Euopean snobbery

[esquire.]

This passage is from Underhill's latest book, Call of the Mall:

"How do you explain the particular fervor many Japanese have for high-end brands? It surpasses what we see even in the United States and Europe...They spend serious money on luxury products and have an almost mystical belief in their value."

"To senior executives at luxury good firms, the Japanese devotion to designer labels is a mixed blessing. The companies love the money- the Hermes and Louis Vuitton shops in Tokyo generate some of the largest sales-per-square-foor revenues of any retail location on Earth. A good Hallmark Gold Crown card store in an American mall may do $500-plus per square foot. A great Gap might do $700 a foot. A French or Italian luxury goods store in Tokyo brings in more than $7,000 a square foot."

"What worries the European luxury goods manufacturers is the degree to which their native customers react negatively to crowds of Japanese tourists filling the shops in Paris and Milan. To a European snob, there is something distinctly declasse about seeing your favorite bages getting on and off the tourist buses. Japanese customers are rights to suspect that some products are being deliberately withheald from stores that serve the Japanese market. Some high-end shops in Paris and Milan limit the number of bags they will sell the individual Japanese tourist, but will look the other way when a well-dressed European wants to make the same multiple purchase. Outside the Louis Vitton store off the Champs Elysee in Paris, Westerners are often approached by Japanese tourists asking if they will make thier purchases for them."

 

[stache]

Does racist behavior suprise anyone?

 

[Luc-Emmanuel]

purchase. Outside the Louis Vitton store off the Champs Elysee in Paris, Westerners are often approached by Japanese tourists asking if they will make thier purchases for them."

This is true, it happenned to me a few times when I was working near the Champs ElysÃ

e.

.luc

 

[Walter]

When I lived in Paris I have been approached by Japanese tourists for buying Louis Vuitton stuff.
I must say this gives a poor impression of a brand when loads of Japanese flock to a place to buy anything from that brand.

 

[Luc-Emmanuel]

Does racist behavior suprise anyone?

it's not racism, it's a sound commercial behaviour. Why do you think these japanese tourists buy 10 LV bags in Paris ? Do they really need 10 LV bags a peep ?
They will come back home and sell them. LV bags are more expensive in japan. LV just doesn't want to hurt its business in japan : plain and simple.
It's sort of like the "allowance" of great wines. You can only buy 12 bottles at the estate, if you want more you have to go retail and pay twice the price.

.luc

 

[ViroBono]

The same thing was reported to have happened at the London LV shop. Not, however, because of snobbery by the local populace, but because LV seem to think that a shop full of tourists will dent their exclusivity - usually the shop is full of Arabs, to whom the LV style appeals. I suspect they were surprised that 'ordinary' Japanese could actually afford their overpriced goods. The HermÃ

s shop, on the other hand, is always busy with lots of different people; this seems to be a LV thing.

Despite their attempts to maintain their exclusivity, LV (along with Burberry) is very much associated with 'chavs' in the UK, and any amount of counterfeit goods can be found in markets and on Ebay.

 

[Walter]

The same thing happens in trendy bars and clubs in Paris: rich Arabs are accepted because they will spend a lot,put they will be put on a side table, not too "visible" because they are far from "hip".
What is a "chav" ?

 

[hermes]

i was told by a salesperson at one of the hermes/LV/gucci stores, can't recall which, that the "limit" is because of resale - the thought and worry is that if a tourist comes in wanting to buy 10 of the same bag, it can't be for himself/herself but must be for resale

although in speaking with japanese people, it's usually because every relative wants a bag or something and the japanese culture dictates that they generally have to bring back some sort of gift

last month when i was at the gucci "the mall" outlet, i had never experienced such a frenzy with japanese tourists - they're usually very polite but this was like a mobscene, they were pushing each other (and other customers) and grabbing merchandise off the shelves and hoarding it not realizing that the stuff on the shelf was really just the display and that the clerks would retrieve more of an item

this one japanese man was purchasing the limit of 5 of everything that he could seemingly get his hands on and i was behind him in line at the checkout when his bill rang up at the obscene amount of EURO7,500.00ish ..........

a lot of relatives? perhaps

 

[STYLESTUDENT]

The HermÃ

s shop, on the other hand, is always busy with lots of different people; this seems to be a LV thing.

Despite their attempts to maintain their exclusivity, LV (along with Burberry) is very much associated with 'chavs' in the UK, and any amount of counterfeit goods can be found in markets and on Ebay.

As I mentioned in a previous post, EBay is jam-packed with fake Hermes ties and belts as well as LV. To me, that's a sign that the label or the characteristic logo (and not the quality of the goods) is the attraction. Perhaps Hermes will soon join LV monogrammed goods on the New York sidewalks and on Canal Street on week-ends. Said with regret as I do wear the Hermes ties.

 

[drizzt3117]

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.

 

[Lydia]

Not that I particularly hate the LV print, but I don't see how anyone could buy one of these bags when they realize that the entire female portion of China, from harlots to hairdressers, sports a fake version of it, and is hankering after the real version. Due to its popularity in China, this print is the single most typical print in the world. Where is personal style? Being proud of having the original has to be considered just slightly vulgar, because of those lovely, hyper status-conscious, Chinagirls.

 

[hermes]

at least hermes patrols ebay

hermes admitted in an article that they have a team of internet people who drop in on ebay weekly to check out the goods and notify ebay as to anything that is fake

from what i understand, ebay will remove any item that hermes contends is not authentic without question (likely for fear of being sued for partaking in the sale of counterfeit goods)

i believe the vast concentration of their time is spent on purses though and other high profile leather goods - ties would be relatively hard to authenticate from a picture unless it's a pattern they never produced

 

[drizzt3117]

For LV: http://www.mypoupette.com/ end of story.

 

[johnapril]

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

 

[hermes]

johnapril is correct in the sense that how much someone buys (assuming quantity and value) is no one's business but their own

however, in what i posted above, it does become my business when another customer makes a scene in a store because the store won't sell him 25 of the same wallet, but only 5, and that customer not only proceeds to tell the staff off because of it, loudly reminds them (and everyone else in the store) that he's already got a good E5000 in goods on the counter and that he's solely responsible for keeping them employed but then proceeds to approach the other customers (including me) to try to force them to buy 5 wallets each for him, it suddenly changes the dynamics

an extreme example, yes