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A crowd started massing at 11:30 yesterday morning. They weren't gathering for a parade or a celebrity sighting in front of the MTV studios.
No, these New Yorkers were waiting to shop.
By 11:59 a.m. yesterday, some 300 people, shoppers and curiosity- seekers, were outside the Time Warner Center, waiting for the doors to open and let them in to the new shopping, business and entertainment complex on the West Side of Manhattan.
They were waiting to check out the Shops at Columbus Circle, and at noon on the dot, they streamed in, gaping at the four-story, windowed atrium, then heading for the elevators leading down to a 59,000-square-foot Whole Foods Market or up to a Borders bookstore.
"I wanted to see Whole Foods because I've never seen a real supermarket in New York City," said Yash Egami, 31, a magazine editor who lives on the Upper West Side.
The tonier shops - such as Sisley, Stuart Weitzman and Hugo Boss - were mostly empty aside from salespeople and merchandise, but people were streaming into the bigger stores like...