NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Even in the sweltering heat, devotees lined up outside the unadorned New York City store for the infamous biannual Manolo Blahnik sale.

The original sexy and expensive status shoes only go on sale twice a year. When they do, people line up in droves to get their hands on the heels worn most notably on "Sex and the City."

Only one advertisement for the sale ran in the Sunday edition of the New York Times, but the word had spread like wildfire.

Since the sale started on July 5, hordes of women have bombarded the tiny boutique day after day, where shoes are marked down 50 percent but still cost a whopping $200 to $500 a pair.

I'd heard the stories of women getting tackled, kicked, bitten -- ok perhaps that is just an urban myth but still, I knew the dangers of getting between a woman and a Manolo.

I approached apprehensively.

Inside the store, signs read "only three pairs at a time," but women hungry for Manolos grabbed as many heels as they could and shouted out their size to any employee within earshot.

I perused a shelf of strappy metallic heels and overheard one beleaguered sales associate mutter a reference to "Groundhog Day," the Bill Murray film in which a cynic is forced to continually relive the worst day of his life.

I couldn't help but see this as the revenge of the "mass affluent."

Manolo Blahnik shoes regularly start at around $400 but can cost upward of $1000 a pair. At half off, they may be just within the reach of the emerging demographic of relatively rich households with a taste for luxury.

But as the mass affluent buy up even the most in vogue of high-end items -- several pairs at a time -- retailers face the challenge of balancing the desire for strong sales and maintaining their exclusive status.

Treading lightly between the shelves of shoes and the other women crammed into the store, I felt the shared the desire to live richly.

A pair of strappy heels caught my eye, even though at half off they were still beyond my budget.

I tried them on anyway while the women around me busily slipped into pair after pair, like the stepsisters in Cinderella, hoping for a perfect match.

As I turned to leave empty handed, I noticed a silver pair (only left in sizes 10 and up) that were the very same ones at the center of an episode in the final season of "Sex and the City." On the show, Carrie Bradshaw registered herself at Manolo Blahnik for a single pair of the $500 shoes.

I couldn't help but coo, "they're beautiful."

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