Shopping At Luxury Stores

[lizzyb831]

your stories remind me of that lady in "under the Tuscan Sun". hehe. I really like that movie.

 

[jenimmacto]

word. not to say i know more about fashion than them necessarily, but i've definitely gotten my *** kissed at the san fran saks by SAs enamored with my python fendi . . .

i used to feel like they were looking down on me when i was about 13 or 14

now they kiss my ***
i think when they realise you know 10x more about fashion than they do, they back off totally.

 

[luckycardslady]

i got talked to at the store before. especially at LOUIS VUITTON! i was vacationing with my family in Europe and we stopped at the Venice LV for some shopping. So my mom was checking out a purse and the SA was helping her and then i saw something that caught my eye so i went over and started posing it in my hand and it looked pretty good. and then the b*tch came over and was all like, um if you need help we will help you! i was soo offended. my mom was soo pissed she just said, "thanks! but im going to another store" so we left. yep. its not like we couldnt' afford it. we were on vacation anything that we like we will get. thats why we go right?!? so when we got to the LV in Italy (a big mall place) my mom got the purse she wanted and the sales guy was soo nice to us, he let us try almost anything, hehe. he ran up 3 flights of stairs just to get the purse and was quick about it. o yeah i got the bag i was looking at too. b*tch!

 

[POTC_ROXS]

I find the older women in luxury stores are more snobbish than the younger ones. I was in Holt's today and i tried on a Burberry poncho. An older SA came over to my mother and i, trying to "help" us. I adoreded the little poncho and the lady is like "it's a lot of money you know." Your point? Just because i dressed casually doesnt mean you can look down upon me. I seriously condsidered purchasing it but the lady put me right off. I'll take my business elsewhere.

 

[christilynn]

Abercrombie and Hollister Luxury Stores!

 

[emma peel]

the strangest experience was boucheron in paris, where they have to buzz you in two sets of gates to get in... the first thing they ask is "do you want champagne or water"-- i would immediately feel indebted so i said no. i was only there to look at sunglasses and i suppose they were used to people dropping serious cash on jewelry, so they were sort of like, "sunglasses, we sell sunglasses?" i described exactly what model i was looking for, which you can't get in the states. they dug it up, i tried them on, loved them, but was guilt ridden by the $500 euro price so i had to extracate myself from three bored hoity toity sales people that i felt were judging me for not buying diamonds. there was no one else in the store for the whole half hour ordeal.

 

[Marcella]

Abercrombie and Hollister Luxury Stores!

i was treated badly at an abercrombie once. i walked in and the sales associate looked up at me and looked down immdediatley and continued folding her jeans, the guy at the register was just spacing off. i don't know why it irritated me so much. i wasn't going to buy anything there, i was just killing time at the mall while i was waiting for my work to start, it's not like they knew that though. i was just really ticked that i was ignored. i just kept thinking to myself "you workers suck! say hi! something! are you alive!?!?"

i think this is funny because i hate getting pestered at stores (i don't mind a hi how are you, but it can go overboard), yet when i get ignored i'm like "whaaaa?"

 

[Hipkitten]

I will never understand stuck up sales associates. I don't care how high-end the store is - they're still working retail

 

[Lily530]

I will never understand stuck up sales associates. I don't care how high-end the store is - they're still working retail

EXACTLY!!!!

 

[kit]

It REALLY surprised me , but the HERMES boutique , on King Street in Manchester , UK , has the most pleasant , non-stuck-up , sales assistants that I have ever come across in a truly upmarket luxury shop . They put the uppety Louis Vuitton SAs at the Selfridges , Exchange Square branch , to absolute shame .

I expected QUITE the contrary , but I was truly surprised by their eagerness to help , coupled with the ability to leave one to browse , unhindered .

Wish I could go in there more than once every blue moon !!!!!

 

[helena]

I would endorse the staff at Dover street and also Pollyanna. They are the only people who I have found try to understand your style. Worst - too many to name. Mui Mui bond street, marni sloane street, cruise in glasgow & edinburgh. The biggest failure of sales staff I find is that they have no interest in or knowledge of their product. Imagine if I knew nothing about what I am supposed to do for a living...not very clever is it?

 

[purechris]

helena--the Marni store here is no different.....when I bought my pants I had them folded up with the hanger on top of them, sitting on the counter and Soft actually had to tell the girl that I was buying them

 

[helena]

the girls in london just stand around looking pretty (which they undoubtedly do) but when it came to actually helping me they just looked bored. i find sa's in London very rude on the whole anyway.

 

[purechris]

I will never understand stuck up sales associates. I don't care how high-end the store is - they're still working retail

Not that I feel the need to defend my chosen CAREER.......but there is nothing about retail to roll your eyes at......it is a very lucrative profession

.......stuck up sales associates are usually people that typically don't care about the job in the first place.

