Every once in a while, amidst the dark and dreary news related to the recession, lost homes, jobs and a plummet of public and private investments in short- and long-term art, talent, and people as a whole, there are several days that shine like Window No. 25 of the Christmas advent calendar. Sales – first cut, then the second cut and then clearance.

Eons ago, I wouldn’t even bother, because I knew that my choice picks of that season were gone. Oftentimes those gleaming little glazed palladium feet of the distressed patent satchel never got an opportunity to graze the dusted wooden surfaces of department store shelves as sales associates’ waitlists were filled to the curled edges with eager and wild-eyed “It” Bag-mongering consumers. Fast forward to 2008, I picked up a YSL Muse Two in patent and pony hair for less than $500. The large size. To fashion houses, the game turned to Survival of the Fittest, to some consumers, “OCD” had a whole new meaning while women (and men) spent, sometimes more than usual, scrambling for the Deals of the Century. And deals they were – some of my fine artifacts included, in addition to the beautiful Muse Two, a Marni Large Violet Balloon Bag for $500-ish, a Burberry Avonbury Trench Coat for $425, multiple Bottega Veneta hobos from Cabazon Outlet second-cuts, Wolford hosiery for less than $50, and the list goes on. And sales receipts. Lots and lots of shoe boxes filled with sales receipts I collected in the last two years. DH learned soon that “I will return what I don’t like, honey,” meant “If you are going to get that car, get it now before your wife spends your life savings on patent and exotic leathers.” (There is a true story about how it was suggested before we our move to Irvine that we need not bother with procuring moving boxes, because we had enough shopping bags to carry the contents within our entire cul-de-sac. I would be too embarrassed to mention this, had it not been for the itch to poke fun at him yet again for this horrific and exposing moment where anyone could tell the guy has never moved in his life).

I jest. But frankly, sale time is a different thing altogether post-recession. At times I find myself holding back on a purchase when within a four-week time window of the next big cut.

And then, there are different types of promotions that department stores do, to lure customers into their stores instead of shopping through the bright and alluring boutique windows on Rodeo. Double points, triple points, and the infamous Saks Fifth Avenue EGC and Friends and Family Events. It was during the latter, an F&F event for not just FW09 items but classics too, that I came across this revelation about the nature of loyalty, namely Customer Loyalty.

I hear from friends in different walks of life – engineers, doctors, retail associates, teachers, even pastors – that consumers nowadays act with such entitlement. I don’t disagree – we’ve become so spoiled as foot-stomping fist-shaking rights-seeking inhabitants of this Land of the Free that it has now come to bite us, the heydays of the 70’s and 80’s a vague, hazy and distant memory, amidst staring into impossible situations like the health care crisis, where either way we lose.

And the Freedom Sought has disappeared – not to due to lack of rights, but due to the lack of means.

But it’s not just we as consumers who have become blind-a88-drunk on entitlement – so have those on the other side of the counter. During the Saks F&F event, select designers opted in to offer 25 percent off of their products, irrespective of style or season. I called the 5th Ave. store in New York, hoping they would have a wider selection.

by numberstumper

Me: Hi, I was wondering if Chloe is participating in your Friends & Family event this time?
ESA (eager sales associate): Yes, all Chloe bags are included, as are (a string of different designer brands). The only brands not participating are Chanel, Prada, Balenciaga…
Me: I was wondering if you had the Paraty?
ESA: I’m sorry, what brand? Para…
Me: No, the Chloe Paraty, from Chloe…
ESA: Hold on, let me look up that style…
(Long wait)
ESA: Ma’am, can I get your number so I can call you back in case we get disconnected? (Sure, here it is). Okay, I will look up the name on the system and see what’s available but let me look up the name first… one moment…
(Longer wait)

Click. I hung up.

And then she left me multiple voicemails about not just the Paraty, but other bags in the promotion, and again during their next EGC event. Are they serious? I’m about to still spend more than $1,500 on a bag from you, over the phone – you didn’t have to do any marketing or “sell me” on anything, I knew what I wanted, and you are on the designer handbags sales floor feeling entitled to a three-figure commission of every sale you make and you have never heard of the flagship Paraty?? And then you keep calling me trying to gain my customer loyalty to buy regularly from you, from your store, when you didn’t even know the product I wanted to purchase to begin with?

Am I being too harsh?

I did the math. The average life span of a car purchased new currently is about six years. The MSRP on the Lexus LS Hybrid is $106,035.00. Divided over six years, with twelve months in a year, the spread amounts to a little over $1,400/month. The average “purse maven” in her 40’s who shops regularly with Neiman Marcus and Saks Fifth Avenue will buy one or two handbags a month.

