In a lovely showroom, you can pick through clever tabletop items such as beaded place mats. Grab and run. That's the approach most shoppers take at this annual sale of Swid's housewares collection, as well as her frames, vases, flatware, and glasses for Calvin Klein. You'll hear people fighting over the perfect fork or a single candlestick. Additional reporting by Catherine Doyle.
Sample sales are addictive, inconvenient, and often humiliating.
I love them. Every man for himself and God against all. The only time people will give you information about a sale is when they are staggering away with a garbage bag full of bargains. Instead, appear vaguely interested in another item. Once the sweater has been decisively abandoned, move in.