Euopean snobbery

How much someone buys is really none of anyone's business but their own, hmm?

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It is also an issue when you have limited quantities of each product available (purposely) and some products are limited edition, and you prefer that people not buy all of these products for speculative purposes as well (i.e. cherry blossom bag last year)

How much someone buys is really none of anyone's business but their own, hmm?

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well, I face the problem from a slightly different perspective - it is not uncommon for my distributors to work very hard at getting into a specific market and then, when they assume that they can enjoy the fruits of their labor, they find that somebody is importing my product from another country where the distributor has a better price, allowing the non-official distributor to undercut his prices and hurt his profit.

a manufacturer has the right to try to control the movement of his products around the world, if it will affect his markets.

i have several Japanese people buy from me for resale. obviously i like this b/c it moves goods and they have a channel to make money. just recently i picked up 2 new japanese resellers and they only buy certain brands, no doubt

Japanese customers are rights to suspect that some products are being deliberately withheald from stores that serve the Japanese market.

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Why would LV do this if not to artificially inflate their exclusivity? I really can't blame those asian customers for overreacting in stores when LV refuses to sell some of their merchandaise in their asian markets. And, excluding outlets, everybody seems to be implying that the prices are much lower than those in asia. Even accounting for higher rents in Tokyo and possible import taxes, is there a legitimate reason for the different prices, vis a vis Europe to Asia.

Everybody talks about all the fake LV merchandaise in China. Is this also true in Japan, or will the Japanese not buy it unless its the real deal?

Personally, I wouldn't want to support anybody that would try to treat me as a second class citizen. Then again, some people don't want to belong to a club that would accept them as a member.

A producer has the right to sell the quantity he wants to his customer. Business is a 2-way relationship.
And the customer has the right to resell anything a product a producer agreed to sell him. It is now his.

Japanese are fanatical about products being real, I imagine most of them wouldn't use fakes, of course there are some exceptions.

The "Japanese asking an autochthon to buy Vuitton for them" has made it to contemporary French literature:

Finalement elle dessina les gens dans la queue, le toit du Grand Palais et l'escalier du Petit. Une Japonaise l'aborda en la suppliant d'aller lui acheter un sac chez Vuitton. Elle lui tendait quatre billets de cinq cents euros et se trà moussait comme si c'à tait une question de vie ou de mort. Camille à carta les bras :

"Look... Look at me... I am too dirty..." Elle lui dà signait ses croquenots, son jean trop large, son gros pull de camionneur, son à charpe insensà e et la capote militaire que Philibert lui avait prêtà e... "They won't let me go in the shop..." La fille grimaça, remballa ses billets et accosta quelqu'un d'autre dix mètres plus loin.

Anna Gavalda, Ensemble, c'est tout, 2004


Basically, a Japanese woman asks a French woman to go buy a bag for her in a LV store, the French woman refuses because she feels she isn't presentable.

I think I am misunderstanding.. I see two different issues here:

Employees not selling *anything* to a person who is Japanese, because they have a maximum number they will sell to Japanese per day?

A maximum amount buyable for a product, and this affects Japanese the most because often they come in to buy many duplicates of the same item? However, should a French woman want to buy 29 LV bags, she would be limited only to 5 as well.

If it's the latter, then I see nothing wrong with it at all, because it is putting a dent in the reputation of your brand and you have a right to do your best to control that reputation. If you're paying a ton of money for a product, you don't want people to think that they're so mass produced that you can just come in and hoarde them like you're buying for your kids soccer team. I don't see how this is racist.

If it is the former, however, I'll have to make it a point not to be purchasing from a racist company (although it is seemingly avoidable considering LVMH owns nearly every high end designer Im interested in).

It doesn't sound like LV dislikes the Japanese, in fact I'm sure they like them very much. Their limit is imposed strictly to prevent the export of their products to Japan where they will be sold cheaper than the prices in the LV retail stores.

It doesn't sound like LV dislikes the Japanese, in fact I'm sure they like them very much.  Their limit is imposed strictly to prevent the export of their products to Japan where they will be sold cheaper than the prices in the LV retail stores.

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Yup, I think this is just a logical policy.

Yes, but why are the LVH merchendaise sold in Japan so much more expensive there than in Japan? It sounds like if a european customer wanted to buy as many items, nobody would enforce this rule. This european male could just as easily try to sell these items online to the japanese market, and sell the items cheaper than the LVH stores in Japan as well.

Yes, but why are the LVH merchendaise sold in Japan so much more expensive there than in Japan? It sounds like if a european customer wanted to buy as many items, nobody would enforce this rule. This european male could just as easily try to sell these items online to the japanese market, and sell the items cheaper than the LVH stores in Japan as well.

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Basically, this European (fe)male doesn't purchase 25 of the same items at a LV shop. From what I gather this is mainly tourist behaviour (whether or not they are Japanese I don't know).

I imagine that if I (a European male) would try to buy 25, or even 10 of the same items they would ask me why at least.

If you ever want to see this phenemenon in person, stop by South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa on a weekday.  Japanese tourists come here in packs (they have packages just for shopping in Japan to come to Orange County for two things, Disney, and South Coast)  I read that the mall does about 210M in sales per year just to Japanese tourists... which is obscene.  On weekdays, they just swarm to the LV, Gucci, etc... and buy tens of thousands of dollars of goods at a time.

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Another place I was surprised to see this was at UCLA. Busses of Japanese tourists stopping by to stroll the campus and shop in Ackerman (the student union). I don't see it as much anymore. In the '80s and early '90s, the department signs ("clothing," "stationery&quot were printed in Japanese and Chinese, as well as English.

Yes, but why are the LVH merchendaise sold in Japan so much more expensive there than in Japan? It sounds like if a european customer wanted to buy as many items, nobody would enforce this rule. This european male could just as easily try to sell these items online to the japanese market, and sell the items cheaper than the LVH stores in Japan as well.

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LV stuff is cheaper in France than anywhere in the world afaik. I purchased my wallet there for 95 Euro (when the Euro was 1E=$1.1US) and the same wallet was $185 in the LV store in South Coast Plaza. For reference, the same wallet in Honolulu (which is part of LV Asia/Pacific) is US $205 (but no sales tax in Hawaii)

Another place I was surprised to see this was at UCLA. Busses of Japanese tourists stopping by to stroll the campus and shop in Ackerman (the student union). I don't see it as much anymore. In the '80s and early '90s, the department signs ("clothing," "stationery") were printed in Japanese and Chinese, as well as English.

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Two reasons jump out at me for this kind of bulk shopping, be it LV purses or UCLA sweatshirts: 1. omiyage. Japanese travellers bring back souvenirs for all of their close friends and relatives, which adds up to a lot of purchases, especially things like the UCLA sweatshirts that are not tremendously expensive and have brand recognition back in Japan. 2. Purchases for friends. I don't think it is uncommon (in any culture) to ask a friend going overseas to buy things for you (provided you pay them back). I've asked people heading to Japan to buy me particular electronics, people heading to Singapore to buy me watches, etc. This is actually the most likely source of any "resale" intentions, as I can easily picture an OL buying a bunch of bags then selling them to coworkers at cost or cost plus a token markup.