Does Hermes Practice Sexism?

[pinkorchid20]

End of last year my significant other went to our local store to ask for a specific type of shoe as well as for a silver jewelry piece for his fiancée. As I never bring him to any store (paying myself, he would never gift me something that expensive), he was not a known face at that time. He actually met my SA and they got along quite well, exchanging thoughts on various leathers since he is highly interested in leather processing and leather qualities. Out of the blue, my SA asked him if he wanted to submit an SO as well as add a bag to his wishlist. Needless to say, he got his wishlist bag 4 months later after spending less than half of a Birkin while I had already spent nearly 5 times the amount of a Birkin without anything ever showing up after nearly 2 years at this particular store. I need to point out that I switched SAs end of last year (so the SA he met was my new one) and the lack of wishlist bags being offered might have been because of my previous SA trying to play games. I finally got my bag around the same as he did in March. However, to me this was enough evidence (I don’t categorize it as sexism but rather try to use those observations for my personal amusement).

 

[cerulean blue]

I have to agree that it's not an Hermes problem, but a society problem. I believe the disparity in the treatment of female vs male clients exists in other stores as well, not just luxury or fashion. Sexism is still very present in our society, but I believe it has become insidious like situations mentioned in this thread. I'm glad there's a thread to discuss these occurrences as they often get dismissed or forgotten with how covert they are though.

 

[Lilikay]

My DH doesn’t like H style, has never bought anything at H stores for himself and does have a profile with no purchase history except for the quota bags he buys me every year for my birthday. Now he even has a wishlist with the next bags “he wants” to buy.
No need to say he gets the best offers, despite the fact that I pay for my own purchases and all my SAs know

 

[jmen]

What I learnt today: I might need to rent a husband to get a B/K. LOL
No hope for us single ladies with free reign over our wallet.

I will lend you mine. Reminds me of when I was single and living in DC. I wanted to go to the Easter egg roll at the White House. When I called the WH, the woman said you need to be accompanied by a child. i asked if they had one I could rent for half a day.

 

[bindi178]

About 2 ago my sister's husband wanted to get her a Birkin for her birthday. He walked in, chatted with an SA and told them he wanted one for her birthday which was maybe 2 weeks later. About 5 days later, the SA texted him and offered him a B30 in etain with PHW. He had no prior purchase history, in fact, he never bought anything from the store prior. Meanwhile, I am over here (unmarried) trying to build a purchase history to be offered one. I feel everyone else's pain! Ill take a rent-a-husband as well! lol

 

[missbagwathi]

I will lend you mine. Reminds me of when I was single and living in DC. I wanted to go to the Easter egg roll at the White House. When I called the WH, the woman said you need to be accompanied by a child. i asked if they had one I could rent for half a day.

About 2 ago my sister's husband wanted to get her a Birkin for her birthday. He walked in, chatted with an SA and told them he wanted one for her birthday which was maybe 2 weeks later. About 5 days later, the SA texted him and offered him a B30 in etain with PHW. He had no prior purchase history, in fact, he never bought anything from the store prior. Meanwhile, I am over here (unmarried) trying to build a purchase history to be offered one. I feel everyone else's pain! Ill take a rent-a-husband as well! lol

Hahaha, maybe there’s an opportunity there. Rent-a-husband for Hermes Shopping!
I do think Hermes (and its employees) doesn’t just endorse/practise sexism but also racial profiling/stereotyping, here I thought Pretty Woman was 30 years ago!

 

[ce_1992]

About 2 ago my sister's husband wanted to get her a Birkin for her birthday. He walked in, chatted with an SA and told them he wanted one for her birthday which was maybe 2 weeks later. About 5 days later, the SA texted him and offered him a B30 in etain with PHW. He had no prior purchase history, in fact, he never bought anything from the store prior. Meanwhile, I am over here (unmarried) trying to build a purchase history to be offered one. I feel everyone else's pain! Ill take a rent-a-husband as well! lol

I told my boyfriend that if after a Year or so, I don’t get a quota bag offer I’m sending him in with my credit card to see if he can work some magic by stressing it’s an anniversary gift (the timing lines up decently enough)! I have faith my SA will take care of me eventually though especially since I want larger bags.

That’s crazy your Brother in Law got an AMAZING offer within 5 days of first stepping into the boutique. Etain Bs are a dream.

I do think it’s more about wanting to help make a surprise/gift happen than sexism. When I took my mom to my recent appointment I think her stressing that she wanted to treat me to a bag kind of made my SA want to offer more desirable options to me despite not being quota bags!

 

[Crazyaboutdembags]

Sexism for sure! My husband got offered bags a few times (no purchase history) when he said he wants to "buy a B/K for the wife for her birthday". But when I go (alone) and asks for anything, suddenly everything is "not available right now". I do feel like men who say they will purchase for their SO gets a better chance than a woman asking for the bags themselves. This also happened to my friends, who btw, actually make more than their husbands (not uncommon these days).

 

[frenchcitygirl]

End of last year my significant other went to our local store to ask for a specific type of shoe as well as for a silver jewelry piece for his fiancée. As I never bring him to any store (paying myself, he would never gift me something that expensive), he was not a known face at that time. He actually met my SA and they got along quite well, exchanging thoughts on various leathers since he is highly interested in leather processing and leather qualities. Out of the blue, my SA asked him if he wanted to submit an SO as well as add a bag to his wishlist. Needless to say, he got his wishlist bag 4 months later after spending less than half of a Birkin while I had already spent nearly 5 times the amount of a Birkin without anything ever showing up after nearly 2 years at this particular store. I need to point out that I switched SAs end of last year (so the SA he met was my new one) and the lack of wishlist bags being offered might have been because of my previous SA trying to play games. I finally got my bag around the same as he did in March. However, to me this was enough evidence (I don’t categorize it as sexism but rather try to use those observations for my personal amusement).

That's outrageous! Not so much that your significant other was able to place a SO with so little purchase history, but that you've spent 5x the amount of a Birkin with still no quota bags being offered to you in 2 years... I guess that your husband being lucky balances things out somewhat but you should also be offered a bag under your profile!

This is always why right after I score a quote bag, it takes me a little while to decide whether or not to start chasing the next bag.

Having just read this thread, I may send my husband in next time and pray that he can remember the names of the bags

 

[pinkorchid20]

That's outrageous! Not so much that your significant other was able to place a SO with so little purchase history, but that you've spent 5x the amount of a Birkin with still no quota bags being offered to you in 2 years... I guess that your husband being lucky balances things out somewhat but you should also be offered a bag under your profile!

This is always why right after I score a quote bag, it takes me a little while to decide whether or not to start chasing the next bag.

Having just read this thread, I may send my husband in next time and pray that he can remember the names of the bags

My store is a hard nut to crack and there is a lot of wealth as well as tourism where I am located, so you are competing with a large amount of customers spending a lot more than I do. My SA was good to me last year, but in general I would not agree that games are not being played in Europe as many claim.

 

[cravin]

Funny that I’ve never looked at it as sexist, but our relationship is mainly with me and not my wife. I agree with others that I think the SA’s like the romantic gesture of helping the man get the item for someone else.

 

[880]

Funny that I’ve never looked at it as sexist, but our relationship is mainly with me and not my wife. I agree with others that I think the SA’s like the romantic gesture of helping the man get the item for someone else.

agree with @cravin. i also think H SA enjoys when a couple shops together. DH and I like to shop in a single store with men’s ans women’s lines. Right now, that’s brunello cuchinelli. And, with covid boredom, we’re shopping quite a bit. When H Madison moves to the new location and combines men’s and women’s with home and jewelry under one roof, there is a good chance we will shop more.