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\n Photo-Illustration: Curbed; Photos: Getty Images, Adriane Quinlan\n <\/p>\n
In the past few days, a small specialty shop on Atlantic Avenue became an object of national attention. Kelly Clarkson had gone in wanting to buy something, she said, but she was brusquely told it wasn\u2019t for sale. She then shared a harsh online review<\/a> with her 8 million followers on X comparing<\/a> her experience to \u201cbeing treated like Julia Roberts character in Pretty Woman.\u201d<\/p>\n The store, Art of Play, sells toys, books, and magic-adjacent objects, and its people responded to her tweet by clarifying<\/a> that she hadn\u2019t asked about buying just a deck of cards but instead about \u201c\u2018Molly,\u2019 a \u201cone-of-a-kind singing and dancing bird\u201d that\u2019s \u201cpermanently attached to the wall\u201d and is used in the magic shows they perform there. Their message also said the bird, created by the artist Bliss Kolb, \u201cisn\u2019t for sale.\u201d But internet sleuths tracked down a shot of the same wall with a price tag, and Art of Play responded<\/a> with more details that only stoked the confusion, suggesting they\u2019d told Clarkson to contact the artist who made the bird or purchase a similar, much cheaper model. (Clarkson has since responded<\/a> herself.) On Tuesday morning, Adam Rubin, one of the shop\u2019s three co-owners, opened up and faced a gaggle of reporters. This conversation has been condensed and edited.<\/p>\n What happened?\u00a0 Did someone say that Molly wasn\u2019t for sale? Walk us through how this actually went. She was in the shop for less than five minutes. If this tweetstorm had not happened, we wouldn\u2019t have realized there was a negative interaction in the shop; it was that undramatic. We treated her like a normal person, but apparently that didn\u2019t live up to her expectations.<\/p>\n But was it for sale or not?\u00a0 But there is a price tag \u2014\u00a0 Can I ask about something not controversial, which is what happened afterward? It seems like this has been a huge nightmare for the business.\u00a0 What are the trolls doing?\u00a0 It\u2019s calm here today, though.\u00a0 So the other, cheaper bird that\u2019s for sale \u2014 the $2,000 bird that a clerk might have told her about \u2014 is that available in-house, or is that a special order?\u00a0 Have you gotten a huge number of orders and interest from people now wanting to buy it because of this thing?\u00a0 Sign Up for the Curbed Newsletter<\/p>\n A daily mix of stories about cities, city life, and our always evolving neighborhoods and skylines.<\/p>\n Vox Media, LLC Terms and Privacy Notice<\/p>\n
This is an insane misunderstanding. Nothing happened in this shop to justify her scolding our shopkeeper on the way out, but I can let that go. You know, everybody has a bad day. But things changed when she used her platform to attack us. It\u2019s asymmetrical social warfare.<\/p>\n
I wanna tell you guys, the store was packed when this happened. It was not, like, a one-on-one interaction. The store was packed. If you have ever worked in a shop, and it\u2019s busy, part of what you do is when somebody looks at something and they find it interesting is you show them something else that\u2019s very similar. It has nothing to do with price. That\u2019s just how you treat people. \u201cOh, you like this one where the pictures move? Do you have kids? Because we have another one where the people move. It\u2019s for kids. Look at this.\u201d Are you gonna get offended because it costs less?<\/p>\n
We are a nontraditional shop. We work directly with artisans. This guy is an artisan who does not make many things like this. I think that\u2019s where the misunderstanding might have come in. Bliss lives in the woods in a house that he made with his own hands. He\u2019s not on social media. He doesn\u2019t have a warehouse. It takes him years to make these machines. There are two in existence. This is one.\u00a0If someone showed serious interest, we would reach out to him about getting them an automaton. This is not something that\u2019s sitting in a warehouse. It\u2019s like a piece of sculpture. It\u2019s a fine-art piece.<\/p>\n
So many people asked about it that we had put a price on it, but we talked to the creator when he came to fix the machine, and if someone showed serious interest, we would reach out to him about getting them an automaton. As you\u2019ve noticed, we\u2019ve raised the price due to popular demand. It now costs $15 million.<\/p>\n
Kelly Clarkson has put us in danger. People are getting threatened on the street, and the worst part is we didn\u2019t know this was going to happen but Kelly Clarkson did. Anyone who expresses admiration, positivity, or sympathy for Art of Play is getting attacked by trolls. People were coming by almost entirely in support. On Monday, when we were closed, people were bringing pastries and cupcakes, according to the press that was staked out here. But our friends are getting attacked, and our fans are getting attacked. We\u2019re concerned on behalf of our shopkeepers.<\/p>\n
They\u2019re calling. They\u2019re emailing. They\u2019re leaving reviews on every platform, they\u2019re review-bombing, they\u2019re attacking anyone who mentions us on social media. They\u2019re shouting, they\u2019re screaming. They show up, they shout, \u201cYou\u2019re racially profiling Kelly Clarkson!\u201d This was out on the sidewalk, so neighbors called the police, and when they filmed the neighbors their followers doxxed the neighbors. This was Sunday. We turned off the phone, but all day long, these comments come up on the point-of-sale iPad while we\u2019re ringing people up. There\u2019s so much hate speech, so many threats of violence. If an actual customer tries to get in touch with us right now, they will never be able to.<\/p>\n
I want to be very clear about this. Nobody who has ever visited this store in person is taking Kelly Clarkson\u2019s side.<\/p>\n
I think we\u2019ve said enough.<\/p>\n
The $2,000 bird? Oh, yeah. I\u2019m gonna ask you guys to leave.<\/p>\n