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.
- ·[FONT="] [/FONT]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.
- ·[FONT="] [/FONT]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.
- ·[FONT="] [/FONT]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.
- ·[FONT="] [/FONT]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.
- ·[FONT="] [/FONT]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.
- ·[FONT="] [/FONT]We speak of “apple-ing” something as a verb, and know what that means.
- ·[FONT="] [/FONT]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.
- ·[FONT="] [/FONT]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.
- ·[FONT="] [/FONT]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.
- ·[FONT="] [/FONT]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.
- ·[FONT="] [/FONT]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?
- ·[FONT="] [/FONT]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.
- ·[FONT="] [/FONT]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?
- ·[FONT="] [/FONT]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.
- ·[FONT="] [/FONT]We have reached Coach adult hood.
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