If you have US$100 to spare, you may want to hop over to Anthropologie‘s website to check out their latest “it” item.
Dubbed the “West Village Corrugated Can,” it’s essentially a rusty and slightly used-looking garbage bin. The company’s website says the unit is “handmade” and comprised of “corrugated tin” and includes a “mango wood or abaca rope handle.” If you look closely at the image, you’ll see the metal is covered in a thin coat of rust.
Its original price was US$148.
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Anthropologie is well-known for its hipster-chic wares and regularly sells items that have a rustic look about them (think slightly messy or dented and a little bit used), but this object has pushed even loyal shoppers’ buttons in a bad way.
“Really?! Are you serious? $100 for a rusty trash can!!,” said one person commenting on the product online. “O the humanity. How did we come to this?” said another. There’s even been backlash on Twitter.
https://twitter.com/Whiffies/status/688979054985252864
Interestingly enough, the can appears to be an accurate representation of the actual bins New York City used to use to collect refuse. DNAInfo contacted Ben Miller, a former planning policy director for the city’s sanitation department. who said, “Back in the days when everything was heated with wood and coal, they were called “ash cans,” after the largest bulk of their contents.” The article went on to say in the ’60s, “the city’s health department required metal cans as a means of controlling the rat population.”
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This isn’t the first time Anthropologie has come under fire for its confusingly priced products. Buzzfeed recently asked two high-profile bloggers to analyze the “ridiculous things” one can buy at the shop. Their list included a decorative, rainbow-coloured broom which cost US$63 and a clock with feather hands worth an astonishing US$248. There’s also this Tumblr page whose purpose is to “digitally bitch-slap retailers, one overpriced item at a time.”
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