I took my daughter to New York City this weekend to see a play and do some shopping. I was within a few blocks of the Madison Avenue Bottega Veneta store, so couldn't resist the temptation to walk up and see the new bags.
The store was virtually empty. There was one female customer looking semi-seriously at a bag, but she left within the first couple of minutes empty-handed. Other than that there was no one in the store except for the sales associates. Despite that, I was completely ignored by all of the SAs. Now, truth to tell, I was dressed like the tourist I was, including jeans and sneakers. However, I wasn't dressed at all grubbily -- the jeans were designer, my clothes were clean, and I was carrying a Balenciaga bag. Nonetheless, I couldn't get their attention AT ALL until I walked up to one and even then, he could not possibly have looked less interested in helping me. He answered my question about the color of a bag I was looking at (turbulence) and then walked away, forcing me to follow him to ask him an additional question. My second question was whether they had any cervo bags in stock, since the part of the store I was in seemed to have only nappa. He asked me what cervo was, and then said that of course the store did not have any deer skin bags. He looked positively aghast, as though I had asked him if they had bags made out of monkeys or something. I thanked him, and walked away to look at bags at the back of the store, and saw any number of cervo bags. At that point, I wouldn't have bought a bag if money had fallen out of the sky and landed on my head.
Anyway, just thought I'd vent. Not sure if this is a common experience, or if maybe this particular BV shop is snootier than most, but I found it utterly insulting, and incomprehensible in an environment in which SAs work on commission.
Sorry for the rant, but sheesh!
The store was virtually empty. There was one female customer looking semi-seriously at a bag, but she left within the first couple of minutes empty-handed. Other than that there was no one in the store except for the sales associates. Despite that, I was completely ignored by all of the SAs. Now, truth to tell, I was dressed like the tourist I was, including jeans and sneakers. However, I wasn't dressed at all grubbily -- the jeans were designer, my clothes were clean, and I was carrying a Balenciaga bag. Nonetheless, I couldn't get their attention AT ALL until I walked up to one and even then, he could not possibly have looked less interested in helping me. He answered my question about the color of a bag I was looking at (turbulence) and then walked away, forcing me to follow him to ask him an additional question. My second question was whether they had any cervo bags in stock, since the part of the store I was in seemed to have only nappa. He asked me what cervo was, and then said that of course the store did not have any deer skin bags. He looked positively aghast, as though I had asked him if they had bags made out of monkeys or something. I thanked him, and walked away to look at bags at the back of the store, and saw any number of cervo bags. At that point, I wouldn't have bought a bag if money had fallen out of the sky and landed on my head.
Anyway, just thought I'd vent. Not sure if this is a common experience, or if maybe this particular BV shop is snootier than most, but I found it utterly insulting, and incomprehensible in an environment in which SAs work on commission.
Sorry for the rant, but sheesh!
