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The NYT Style section has a short piece on the puzzling lack of shoppers who showed up for a free makeup giveaway that took place Tuesday at hundreds of department stores nationwide in fulfillment of a class action settlement on cosmetics price-fixing. The article suggests that perhaps lack of selection in the gratis goods was the reason for the poor turnout, but, darling Style section, have you glanced over at the old Business section lately? Beggars can't be choosers. I wonder if low turnout had more to do with the fact that the giveaway coincided with the inauguration, a juggernaut of an event that cast a shadow longer than anything even free Chanel Ombre Essentielle could create. It's a smartly timed news dump by the department stores who didn't want to lose too much inventory but also a testament to how huge a cultural phenomenon this inauguration was. Americans love free stuff, but apparently we love the stuff surrounding our institutions of freedom even more.
(By the way, Hanna, you'll be thrilled to note that to get to the article, you've got to click through a patriotic J. Crew ad touting their goods as "always inspiring." The Obama bump has been great for the retailer. Its Web site—with a new feature on designing for the Obama ladies, how's that for creative interpretation of off-the-rack?—has been swamped to the point of crashing since the inauguration.)