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Manhattan: The land of instant gratification

I was listening to the XM satellite radio and an Allison Moyet song came on. If you haven’t heard of her, you may remember this song:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPOZ-YmE9C4

Knowing the artist or song is irrelevant to this post. The song reminded me of when I was a young hipster (or so I believed) working in a music store way back when. I recalled that a customer had wanted the entire Allison Moyet collection. It was unfortunately not in stock and I had to “special order” it from the catalogue we kept under the counter. Within about 2 1/2 weeks, my customer happily took home all the Allison Moyet that was available.

Two items from this memory made me laugh: 1) Walking into a retail store to buy music and 2) Waiting that long to buy a recording.

At the time, even I was frustrated at the length of time it took for those CDs to arrive. I have always been a bit on the impatient side, which is maybe why Manhattan was so attractive to me.

I know that iTunes is not location specific and that anyone can download the music they want almost instantly these days. However, can everyone have a cup of coffee delivered in 10 minutes or less at almost anytime of day? Does everyone have a nail salon, hair salon, 24-hour deli, electronic store and two excellent restaurants across the street? How about having 4 Starbucks within a 3 block radius? Probably not.

None of those things ensures eternal happiness, but access is something that Manhattan does extremely well and to those impatient people drawn to live here, it is embraced and enjoyed to the fullest.

Posted By: Sharon Michnay