On a wet Wednesday afternoon, a novelty toy and video games store in a quiet half of New York City was seeing much busier foot visitors than typical.
Inside, the store was packed with cameramen and clients, while passersby in this Brooklyn neighbourhood of Cobble Hill appeared inside, asking: “Where’s the bird?”
Art of Play has discovered itself at the centre of a social media storm since the weekend when Grammy-winning musician Kelly Clarkson complained online that the boutique store would not let her buy a singing and dancing mechanical hen that was perched on the wall.
The Since U Been Gone singer claimed she was “looked at as if I couldn’t afford” the hen – which she said had a price tag of $15,000 (£11,000).
“Y’all should go check out Art of Play in Brooklyn if you enjoy being treated like Julia Roberts’ character in Pretty Woman,” she said, referring to a scene from the 1990 romantic comedy movie where Roberts’ character is handled poorly by employees at a store, who indicate she can’t afford numerous objects.
In a follow-up post on social media, Clarkson said the store had advised her the hen price $15,000 and that they could discover her something else “comparable”.
Art of Play has defended how it handled the star on social media, saying the wood hen – which is called Molly – is completely connected to the wall and is not for sale.
It said that during Clarkson’s five-minute go to on Saturday, an worker urged to her that she could buy an an identical hen for $15,000.
They also said they had supplied her a completely different singing hen for $2,000 from a clock-making store in Germany, which she could have bought that day.
“Imagine our surprise when our small local business was suddenly attacked by eight million people who have never visited our store,” Art of Play said.
“It’s been a surreal experience to be the focus of such widespread outrage after just one mention by a celebrity.”
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