 

[purechris]

the girls in london just stand around looking pretty (which they undoubtedly do) but when it came to actually helping me they just looked bored. i find sa's in London very rude on the whole anyway.

True Marni story:

I took a friend back to get a pair of pants that didn't work for me, but I thought he'd like. While he was trying on another customer came out looked at herself in the mirror, picked up another skirt, came out in it, tried the first one on again....still nobody talking to her....I told her that I liked the first one so much better. We chatted for a bit about the great stuff for Fall and how she loved the line and how my friend Soft bought "this" dress last week....I left before she purchased but in addition to the skirt that I told her I liked, she had one of the big bags, a dress, and a pair of shoes on the counter and was still having to ASK an associate to find her another size

in the mean time one of the girls was telling me about how they don't put everything on the floor because the collection is so large......they still had Summer sale merch in the back. The whole time all I was thinking was, "hello, do you think you could show it to me and my friend, and the girl with the stack of things on the counter?"

 

[helena]

Its the same in london Purechris although the marni concession in selfridges is better! No wonder there is so much marni on yoox - well I'm glad of that actually because then I have access to it. LOL

 

[tott]

It REALLY surprised me , but the HERMES boutique , on King Street in Manchester , UK , has the most pleasant , non-stuck-up , sales assistants that I have ever come across in a truly upmarket luxury shop .

Same thing with the shops in Munich and Milan, very pleasant staff! I guess Hermès values their customers (or future customers...) and it is unfortunately a rare thing...

 

[LifeNatureLove]

I know I'm late to the thread but I've been bored and looking through past threads. Bear with me . . .
I've found that most rude ( or anything but polite/helpful/ friendly) SA's are miserable working retail and probably jealous that they can't spend the money that their customer's can. Also, management doesn't seem to stand behind their employees and from what I hear, they put a lot of pressure on the SA's. I go into a couple of stores and there are lines and lines of customers, clothes pilled up everywhere, dressing rooms overflowing, and cranky customers. It take a strong person not to crack under that kind of pressure, I would imagine. Granted, that's not typical at Saks, Neimans, and whatnot but still.
I just go in, look, purchase and leave. In the grand scheme of things it doesn't matter anyway. At the end of the day, if they're rude or nice, that's the attitude they have to live with.
Just my long and rambling 2 cents

 

[spinster]

I love hearing all your stories. Sometimes, I feel like it's just me who stores hate.

I shop embarassingly a lot and, in my experience, it doesn't matter what I wear. It's the person behind the "SA." If he/she is a cool person, he/she will most likely be a cool SA. I do prefer the smaller boutiques, though. Here in L.A., I get the best service at Patty Faye, Una Mae, X-girl, the Circle and the Kids are Alright. Note that all these stores are on the eastside. As you get more west, the SAs cop more of an attitude.

BUT the worst service I've ever gotten was in the most unexpected of all places: the Giant Robot Store (o.g. & 2) on Sawtelle. Their magazine is so laid back and funny and irreverent. For those of you who aren't familiar with GR, they're all about Asian pop culture. In addition to a great magazine, they sell cute t-shirts, accessories, books, toys, etc... Total geek boy/girl heaven! I've gone into their stores 3 times and every time I feel like I'm not hip enough for them. One time, I was PAYING for a pretty big purchase & I asked about a shirt in a different size. The guy said they had a bunch still in boxes that he was about to open. I said, okay, when should I come back? And the ***hat looked at me like I was his mom making him clean his room and said, "I don't know! It's really busy right now." I see his stupid mug on their website all the time and it makes me want to puke. The second time: I smiled at the girl as I was entering and she ignored me and went on talking to her friend. I see her picture all the time, too. f*ck you, b*tch. The 3rd and final time: I felt attitude as I was entering and I just turned right around & left. I'm never going back there again and it's a shame because I love their stuff and I'm in the neighborhood all the time.

End rant.
So, anyway, back on topic - it ain't just the luxury stores that have attitude. The Barney's on Wilshire is always a pretty cool place, though. And I'm not a very posh-looking person.

 

[justlucky]

This isn't really fashion related, but everyone's storied remind me of something that happened to my dad like 20 years ago. He had gone out in the morning to run some errands, looking a little dissheveled, and on the way home, he noticed that one of the houses up the street was for sale, and they were having an open house. My dad goes in, to look around (he had done some real estate brokering with my mom at the time), and the agent comes up to him and says, "Are you sure you can afford this neighborhood?" My dad just responded, "Yeah...I live up the street, and I own two other houses on this block." Classic.