Beware: Hawkers! October 21, 2011

Hawkers are the most colorful characters of the Diamond District. They are street-savvy, smooth-talking in all imaginable accents, pretending-to-be-friendly men, hired by mediocre jewelry dealers to identify prospective customers on the block and nudge them inside the stores. They carry signs with the gold prices and hand out leaflets, promoting business or businesses in their own fiefdom, spot of the street which they vigorously protect from the intruders.

Hawkers on the 47th are considered as a nuisance for their sticky aggressiveness and arrogant attitude. Customers are grown up adults, which perfectly capable to make a purchase on their own  and don't need any shadow figures to lead the way. What business needs to pay hawkers to get customers inside? It's a sign of deterioration, making Diamond District look like a flee market in the third-world country. This sense is fortified even more by fruit stands, food, and coffee trucks, catering for the hawkers.   

However,  there is the easiest way to skip hawkers altogether, and it's very simple: shop on the 5th Avenue end of the 47 st, this end concentrate the most respectable business, which invest a lot of efforts to ward off hawkers. They are much better off without hawkers, and, hey, they buy gold too!