica Stone]

Don't forget Oakland's own The Hat Library! (http://www.yelp.com/biz/the-hat-library-oakland) In no way a lending library, much to my disappointment... although maybe we're all better off not borrowing hats and shoes.

It always reminds me of the Temescal branch library, which has "Alden Free Library" (or words to that effect) carved into the front, because once upon a time libraries all charged fees. Free lending libraries were practically Evil Socialist Plots. Now, of course, we couldn't live without them.