Business Featured Articles

The good and bad of Instagram influencers

By Julianna Nunez

Rows of millennium pink-colored display tables are at the center and line the walls of beauty store Glossier’s SoHo location. Its floor-to-floor ceiling archways frame a back wall whose design puts shoppers in the mind of New York City subways. Wall tiles of different shapes spell out “You Look Good” and, under that encouragement, there’s a tube of lipstick.

It’s the kind of spectacle that draws beauty-lovers and social media influencers, alike.

Glossier draws a “visually inclined audience,” said Erika Seger, manager of that store. 

Glossier is in one of New York City trendiest neighborhood retail districts, SoHo, whose Instagram-worthy window displays, storefronts, and interiors make the area an increasingly popular destination. For some locals and others who’ve spent plenty of time in SoHo, that popularity has its minuses and pluses.

“I feel like everyone’s a fashion star, everyone’s a model here,” said Nakayah Estwing, 24, an employee at Ceremonia, hair products seller. Influencers do snap selfies in front of Ceremonia’s bold yellow wall. Often, in their trendy outfits, they look photoshoot-ready, she said.

Judah Lang, 24, doesn’t care about any of that. He watches people swoon over the pink scalloped chairs, record player, Pacman machine, antique mirrors and other vintage touches at Bambina Blue ice cream shop, where he does the scooping. 

“I’m about to start selling ‘I hate SoHo’ T-shirts,” SoHo-born-and-bred Lang said. “You see people walking around, they’ve got the crazy outfits. They just come here to be seen and take photos. But, I get tight. Because I walk around in my, like, flip-flops, or whatever, and people look at me like I’m trying to make a statement.

“But I’m not trying to make a statement … I just live here. I get very upset.”

Across Manhattan, in NoHo, is Felix Roasting Company’s cafe. Vases of oversized floral arrangements are scattered throughout the store, with its rose gold- and teal-colored walls, tables, chairs and countertops. A crystal chandelier hangs in the center of the room.

“Our owner is really dedicated to the aesthetic of the cafe as part of the experience,” said Teddy Wright, 22, a barista at Felix. “By choosing to make it like a very photogenic, photo-op sort of thing, he’s actively targeting the demographic he wants to come in.”

That demographic veers heavily toward 9- to 24-year-old Gen Z-ers who like Instagrammable experiences. “SoHo is Gen Z Times Square,” Wright said. “People our age are looking for things to do, and a lot of us are very social-media-minded.” 

The clothing brand Uniqlo’s SoHo location situates flowers in shades of pink, blue, yellow, and purple by the store’s entrance. Customers can design and purchase their own floral arrangements, and take pictures of themselves in front of a display wall of multi-colored flowers, stretching from the sidewalk to the second story of the building. “They think it’s cute to buy some flowers and match their outfits,” Uniqlo employee Fae Wong, 29, said of the young people who pose in front of that wall.

For Lang, the ice cream scooper, all that popularity is a negative. 

“We used to have a deli on my corner, on Spring and Green,” said Lang, suggesting that popularity brings rent increases that push some folks out. 

That deli, he added, sold things “for really cheap. But now if you want a deli you have to go to, like, Canal Street or Sixth Ave and it’s like $7.50 for a bacon, egg and cheese. It used to be like $3.50.” Today’s SoHo is different from the SoHo he grew up in.  

Most of the families who lived there, back then, have moved away, Lang said. “You don’t get people from SoHo anymore.” 

–