Where Happiness Is on Clearance(1)

WHEN I walked up to the new Paul Smith store in Williamsburg, one of the salesclerks, a young woman, was busy texting in the doorway. She looked up from her keypad. “Hihowareyou,” she said under her breath, with a dead face. (I am fluent in the language of retail, and this means: “Oh, great. A person.”) Skip to next paragraph

Donna Alberico for The New York Times

“Oh, don't worry!” I said, like the overfriendly doormat that I am. “You can keep texting!” She glared at me, turned and walked into the store.

Maybe she was just exhausted. It was quite humid that day, and Paul Smith T-Shirts brightly colored, cheerily printed clothing is not something to be around when you have tired eyes.

The large box-shaped shop opened in October and offers styles at 30 percent off regular retail prices. It was in a bit of disarray. Shirts were piled in toppling stacks, and suits, crammed onto hangers, were a little rumpled. It resembled an overstuffed 99-cent store more than a Paul Smith shop.

At a front table were lots of T-shirts, bucket hats and bathing suits striped in shades of blue or red ($92). Below them, behind glass, were wallets ($83), small zip cases ($29), plus datebooks, notebooks and credit card cases in Paul Smith Trainers signature multicolored variegated stripes.

While I perused, the moody girl ordered food, which calmed me. Maybe she is one of those people who becomes grumpy when they are hungry. She called a restaurant, asked for a chorizo quesadilla, then slammed down the phone.

Another salesclerk — a very cute, tired boy — came up and explained that a large part of the merchandise was being cut to 70 percent off for next weekend. “We have been marking it down all day,” he said, a little exhausted by his cohort, by clothes, by life.