The internet does a good thing.

March 27, 2021 7:40 AM

Dude, where's my couch? Zoë Weiner, an editor at a wellness Web site, received an e-mail last week from ABC Carpet & Home, the high-end furniture store near Union Square. “It’s never easy to deliver an update like this,” it began, “but we are experiencing production and delivery delays.” It would be about six weeks before she received the sofa that she’d ordered during a Black Friday sale last year—a sectional from ABC’s Cobble Hill line, custom-upholstered in a deep-pink velvet called Vance Blossom. This time, she was unfazed. Of greater consequence was the e-mail itself—an apologetic note signed by ABC’s C.E.O., Aaron Rose—on which two hundred and three other couch-expectant recipients were cc’d instead of bcc’d.
posted by bluesky43 (38 comments total)

This made me laugh, thank you.
posted by merriment at 7:51 AM on March 27, 2021

Ok that's sweet and adorable.
posted by medusa at 7:53 AM on March 27, 2021 [2 favorites]

That is so sweet. We all take connections with other people where we can get them, these days.
posted by gemmy at 7:56 AM on March 27, 2021 [1 favorite]

Absolutely fantastic. Human beings thrive in communities, and we can make a community for any reason. We're all in this together folks, life is the ultimate collaboration.
posted by LooseFilter at 8:00 AM on March 27, 2021 [9 favorites]

Three years later: Facebook to acquire upstart social network ABCC for 12.5 billion dollars
posted by oulipian at 8:13 AM on March 27, 2021 [37 favorites]

I‘m just surprised that there apparently weren’t fifty responses asking to be unsubscribed.
posted by Slothrup at 8:58 AM on March 27, 2021 [8 favorites]

Aw, this is nice.
posted by obfuscation at 9:17 AM on March 27, 2021

Pretty funny.
posted by gt2 at 9:36 AM on March 27, 2021

“This was not the first time a community had sprung up around couch-related problems.”
posted by Horace Rumpole at 9:57 AM on March 27, 2021 [2 favorites]

Reminds me of that other once-hot-new-social network, the comments section of a slow-motion deer video.
posted by kaibutsu at 10:00 AM on March 27, 2021 [6 favorites]

This made me laugh, and was just a delight to read. I hope at least one marriage comes out of this, and that everyone gets to go.
posted by kalimac at 10:07 AM on March 27, 2021

Bypass Paywalls Clean let me read this without nags.
posted by flabdablet at 10:22 AM on March 27, 2021 [8 favorites]

I especially liked the “I’d invite you all over but I don’t have a couch”
posted by ook at 10:30 AM on March 27, 2021 [22 favorites]

I tittered a little bit but it was drowned out by the grinding teeth. Misuse of To: and Cc: is a pet hate.

For how many years has email been a thing now? And yet those of us who respect others' privacy enough to use Bcc: automatically when composing a bulk email remain firmly in the minority.

Grrrrr.
posted by flabdablet at 10:43 AM on March 27, 2021 [6 favorites]

Did they get the bananas?
posted by cmfletcher at 10:49 AM on March 27, 2021 [16 favorites]

Well, at the very least, I think we can all agree that a piece about an impromptu group of SoHo bohèmes banding together around their $6,000 couches being delayed, which then pivots into free advertising for the upscale furniture boutique causing the delays, is peak New Yorker.
posted by Mayor West at 10:56 AM on March 27, 2021 [65 favorites]

ZOE SHOOT YOUR SHOT
posted by GuyZero at 11:24 AM on March 27, 2021 [8 favorites]

I especially liked the sharing of a picture of a cargo vessel blocking the Suez Canal (“Maybe our stuff is here”).

Hilarious.
posted by shoesietart at 12:13 PM on March 27, 2021 [2 favorites]

Well, at the very least, I think we can all agree

speak for yourself
posted by thelonius at 12:16 PM on March 27, 2021 [8 favorites]

This is not at all what I expected from the ominous "on which two hundred and three other couch-expectant recipients were cc’d instead of bcc’d" and I'm surprised and delighted at humanity, for a change.
posted by martin q blank at 12:48 PM on March 27, 2021 [5 favorites]

Came here for the "free bananas in the kitchen" reference...
posted by greenhornet at 3:04 PM on March 27, 2021 [6 favorites]

Here's a paywall free link

Not to be too off-topic but I'm noticing more and more paywalled articles on the blue lately... Could we please try to be mindful and provide links that work for everyone? The Wayback Machine is a really easy way to generate paywall free links for a majority of news sites. I do want to support good journalism but we can't all afford subscriptions.
posted by signsofrain at 3:17 PM on March 27, 2021 [17 favorites]

signsofrain, could you maybe post the way back machine suggestion in Meta talk along with instructions on how to generate paywall-free links? Because that’s both a great idea and total news to me, and I bet it is news to lots of other people as well.

