Coach wants to be the American Louis Vuitton...

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#76
CoachMaven said:
Correct me if I am wrong here, but I see the comment of price increases. Now, I get that the lower price pointed bags are now mostly crossgrain and signature, but $500-800 bags were common even in the 2000's. I know this because I own/ed some. They were the pinnacle lines, some were even over $1000. Edie bags, which are similar to the former Maggie are still priced about the same as they used to be, and before the classics left, their prices had never really increased from the late 90's/2000's. Am I missing something here, or is it because we are just so used to how fast the timeline has now increased from full priced to outlet? I know that frustrates me more than increases.
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Good points. And I'd say the timeline from fp to outlet has been a nice improvement on their part (due primarily to the semi-annual sales of course, but still). Most of those Dakotas from autumn 2014 did not reach semi-annual til June/July 2015, and now only hit the FOS within recent weeks. I'm genuinely impressed by that ... never thought it would happen ... and I think that will improve many opinions of buying at boutique. :smile1:

I'll also say that there *has* been some improvements to the leather. That Dakotah leather, and now the leather on the Shadows, is just wonderful imho. Last weekend, I stood there feeling up a black Shadow, then came home and felt up some LV empreinte. In all honesty, I thought the Shadow's leather was just as nice ... just as thick, just as uniform, and smelled just as good (if not better). So either my leather senses are not nearly as refined as I'd hoped, or Coach actually has seriously stepped up their leather. I'm not kidding when I say the Shadow leather "seemed" every bit as luxurious as the empreinte. And yes, I have a Shadow on its way to me already. :graucho: (Given the irony of that statement, on a thread with this title, I'll now duck, just in case an LV lightening bolt is headed my way. ;) )
 
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#77
lilpursekitty said:
I appreciate the commentary on this thread! I have been a Coach lover for a decade and the latest direction that the company seems to be taking really confuses me. I think some of the fall bags are lovely, but the prices have jumped substantially and they don't seem different to me than previous seasons. I mean, different styles, but still trendy, middle market bags. Don't get me wrong, I like Coach bags and fully support people who buy them. Most of my bags are Coach. But at $500-600, I tend to think twice about the new bags. I also feel sort of burned over the Boroughs showing up so cheap at the FOS. I have a couple of Boroughs (one I got on sale and one not) that I could have paid in the $150 range for a few months later. I feel like today's $600 bag is literally tomorrow's $150 bag. Sure, luxury brands discount too, but not as quickly and not to the extremes Coach does. I almost liked Coach better several years back when I had less disposable income and had to bargain hunt. Now that I can buy retail if I want, I feel like I am getting duped sometimes.
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This. I also hate it when brands constantly have a discount every day of the week (Banana Republic comes to mind) where it is completely useless to even look at the full price items since the next month they would be on the sale rack. Many of the contemporary purse brands do this (Coach, MK, etc). There is honestly no point to look at full price anymore...
 
#78
applecidered said:
This. I also hate it when brands constantly have a discount every day of the week (Banana Republic comes to mind) where it is completely useless to even look at the full price items since the next month they would be on the sale rack. Many of the contemporary purse brands do this (Coach, MK, etc). There is honestly no point to look at full price anymore...
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IME MK does not do this, it was very difficult to find a bag on sale, even moreso in person(boutiques)

ETA; Department stores do not sell MK here so they are not subject to those discounts.
 
#79
HesitantShopper said:
IME MK does not do this, it was very difficult to find a bag on sale, even moreso in person(boutiques)

ETA; Department stores do not sell MK here so they are not subject to those discounts.
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At the MK stores I've been to, there is a sale section in the back of the store. I've never not seen it stocked with sale bags, which are final sale, even when they aren't even 50% off. It is hard to find certain styles on sale. I waited for a few months for the laptop bag my daughter wanted to go on sale but eventually had to buy it for FP from the website.

There is a sale section on their website. I keep getting emails saying new merchandise has been added.
 
#81
whateve said:
At the MK stores I've been to, there is a sale section in the back of the store. I've never not seen it stocked with sale bags, which are final sale, even when they aren't even 50% off. It is hard to find certain styles on sale. I waited for a few months for the laptop bag my daughter wanted to go on sale but eventually had to buy it for FP from the website.

There is a sale section on their website. I keep getting emails saying new merchandise has been added.
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My boutique has this wee table that goes up & down lol today it was gone and has been for a few weeks, rarely has much... and as you said often not reaching into the 50% off discount.

The sales section on the website for my country is very lacking, and items are gone in a flash..
 
#82
applecidered said:
I currently see some MK on sale online at nordstrom, macy's, etc. MK has sales as frequently as coach does!
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As i said no department stores here sell them, Nordstorms might that is either open or about to this year but for my country it's their factory stores or the boutiques that have a very small selection of sale items, online is actually worse and items are gone extremely quickly.

Much, much easier to buy Coach here on sale... as i said in my experience.. MK is not marked down like Coach... as of today their is not a single sale bag in my MK boutique or online, the Coach factory store i go too most certainly has something from the retail stores on discount. ;)
 
#83
HesitantShopper said:
As i said no department stores here sell them, Nordstorms might that is either open or about to this year but for my country it's their factory stores or the boutiques that have a very small selection of sale items, online is actually worse and items are gone extremely quickly.

