I am sooooo on Kelly Clarkson’s side in this bird situation. And I keep coming back to one very basic question.
If something has a price tag next to it, why would it be weird for a customer to ask about buying it?
Apparently, we need to have a whole conversation about this.
The $15,000 price tag is kind of the point
If you missed it, Kelly publicly criticized Brooklyn shop Art of Play after a visit, saying she felt an employee sized her up as though she couldn’t afford what she wanted. The item at the center of it all is Molly, a mechanical singing bird.
The store disputed her account and said Molly wasn’t for sale. Kelly responded with a photo showing a $15,000 price tag beside the bird and said the conversation had absolutely included buying it.
Art of Play later explained that its own bird stays in the shop, but a nearly identical one from the artist could be purchased for $15,000. The store says it explained that and offered to show her a different $2,000 automaton.
Okay. That distinction is useful. Put that on the sign.
A display model with a price for another available piece is a perfectly understandable retail arrangement. Expecting somebody walking in to already understand your particular bird arrangement is where you lose me.
If I see a price beside an object in a shop, I am going to assume there is some version of a conversation where I can give you that amount of money and end up with the thing. Maybe it needs to be ordered. Maybe the artist needs to make it. Fine. Tell me!
That is a normal shopping question. It does not require a celebrity explanation.
The attitude is what bothers me
I understand exactly the kind of interaction Kelly is describing. The feeling that somebody has decided what you can afford before you’ve even had a chance to ask your question.
I wasn’t in that store, and the two sides disagree about what happened. But the version of this story where Kelly is simply a spoiled celebrity furious that somebody wouldn’t hand over a bird never sat right with me.
Her complaint was about how she felt she was treated. I think that deserves to be taken seriously.
And honestly, the store’s public responses are doing very little to change my mind.
In an interview with Curbed, co-owner Adam Rubin said, “We treated her like a normal person,” then suggested that hadn’t met her expectations. He also said the bird’s price was now $15 million because of the attention.
That is the part where I become deeply unimpressed.
Even if the new price is a joke, it lands badly with me. You are explaining that this was all an unfortunate misunderstanding while making the disputed price tag into another publicity moment. To me, that feels like milking the situation.
I keep reading the explanations waiting to feel better about the place, and instead I feel more put off by the attitude. A cool shop can have wonderful things inside it and still leave me with absolutely no desire to walk through the door.
A silent video cannot tell us the tone
There is also security footage released by journalist Pablo Torre. As ABC News reports, it shows Kelly’s brief visit and interactions with staff, but it has no audio.
That matters. We cannot hear the words, the explanation, or the tone. I’m not treating silent footage as proof of either person’s version of the conversation.
A person can feel belittled in a perfectly quiet exchange. You do not need a dramatic scene in the middle of a store for an interaction to feel awful.
Rubin has also reported threats and harassment following the dispute. That is unacceptable. Being on Kelly’s side does not mean bothering employees or leaving reviews for a shop you’ve never visited.
It means I find her frustration understandable, and the responses I’ve read have made this business less appealing to me.
I love a strange little shop full of things I didn’t know existed. I would very much like to hear about the ridiculous singing bird. But I also want to be able to ask what something costs without feeling like I’ve failed an entrance exam.
So yes, I’m on Kelly’s side. Art of Play is not for me.
And I still think a price tag is a pretty good reason to ask whether something is for sale.