I really especially appreciate your link because I do not have a subscription to the New Yorker and I was not able to read the story and it’s a great post! It was so pleasant to read something upbeat and refreshing for a change. Thanks, OP!
posted by Bella Donna at 4:19 PM on March 27, 2021 [8 favorites]

Yeah, if this is an ad for the couch company it's a pretty terrible ad.
posted by queensissy at 5:18 PM on March 27, 2021 [2 favorites]

This is the Platonic ideal of a Talk of the Town—funny, reflective of the times, extremely niche in a specifically rich-person way, and incredibly New York-localized. The week before lockdown I was thinking fondly of ABC Carpet and Home, an absolute wonderland of a store where I can't afford anything, and made vague plans to go wander around there soon; obviously that did not happen, and any time I've thought of the store in the last year I've gotten vaguely wistful. It takes the edge off a bit to know that the people who CAN afford to shop there are also unfulfilled but being good sports about it.
posted by babelfish at 5:22 PM on March 27, 2021 [17 favorites]

I enjoyed reading that! While reclining on my 1950's be-fringed, sprung couch, which I detest. Anyone want it?
posted by james33 at 2:43 AM on March 28, 2021

james33 those couches are the best!! Get it reupholstered if you can't stand the fringe.
posted by freethefeet at 2:45 AM on March 28, 2021

Years ago, I insisted on going to ABC Home and Carpet when I was in New York City for a few days with my then sweetheart. Looking at furniture was not their favorite thing and I did not give a shit. I had been seeing ads for that store for ages and it just seemed like a glamorous place to go. The only problem was that I had not understood how huge the store was. It was the kind of place where I should’ve spent a few hours one day and a few more hours the next day. That was impossible, but it’s still on my list of places to visit if I ever get back to New York City.

The most amusing part for me was finding a bunch of framed pressed plants and leaves with careful notations in Swedish in the corner of each frame. That was something that Swedish students did in the 40s, maybe. At the time many of those school projects were piled up in storage rooms or closets all across Sweden. They were not trendy or even stylish yet. But they were at ABC, where the newly framed works looked gorgeous and appealing if not affordable. Context really is everything.
posted by Bella Donna at 2:56 AM on March 28, 2021 [5 favorites]

If you don't like it, just move on please.

This is very cute, in a year where chance encounters have been very few and far between.
posted by Braeburn at 6:22 AM on March 28, 2021 [3 favorites]

Given the New Yorker's penchant for twee headlines, I'm surprised they missed the opportunity to title this article "So-fa, so good".
posted by cacophony at 6:49 AM on March 28, 2021 [7 favorites]

or "Divan Intervention"
posted by taz at 7:53 AM on March 28, 2021 [7 favorites]

Was the ad-hoc community as a whole disproportionately Jewish (I guess in NYC, particularly the tony end of NYC, that's not unreasonable) or did a Jewish subgroup self-select here? 'Cause the talk of chuppahs and hiding the afikomen seems... pretty culture-specific.
posted by jackbishop at 7:57 AM on March 28, 2021

Disproportionately Jewish? I am unable to follow the reasoning behind that comment but I’m not going to try. Because commenting about Jewish people sounding Jewish doesn’t compute to me.

Also: You are not wrong, the sobsister. But your dismay does not trump my enjoyment. Feel free to judge me for my enjoyment but my feels are not a reflection of my politics, my behavior, nor my bank account. It’s just a bagatelle, a brief distraction from a not fun reality.
posted by Bella Donna at 9:38 AM on March 28, 2021 [2 favorites]

'Cause the talk of chuppahs and hiding the afikomen seems... pretty culture-specific.

Also, it is Passover.
posted by jessamyn at 10:06 AM on March 28, 2021 [2 favorites]

There are a lot of Jewish people in New York, and because there are a lot of Jewish people in New York, lots of non-Jews have basic cultural literacy about Jewish stuff. I am not Christian, but I could joke about Santa, Christmas trees, fasting for Lent, and Easter egg hunts. New York is one of the few places in the world where Jewish customs can function in kind of the same way.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 7:19 PM on March 28, 2021 [7 favorites]

Also, it is Passover.

Which is the most couch-friendly of all Jewish holidays! You're actually supposed to recline!
posted by Joe in Australia at 3:46 AM on March 29, 2021 [3 favorites]

OH HOLY HELL.

Someone I KNOW just posted a link to this article on his Facebook feed because HE'S ONE OF THE PEOPLE QUOTED IN IT.

I'll send him this link.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:14 AM on March 30, 2021 [1 favorite]

I hope at least one marriage comes out of this, and that everyone gets to go.

And that they can afford a space large enough for two couches.
posted by Mchelly at 11:55 AM on March 30, 2021 [2 favorites]