One to two handbags a month from a customer loyal to you and your store over the course of six years is more money spent than on a brand new Lexus LS Hybrid. I wonder what would happen if someone walked into a dealership and the salesman had no clue what model you were referring to when you mentioned the “LS” – what would his sales figures look like? Salesman Joe completes hours of training, polishing up on his product knowledge and works his connection circuits just so that he can sell one car to a family every six years, and in hopes he will get repeat business and referrals. The Saks sales associates’ repeat phone calls and the company’s repeat mailers were persistent and consistent with that of a business trying to win the long-term customer loyalty of a consumer, but the problem is, they didn’t even know what they were selling, they just wanted the sale.

Loyalty is earned, even customer loyalty, with an “E” for effort.
And if such is the case, where loyalty is the token to more customer deposits into one’s sales tally, how much “credibility” currency should we foot the investment into a business or colleague relationship, for long-term success?

How much should we invest in regular deposits into our loved ones’ emotional bank accounts?

I think I’m just thankful for grace.

When selecting the right handbag for you…

• Practical will usually mean not as attractive as the unpractical
• Gilded chain straps are heavier than leather straps, but canvas will pill
• The less you invest in it, the more you’ll be OK with throwing it on the floor
• The good ones will always be followed by impostors, but to acquire the original oftentimes painstaking effort
• You will get irked if you find yourself caring more for your bag than convenient. For example, how many times did you glance at your Birkin to see if its corners are touching your car when you open the door?

You want it all? You must bend over backwards to maintain it. And cest the vie.

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The other day, I was strolling through South Coast Plaza when I stopped in my tracks, and grabbed DH’s hand to pull him into the Bally store. For those of you who aren’t purse fanatics, Bally has only recently caught the eye of fashion mavens, now earning the title by some as the "biggest fashion turnaround in the century." And apparently, the snagging of Brian Atwood is one of the most talked-about awe-inspiring forces behind the Big Bally Revolution. So I heard.

I heard, but now, I saw. Big, black and glossy, with rich tortoise-lucite handles and wonderfully thick and smooshy was an amazing…

. creature of a bag unlike anything I had seen. It was so chic yet elegant and understated despite its patent DNA that I couldn’t help but wonder – am I really in the right store?

As beautiful as it was, I gave it my usual three-day sleep rule – sleep on it, and in three days, if I am still thinking about it (or in some cases, losing sleep over it), then it’s made to be mine.  Unfortunately for me and the bag, but fortunately for DH, within 48 hours I was already looking for the Fendi Doctor F tote that I had missed the last time around.  The three-day sleep rule works well, not just because of buyer’s remorse, or because I hate having to make returns, but more because sometimes, you want to really know how much you want it, and it’s not just in the heat of the moment.

My pastor said something similar the other day. He said that one cannot expect our prayers to be answered unless you pray with tenacity, and you are relentless. One of the reasons he noted for this, was because God wants to know whether or not your seeking him is from a deep longing or just a whim. I admit, I did look a bit sheepish thinking about how this wise reasoning coincided with my designer bag-purchasing habits, but strangely (and I hope I will not be hit with lightning for saying this), I get it.  When in the well-lit store with the pouch of crinkled patent sparkling against the spotless wall mirrors, it is so hard to differentiate between a whim and a three-day-rule-passing item worthy of purchase.  Just like sometimes, when we pray, we don’t know that prayer for humility, patience, grace, guidance, is what we really want, until we find ourselves coming to our knees day after day.

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I had a very interesting customer service experience today.

Not being very familiar with the service at Burberry, I had thought that High-End Retail Branding 101 and the education course on the Experience Imperative for high-end fashion retailers selling disproportionately priced objects-of-desire was so last decade, so to speak.  Apparently, it’s not. For some, the need is is very prevalent today, and the difference between brands that are profiting and brands that aren’t in this very grim economy is as clear as it is cold in Chicago today (so I hear, with the -40 degree windchill factor).

I’m not sure how certain companies think they can sell a handbag for $2,000, or a coat for $1,500, without selling the customer on the idea of the experience. This is the Experience of being an owner of a product from a certain fashion house with a distinct character. This ownership experience has three facets, somewhat like the Designer Fashion Trinity of High-end Retail Imperatives – customer service experience, quality experience, and exclusivity experience. They are all different but all inter-related, and all very necessary. For example, you can’t be high-end and charge $2,000 bucks a pop for a cowhide leather handbag studded with strange iron objects without having your sales associates being able to tell the story behind the bag, the inspiration behind the design and why it’s so significant. And make you feel special at the same time (and since you’re special and the bag is special, you are meant to be).

