The wind bears down, mixed with sleet and rain, on the parking lot of the kitchenware wholesaler, agitating turbid pothole water, a film of exotic hydrocarbons overtop, as the business-school nephew of the owner-proprietor uncle treads cautiously, in defense of limited-edition sneakers, to the staff entrance, its metal door dented and smeared with indistinct human detritus, the standard architectural ornament to a white-hot real estate market.