"Gifts" from Cartier SAs
- Thread starter cateb
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Our wonderful SA sent my husband a super nice card and cufflinks for Father's Day!! He's the best
Sorry if this has already been answered, but I'm curious as to whether Cartier pays for these things and the SAs apply to give them, or if the SAs pay their own money to buy these gifts for their special clients?
All luxury stores generally have budget for gifting.
Gifts would be allocated to higher spending customers or customers with potential to spend.
I'm wondering who makes the decisions though: the store managers or the SAs? Some people say they spend a lot but their SA never or rarely sends them anything, while others say they get lots of gifts. I got a gift of perfume and all I bought was a $3,500 ring. Others seem to spend way more than that and get nothing.
Gifts are given on a discretionary basis so it goes to friendly customers. It depends a lot on the rapport you build with the sales person. I have gotten nice presents after getting watches and bracelets cleaned up and nothing when buying expensive pieces.
Same, I had a bottle of fizz and once a sample of perfumes. And we’ve spent (and continue to spend) loads.
I think gifting depends on personal rapport one builds with an SA. I live in a small city, no big boutiques here but almost every time I go into a store at different cities either to make a small purchase, get a hot stamp or drop off an item for repairs or polishing, I get small gifts/favors. I don't have an SA at any of these boutiques, so maybe that's why I don't get sent gifts on birthdays or holidays. I'm not a big spender either lol.
We have a great relationship with our SA, we banter, we hug, we have a great time visiting him! We've spent a lot (IMO) over the 4 short years we've been shopping with him. No real "gifts", not sure the algorithm 
Agree, but if a high spending client doesn’t get gifts, I think it could be a number of reasons:
1. An SA assumes a client already has so much swag already
2. An SA personally doesnt find the swag design appealing, and assumes the client won’t either
3. The culture of the particular store or the habit of the SA is not to give swag
4. There are some clients who demand swag, and the bulk of it goes to them
(Yes the store has a budget for this, but sometimes there are shortages or they run out)
or, alternatively,
5. The manager realizes there are a bunch of xxx in the back and tells the SAs to pass them out
6. Some gifts are done through corporate. I once was sent a bottle of average Prosecco for my birthday from a store
(Not Cartier) And my SA certainly didn’t do it, and didn’t even know about it. It never happened again.
I don’t think it’s a personal issue, as in, indicative of an SA’s appreciation for a clients custom.
If someone wanted to hint at swag, one could perhaps ask an SA if Cartier does xxx, bc you saw something nice at your friends house etc. or you saw your friend wear yyy or zzz at dinner the other night, and you didn’t even know Cartier produced these things.