I’m a sucker for stories.

My husband always teases me about how all a sales associate needs to do is tell me some obscurely complex historic tradition of clinically purist craftsmanship practices dating back to some monestary-type exercise and my eyes will get wide and I will become entranced – and cha-ching! I’m sold. I purchased the Bottega Veneta Medium Cabat after my sales associate’s story about the limited nature of the items due to the deliberate and very careful crafting process of the basketweave strips of vegetable-dyed lambskin leather – something about how it takes two carefully-selected artisans two whole days to weave these long strips of dyed lambskin around a wooden mold. Okay, I can be a little overzealous at times when it comes to quality, but every girl loves to don on their shoulder a fantastic story.

And then there is customer service. I don’t believe that customer service is about being waited on hand-and-foot. Nor is it about being lavished with empty compliments and fake smiles. It’s about establishing a relationship that connects the customer with the brand, a shared passion for the products and a deep interest in the customer’s tastes. Eventually, these events will lead to the ultimate goal of customer service – not to sell a product, as I believe that with well-done brand marketing, a fashion brand and product should sell itself (if you don’t believe me, visit the Louis Vuitton store at South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa on a weekend afternoon, and you would think they were giving away tickets to Obama’s inauguration with all of the elbowing required to get to the back of the store to the counter when the flustered sales associate yells out your first name above the noise of the crowd, and as short middle-aged ladies shout, elbow, wedge and swim past bodies to compete for one of the 15 available aloof sales associates’ attention for assistance).

No, I believe the ultimate goal of customer service is to make the product accessible and effortless to purchase if you are one of the exclusive few who can afford it. Some people get it all wrong. They think it’s being lavished with niceties and being brought Evian on a tray and being followed so closely that one cannot help but try to suppress the desire to fake a left or a right. Customers just want to have clear and easy access to the products, and have their questions answered promptly and accurately. Sales mishigosh doesn’t work in this niche market, because the pitch that your Culligan agent tried when he brought in that large plastic tank filled with orange lava rock-looking specimens and turned your kitchen into a science lab to showcase your allegedly indisputable need for a water softener in order for your entire family to not die of some kind of dark and mysterious mineral-induced disease, does not work in a high-end retail store – because the fact of the matter is, nobody shops at Chanel or Bergdorf’s or Hermes because they have a need. They shop there because they can, and it because it makes them feel special. You can sell a need, but you can’t sell a want. That would be Marketing’s job. To develop a stirring Want, and then the true Yodas will transform that Want into a Need, all in your head. (Although, another great sales strategy is being able to sniff out woeful Wants, and remind these customers of their Wants).

Bottom line on my story of today – Burberry has some kind of obscure policy where charge-send purchases can only be made if the customer physically shows up at a store. Minus one for lack of access to the product. I drove four and a half hours (this was my stupidity) on a Friday afternoon to to the nearest outlet store so that I could place an order for an item I discovered two years ago at the boutique that I should have just purchased on the spot and had been kicking myself ever since. I was like the main character in one of those sappy romance movies where this guy sees this amazing woman in a used books store and decides not to approach her, and since then he searches all used book stores in case he might catch her again. Except in my case, I was making my husband look through racks, too. This past Black Friday, we stood in line outside of the Burberry outlet so we could elbow through the crowds and look for this long-lost recipient of love-at-first-sight. Thanks to my keen investigative and forensic specialties, I found the item on the East Coast, more than two years later, at an outlet store. So I went to my local outlet store to make the purchase. Except Burberry’s system is so last-century, that not only did they have to wait until the following day to place the order (“we can’t look it up in the system so we don’t know what the price would be,”) but the sales associate never placed the order the next day like she said she would. I had the East Coast store calling me, because they called my local store after I had told them I was on my way to place the charge send order, that they said they had no idea what he was referencing. It was probably the agonizing drive I was reminded of that made me so upset. I asked for the manager, because the sales associate who was handling my order on the local end clearly could not be accountable for one simple order. The manager called me, tone in annoyance (to my shock), and was not apologetic but dismissive of any responsibility as he had no knowledge of this order, until I started mentioning names of people from his corporate office. Okay, in a normal retail store, I would never do this. But I am a true believer in the Experience imperative somehow being tied into that very high price tag – if an inanimate, simple accessory is in the same price range as the Apple MacBook Air,  you have to expect that the Experience is part of the price tag. I was being jipped! This was my first-ever Burberry purchase, and I couldn’t help but realize why Burberry and Bottega Veneta have different price points.

They sell a different experience.