Back when I worked at Hecht's, I had a friend named Thi, who was a manager there. We had lost touch after I left, but I ran into him in 2002, and he was working for Louis Vuitton. I had seen their various bags before, but had never given a thought to ever owning any of their pieces. However, with the salesmanship of my friend, he convinced me that $195 was a perfectly reasonable price to pay for a wallet. So on July 4th, I purchased it.
I must say that the wallet has treated me well in the past six years. It has been dropped, thrown on a shelf, smooshed into pockets, had Diet Coke spilled on it, and it still looks new. So I cannot complain about the quality. However, Thi created a monster when it comes to Louis Vuitton accessories.
In December of that year, I bought my first bag from them. It was a men's clutch bag, followed a month later by a key fob. It began to get to the point that every so often, I would get itchy drawers for a new bag. This happened recently once again. I had been ogling a certain murse for about two years, and last week I decided to get it. I am not feeling buyer's remorse at all, even though the retail price for this bag was insane.
This brings us to the "hate" aspect of my love/hate relationship with Louis Vuitton: their business model. Louis Vuitton products never go on sale. And if you are thinking about buying anything from them, the best time to buy it is today. Not only will they never go on sale, but they raise their prices every so often, for no other reason besides the fact that they can.
So everything I have bought at Louis Vuitton is far more expensive, to the point that the clutch bag is nearly twice as much as it was in 2002. For the EXACT SAME PRODUCT. Basically, the bag I bought last week was one price hike away from my never getting it. So that was the ultimate rationalization as far as buying it was concerned. I'm glad I have enough sense not to buy too many things from there. But what is weird is that even in this economy, people were still lined up at the Louis Vuitton boutique to buy bags like they were buying milk.
Now, here are the usual statistics for my blog entries: I have eaten 1700 or fewer calories during the last two days, in the hopes of offsetting my weekend. I went to see Justin for his dinner break last night, and got home late. I work the late shift tomorrow, and I am not looking forward to it. But I will do what I have to do: get there early and walk before I start work.
Justin's little dog Lucy had to undergo surgery yesterday. Even though she is five years old, Justin and his parents never went and had her spayed. She wasn't feeling well, and it turned out that she had an infected uterus. So she had to get spayed under less than ideal circumstances. Justin hasn't given me any news about it, so hopefully she will be okay. I will be thinking good thoughts for her.
Eric Out.
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