<nettime> Prestigious Department Store Sells Household Garbage...

[Patrice Riemens <patrice@xs4all.nl>]

"De Bijenkorf sells household garbage"

AMSTERDAM - A group calling itself "The Institute for Economic
Disharmonisation" has put over 200 items in the Bijenkorf's ("The
Beehive", Amsterdam's #1 department store, PR) shelves, which it had
previously picked up from trash cans. A number of these items have
actually been sold.

The items had been slightly patched up, cleaned, and sticked with an
original bijenkorf price-tag. Sven De Graaf, spokesperson for the
'institute' states: "We've picked up items from the household garbage in
the Southern district of the city (the poshest, PR). One would expect that
the same people have bought the pricey articles back from the Bijenkorf." 

Thanks to the original stickers, says De Graaf, one cannot distinguish
this 'parasite range' from the genuine thing. 

A group of fifteen people has been busy for two weeks bringing in the
thrown-out items into the Bijenkorf's stock for sale. These ranged from
cutlery, clothing, and even a complete bed-cover. "Trash and luxury goods
are apparently not very easy to distinguish. A further increase in
production in order to satisfy the alleged demand by the public would not
appear to be called for" commented De Graaf dryly.

This action was initiated by Ms Elena Simons, who had earlier made the
news when distributing X'mas presents in wealthy neighboorhoods to thank
the inhabitants for their income-tax fueled contributions to the social
services. The action at the Bijenkorf must be seen somewhere between in
art and politics, says De Graaf "We do not want to harm the Bijenkorf's
reputation per se, and we do not have strong ideological motives. We only
wanted to show that the balance between intrinsic value and commercial
worth has gone haywire."

Contacted this morning, the department store's fazzled management was
utterly unable to come up with a coherent statement on the matter. 


(Meanwhile, Bijenkorf's management has recovered.  Yes, their 'senior
salespeople' had noticed some 'discrepanties', and no, they did not intend
to sue the 'institute' for damages. And yes, they had combed out all their
shelves and stock, and no further 'irregular item' were on display by now. 
The Institute people, on the other hand, had witnessed how some artificial
flower they had deposited were lovingly rearanged by a 'senior
salesperson', while a few were sold.  Themselves, as supplementary proof,
had re-purchased a few items without causing any flury at the cash-tills.)


(clefted & Q&DT from "Het Parool" (daily, Amsterdam) Nov 25, 1999.)  (was
also on nettime-nl) 


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