Much, much easier to buy Coach here on sale... as i said in my experience.. MK is not marked down like Coach... as of today their is not a single sale bag in my MK boutique or online, the Coach factory store i go too most certainly has something from the retail stores on discount. ;)
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Point taken. But if you really want MK on sale, online is probably your best bet :)
 
#85
momtok said:
Good points. And I'd say the timeline from fp to outlet has been a nice improvement on their part (due primarily to the semi-annual sales of course, but still). Most of those Dakotas from autumn 2014 did not reach semi-annual til June/July 2015, and now only hit the FOS within recent weeks. I'm genuinely impressed by that ... never thought it would happen ... and I think that will improve many opinions of buying at boutique. :smile1:

I'll also say that there *has* been some improvements to the leather. That Dakotah leather, and now the leather on the Shadows, is just wonderful imho. Last weekend, I stood there feeling up a black Shadow, then came home and felt up some LV empreinte. In all honesty, I thought the Shadow's leather was just as nice ... just as thick, just as uniform, and smelled just as good (if not better). So either my leather senses are not nearly as refined as I'd hoped, or Coach actually has seriously stepped up their leather. I'm not kidding when I say the Shadow leather "seemed" every bit as luxurious as the empreinte. And yes, I have a Shadow on its way to me already. :graucho: (Given the irony of that statement, on a thread with this title, I'll now duck, just in case an LV lightening bolt is headed my way. ;) )
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h o

I think both of you are on target. I stopped in today to look at the Ace and the Nomad which are both beautiful bags and the leather is excellent. I was carrying a Mulberry and a shopper asked my opinion of the quality of these two bags and the Shadow as well. She, by the way, was carrying a YSL and it was lovely. I told her if you took the brand name off the Nomad or Ace or Shadow and mixed it in with high end designer bags it would be impossible to tell the difference. She agreed, so yes I believe the leather quality has improved. I did not purchase anything because I have an invitation to the Wednesday event. She purchased the last Nomad in the saddle color and it was the last one in the store. They haven't even lasted to the event. It was her first Coach purchase ever.
 
#86
momtok said:
Good points. And I'd say the timeline from fp to outlet has been a nice improvement on their part (due primarily to the semi-annual sales of course, but still). Most of those Dakotas from autumn 2014 did not reach semi-annual til June/July 2015, and now only hit the FOS within recent weeks. I'm genuinely impressed by that ... never thought it would happen ... and I think that will improve many opinions of buying at boutique. :smile1:

I'll also say that there *has* been some improvements to the leather. That Dakotah leather, and now the leather on the Shadows, is just wonderful imho. Last weekend, I stood there feeling up a black Shadow, then came home and felt up some LV empreinte. In all honesty, I thought the Shadow's leather was just as nice ... just as thick, just as uniform, and smelled just as good (if not better). So either my leather senses are not nearly as refined as I'd hoped, or Coach actually has seriously stepped up their leather. I'm not kidding when I say the Shadow leather "seemed" every bit as luxurious as the empreinte. And yes, I have a Shadow on its way to me already. :graucho: (Given the irony of that statement, on a thread with this title, I'll now duck, just in case an LV lightening bolt is headed my way. ;) )
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I agree. The quality in my opinion has begun to really improve.

I have been buying Coach for many, many, many years. I also own MK, LV, Chanel etc. etc. I have several high-priced Coach bags as well. I love all of my bags, but Coach still is my favorite in terms of leather bags. Quality of the leather can still be hit or miss, particularly at the lower price points, but lately it has been totally impressive.

I still love LV and have been lusting over some other premier brand bags, but apples to apples, the quality of the leather is often nicer at their $600 price point than the $1,000 price point for other brands.

I am one of the rare ones that think Coach can do this. They are stepping outside of the box with some of their designs and building on the shapes and styles that defined the brand. I love that!! The higher price points actually make sense. I takes them out of the MK/KS/TB market yet they can produce bags that fill that $700/$1000 market.
 
#87
lcaddict said:
they need to close 80% of their outlets, make better products (quality not quantity), and slowly, very slowly markup their prices and discontinue lower priced items. They also need to better differentiate their mff vs boutique products. Why would i spend so much money on boutique products when i could just grab a cheaper bag from the outlet and no one could tell the difference?
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+1
 
#88
I have minimal experience at best with Coach since I often find myself confused with the company's products and direction if that makes any sense? I know that many years ago Coach was infamous for its high quality leather goods that were made in America, but today I see the brand as...I don't want to say cheap, because that is not accurate, but maybe too spread out or saturated if you know what I mean?
IMHO, and it's just that, Coach should carefully re-evaluate what it is that makes Coach Coach and not just some other brand. Maybe they could consider:

1. Moving their production out of China and back to America
2. Focus on creating or re-introducing a classics line - the bags that make them Coach and that they are infamous for, like how LV has its Speedy
3. Focus on quality and not quantity - so maybe reducing the number of styles introduced each season and the number of bags for each style
4. Lose the outlets and the made for outlet bags - sorry, but that does weaken the brand name
5. Reduce the frequency of sales - it does bother me that I would pay full price for a bag only to see it go on sale or to the outlet literally a week later:mad:

The major downside to those ideas I just listed is that the brand could, and most likely would, lose some of its loyal customers in the attempt to improve its image to where it wants to be...in the dirty world of business there is the saying "you can't get bigger and better without some growing pains":nogood:
 
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#89
I just came from my local coach store and my SA was telling me about the plan that coach has to decrease the amount of merchandise that department stores can carry. Has anyone else heard about this? If this is true then it would cut back on the issue of a bag not being on sale at FP but 25% off at Macy's down the way.
 
#90
abwd said:
I am one of the rare ones that think Coach can do this. They are stepping outside of the box with some of their designs and building on the shapes and styles that defined the brand. I love that!! The higher price points actually make sense. I takes them out of the MK/KS/TB market yet they can produce bags that fill that $700/$1000 market.
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I agree that Coach can do this, and I am sincerely hoping they succeed. I am loving the new direction. The designs for the last few seasons have really covered all the bases from classic/streamlined/minimalist to edgy/unexpected, and yet somehow the collections have felt coherent.

I'm also very excited to see what happens with Coach 1941 (the new premium line including lots of RTW).
 
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