From the New York Times article, A Star-Spangled Banner Yet Waves at Lord & Taylor by James Barron . May 26, 2008:
The dozen or so people in the folding chairs did not quite know what to do when 10 a.m. finally rolled around and the sound system stopped playing soft, up-tempo jazz and started playing “The Star-Spangled Banner.” Get up? Stay seated?
That is how the day, every day, begins at Lord & Taylor.
Every morning at 10 a.m., before it allows customers to set foot inside its flagship store on Fifth Avenue, Lord & Taylor plays the national anthem — an orchestral recording that sounds like the Philadelphia Orchestra from the 1950s. It has lush strings and a full-bodied brass section, but no famous voice to belt out Francis Scott Key’s words over the loudspeakers.
Playing the national anthem each morning has become a ritual at Lord & Taylor. “The Star-Spangled Banner” is the same whether it’s a Wednesday in mid-March or a holiday like Memorial Day, which honors those who have died in service to their country.
Setting out the folding chairs just inside the revolving doors is another ritual. Lord & Taylor does that to give early birds a place to wait until after the final chord has soared over the whoosh of the escalators and the soft jazz has come back on.
Click here to read the article in its entirety:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/26/nyregion/26anthem.html
