New York ran a feature last November about the dramatic expansion of the spa/salon industry, and the attendant mushrooming (and exploitation) of workers in this relatively new field of labor. Services that were once considered luxuries are now “social imperatives” and deemed necessary for maintaining an overall sense of well-being.

There may be something to that latter point; another theory not espoused in the article is that all these massages, mani-pedis and waxes have become, in part, a symptom of urban isolation, of individuals growing increasingly beyond the reach of one another, despite such close proximities. An entire (legal) industry built up around providing human touch and connections.

Chinatown produce stands: