Life Cycle of a Coachie

#61
lizmil said:
I've noticed in my own experience & in discussions with a few other Coachies that we seem to follow certain growth pattern, I wonder if this is generally true.

  • ·We start out with a first visit or several early visits often & in my case to a Coach Factory store. We are a bit overwhelmed by all we see & maybe have some sticker shock.
  • ·We buy one or two things, usually lower priced, after much deliberation. We are amazed by the women (usually not men) we see buying things by the multiples & think, we will never be like that.
  • ·We continue with further visits and start to branch out into more expensive items and a higher quantity. Maybe we surf the internet & see intriguing pieces on e-bay or Coach.com.
  • ·If we entered the Coach maze recently we get hung up in a confusing worlds of coupon versus no coupon period which often results in a “buy-return –re-buy” pattern to take advantage of price reductions.
  • ·We start to get educated on the lingo & abbreviations of the land: “siggy” or signature, legacy, legacy lining, MFF, FP, inlaid , sateen , op art, embossed, pebbled, patent, tattersall, vachetta, fob, "deletes" and become budding experts on the care of leather products.
  • ·We speak of “apple-ing” something as a verb, and know what that means.
  • ·We start to notice we are tossing around our newfound vocabulary with friends and at the Coach stores often to the amazements of those particular SAs who know less about the product than we do. Seasoned SAs recognize the tell tale signs of a budding addict & take it in stride.
  • ·We find ourselves stalking stores, either Factory or FP for the latest & newest & get our names on lists for the same. We begin to be one of those women we vowed we would never become, flying around Factory stores with armfuls of purchases or potential purchase.
  • ·We drive long distances in search of our coveted finds, whereas before we would never have dreamed of doing such a thing for a purse, wallet or scarf.
  • ·We start to amass a “collection” & at some point begin to wonder if we will live long enough to use all our pretty things. During this phase we realize we have amassed a stockpile of receipts we must never lose or throw away, lest we wish to return an item.
  • ·We receive our credit card bills and again hit sticker shock. Did I really spend that much? But our purchases were 20 % off with half-off of that and then 20% off of that?
  • Corollary: we become math whizzes at taking percentages off of things in our heads. Who needs those little calculators anyway?
  • ·We start a weeding process of our collection, upgrading and refining our tastes as we are educated in the brand. Apply the vocab lessons learned about and knowledge learned from fellow Coachies in the internet world.
  • ·We start buying more expensive pieces, perhaps becoming quite fickle in the process. Yesterday’s beloved find is sacrificed for the love of the new today. We marvel at the marketing brilliance of the Coach return policy which liberally lets us return items purchased long ago as long as they have tags and receipts and are unused. We begin to wonder if there is an end to the cycle?
  • ·We see a calming place in sight on the horizon. We have thinned our collections and hope to truly enjoy them, getting off the acquisition merry go round; buying only an occasional piece here or there.
  • ·We have reached Coach adult hood.
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lizmil, you did a great job describing the lifecycle of a Coachie!
 
#62
Two years ago I didn't even know what a coach bag was until I stumbled into a lovely outlet store in Orlando. I took one look at a price tag and headed out the door empty handed. Well......about a month ago I was purse shopping at a local mall that had just opened up a new phase and lo and behold.....there was a shiny, new Coach store. I had no intention of buying anything from there...I just wanted to go look. I figured I was safe because I had just bought a new bag for winter (yes, I am...erm was one of those, one bag for winter and one for summer) and safe I was, until I spotted Brooke (the nasty little bag that started it all). Then the SA (get that, I'm learning shopping lingo now) tells me that part of the proceeds from the sales of the small quartz Brooke goes to support breast cancer awareness. I left the store without buying anything but for days later I still had visions of this stupid purse. I went from "I can't spend that kind of money on a purse" to "if I did buy it, part of the money would be going to a good cause". (finances aren't the issue here....it was just that I had never spent that much money on a bag in my entire lifetime....and I'm closer to 50 than I am to 40). Okay...so now I had justified the purchase. About a week and a half after the first sighting I scored!
Now my curiosity into higher end hand bags had been piqued and whilst innocently cruising the internet one night, from the safety of my home, I come across this evil purse forum thing and a bunch of evil members who cheer each other on whenever one of them procures a new item for their collection. I got sucked into the vortex quite easily. The following week I had to get one of those neat wristlet thingies everyone so dearly adores. That was the last of my concious purchases.....sort of. I was window shopping (from the inside) this past Saturday at Holt Renfrew when I spotted Brooke again. This time in a colour that was not at the coach store. It was a clay/grey with silver hardware and it was even more gorgeous than the quartz one I had on my arm. I accidentally bought it because it was the only one they had left. So I'm back at the Holt's store today looking for a bracelet and guess what? I accidentally bought a large saffron Maggie because a) I need a purse that will work in the summer too and b) there were only two left in their Canada wide inventory. Arrrrrrrrgghhhh!!!! Look what you people have done to me. And look at this:
 

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#64
Cheap_Tequila said:
Two years ago I didn't even know what a coach bag was until I stumbled into a lovely outlet store in Orlando. I took one look at a price tag and headed out the door empty handed. Well......about a month ago I was purse shopping at a local mall that had just opened up a new phase and lo and behold.....there was a shiny, new Coach store. I had no intention of buying anything from there...I just wanted to go look. I figured I was safe because I had just bought a new bag for winter (yes, I am...erm was one of those, one bag for winter and one for summer) and safe I was, until I spotted Brooke (the nasty little bag that started it all). Then the SA (get that, I'm learning shopping lingo now) tells me that part of the proceeds from the sales of the small quartz Brooke goes to support breast cancer awareness. I left the store without buying anything but for days later I still had visions of this stupid purse. I went from "I can't spend that kind of money on a purse" to "if I did buy it, part of the money would be going to a good cause". (finances aren't the issue here....it was just that I had never spent that much money on a bag in my entire lifetime....and I'm closer to 50 than I am to 40). Okay...so now I had justified the purchase. About a week and a half after the first sighting I scored!
Now my curiosity into higher end hand bags had been piqued and whilst innocently cruising the internet one night, from the safety of my home, I come across this evil purse forum thing and a bunch of evil members who cheer each other on whenever one of them procures a new item for their collection. I got sucked into the vortex quite easily. The following week I had to get one of those neat wristlet thingies everyone so dearly adores. That was the last of my concious purchases.....sort of. I was window shopping (from the inside) this past Saturday at Holt Renfrew when I spotted Brooke again. This time in a colour that was not at the coach store. It was a clay/grey with silver hardware and it was even more gorgeous than the quartz one I had on my arm. I accidentally bought it because it was the only one they had left. So I'm back at the Holt's store today looking for a bracelet and guess what? I accidentally bought a large saffron Maggie because a) I need a purse that will work in the summer too and b) there were only two left in their Canada wide inventory. Arrrrrrrrgghhhh!!!! Look what you people have done to me. And look at this:
Click to expand...
HI,
I love the picture of your Credit Card!!!! That looks like my bank card!!! LOL

Lynne :biggrin:
 
#65
I forgot to mention in my previous post that when I was shopping last night, I came across a pair of shoes that matched almost perfectly with the quartz bag......I accidentally bought those too.
 
#67
^^ I love the part about the evil tPF and the evil members cheering each other on. This is what happened to me too - I was looking at a bag to buy on the bay and the seller mentioned they were a member of tPF - that started my downward spiral into overzealous Coach buying.
 
#69
Cheap_Tequila said:
Two years ago I didn't even know what a coach bag was until I stumbled into a lovely outlet store in Orlando. I took one look at a price tag and headed out the door empty handed. Well......about a month ago I was purse shopping at a local mall that had just opened up a new phase and lo and behold.....there was a shiny, new Coach store. I had no intention of buying anything from there...I just wanted to go look. I figured I was safe because I had just bought a new bag for winter (yes, I am...erm was one of those, one bag for winter and one for summer) and safe I was, until I spotted Brooke (the nasty little bag that started it all). Then the SA (get that, I'm learning shopping lingo now) tells me that part of the proceeds from the sales of the small quartz Brooke goes to support breast cancer awareness. I left the store without buying anything but for days later I still had visions of this stupid purse. I went from "I can't spend that kind of money on a purse" to "if I did buy it, part of the money would be going to a good cause". (finances aren't the issue here....it was just that I had never spent that much money on a bag in my entire lifetime....and I'm closer to 50 than I am to 40). Okay...so now I had justified the purchase. About a week and a half after the first sighting I scored!
Now my curiosity into higher end hand bags had been piqued and whilst innocently cruising the internet one night, from the safety of my home, I come across this evil purse forum thing and a bunch of evil members who cheer each other on whenever one of them procures a new item for their collection. I got sucked into the vortex quite easily. The following week I had to get one of those neat wristlet thingies everyone so dearly adores. That was the last of my concious purchases.....sort of. I was window shopping (from the inside) this past Saturday at Holt Renfrew when I spotted Brooke again. This time in a colour that was not at the coach store. It was a clay/grey with silver hardware and it was even more gorgeous than the quartz one I had on my arm. I accidentally bought it because it was the only one they had left. So I'm back at the Holt's store today looking for a bracelet and guess what? I accidentally bought a large saffron Maggie because a) I need a purse that will work in the summer too and b) there were only two left in their Canada wide inventory. Arrrrrrrrgghhhh!!!! Look what you people have done to me. And look at this:
Click to expand...
I love your story of how you accidentally bought Coach, lol....:roflmfao::goodpost::welcome2:
 
#70
NewCoachQueen said:
Oh, you forgot the part where you've passed the disease on to someone else, and people in your life can now identify bags.
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:lol: Coach Insanity is hereditary; you can catch it from your children. At least, in my mother's case this is true. I'm really surprised by her love of Coach, because I always thought she'd think I was nuts if she knew the extent of my collection, and I own 31 Coach items, from handbags down to a jotter, with the bulk of my collection being wristlets. Oh, how I love their wristlets! :love:
 
#72
My daughter refused to be a Coachie and returned the bags I had given her. She said that it's my hobby, not hers. Oh well. My sister I tried to convert but she only likes her one Coach bag, a camel '07 legacy shoulder and her HS tattersall swingpack, and she's done. My sisters in law do not care about Coach, they like cheap bags. So I haven't successfully converted anyone, yet.
 
#73
oopsididitagain said:
Wow. That describes me all the way until the end of the cycle. I guess I am an adult Coachie now. I wonder what comes after the cycle completes, long after? The only thing it left out is my fed-up bouts where I want to get rid of them one day but the next day think I was crazy for thinking that and want to keep them all. Maybe I have a bit of my own schizophrenia mixed into the cycle. I liked the part where the seasoned SAs humor us when we think we know so much, they know we are just a Coach junkie. lol
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haha, the SAs know we're junkies............. that's too funny because i was recently referring the the SAs as my "dealers" since i needed to run to the outlet again to get my "fix".
 
#74
^hehe! I know my SAs think I'm a junkie, I go there often enough that they know I'm trying to get my fix again...They all recognize me. Even the ones at my farthest outlet in Primm, NV remember me. I don't like that really but what can anyone do about it. I think I'll wear a mustache and hat next time. lol! not.
 
#75
I've converted my mom, and she blames me for it about every other week or so. :smile: And actually my daughter converted me! We're all in on never letting my dad discover what Coach is really all about and how much they cost cuz he knows my mom has a ton of it and probably just figures it's regular priced stuff. (or else we're sure she would have really heard about it by now.)
 
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