The state of the economy is softening the infamous pretentious, bitchy attitudes of sales clerks at the poshest Madison Avenue boutiques.
(Sidebar: For those of you who don't live in NYC, Madison Ave. is the ultra-exclusive shopping mecca. While Fifth Ave. - which is only one block west - boasts some of the same upscale stores, it's very pedestrian. Madison Ave., not so much.)
The New York Times conducted an informal survey and discovered that the everyday woman can walk into stores like Hermes, Emanuel Ungaro, Chanel, Prada, Tom Ford and receive the star treatment. With sales clerks paying more attention to her than they would, say, two years ago when they would just ignore you, because they thought you wouldn't buy anything because you're poor and couldn't.
Apparently Gucci hasn't received the memo, though.
It was almost shocking, then, to step into the Gucci store and encounter a greeter who asked, in a sharp tone, “What are you looking for?” Upstairs, I thought I’d try on a $350 swimsuit — what the heck? — but stood stock-still in the middle of an empty room for a full five minutes before anyone appeared to offer assistance.
The swimsuit was cute, but unrealistic. As I left, another salesman approached and asked, “You still here?”
“I’m just looking.”
“Looking, looking, looking,” he said, wagging his head.
Meanwhile, next door at the Tom Ford store, "a gentleman approached and asked right away if I’d like anything to drink. 'Um, water?' 'Still or sparkling?'"
All this talk about shopping and fashion week makes us want to go shopping. Too bad the weather today in NYC today sucks, plus, we're in a friggin' recession. (LOL)
Ah well, there's always tomorrow.
1 comments:
Ive put a lot of those sales clerks in their places before. If they didn't work there and get the hug discounts to afford the clothes, they wouldn't be able to step foot in those stores either
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