lulalua mentioned a few replies above about Lora Piana being manufactured in a China factory. At this point who knows?
My professor told me Chanel bags are all made in China but assembled in Europe?
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Does everyone think Chanel's quality has decreased since largely being outsourced to asian factories? Maybe I'm in the minority but I don't think so. I think all brands have their problems at one point in time..apparently a large number of tpfers who own Birkin and kelly bags are experiencing skunk smells and are returning their coveted bags, which some have waited a long time for, to H France for an exchange (more waiting) or a refund (sadness). The H threads make it sound like everything is handcrafted in France so seems like everyone has quality issues at one point or another...
I'm more upset that C keeps increasing prices on us when I doubt their supplier and production costs have increased at the same rate. though, I hope they use factories that treat labor workers well.
I'm more upset that C keeps increasing prices on us when I doubt their supplier and production costs have increased at the same rate. though, I hope they use factories that treat labor workers well.
I can believe that since the article/interview was published in 2012. But more importantly in 2013 LVMH bought out Lora Piana and there's no company greedier then LVMH .
I never equated luxury with LVMH as pointed in Dana Thomas's book their production of LV handbags seemed like a production assembly line and even Gucci's production of handbags seemed more personal where one person would work on 1 bag from start to finish.
I don't enjoy agreeing with Kanye West but when it comes to Louis Vuitton I have to agree they charge way too much for what they offer. They always seem to lower their quality while increasing their prices.In addition Hermes has insinuated more then once that LVMH doesn't do luxury. So no surprise they bring that same low cost model attitude to Lora Piana.
Aside from the Caviar leather, I think Chanel has done a good job of maintaining their quality standards.
I don't think relocating to Asian factories would lead to a decrease in quality.
It's just perception as in the 70's people used to refer to Made in Japan as low quality and then it switched, with more innovations coming from Japan, to Made in Japan representing quality
.
Any decrease in quality would come more from a lack of oversight and supervision.
Chanel price increases are ridiculous and unjustified especially for the classic flaps and refurbishment/repair costs.
Thats such a sad article.
Yeah, I am sorry for posting such a downer but I think that it's important for consumers of these goods to know about the industry that produces them.
From the point of view of a marketing major, it's us consumers that allow Chanel and all other high-end brands to continue ridiculously jacking up the prices for cheaply made bags because we CONTINUE to buy them. We can not be naive and say that these bags are all hand-made in France/Italy because it simply is not true. They are a business and as any business would do, they will find any way possible to increase their profit margin if customers are still purchasing and the demand is high.
Realistically, all of us are not paying $6000+ for a bag just because it's "great quality" because you definitely can get "great quality" bags for 1/50 of the price. We are paying these prices for the BRANDING, and Chanel and Karl Lagerfeld has done darn well with their branding for women to want to continue buying these bags for the amount of car down payments. You will never get them to stop the ridiculous price increases on their cheaply-made products unless we stop buying from Chanel...but will that really happen?
Well said. I'm definitely guilty for being a sucker to their marketing tactics.
It's not the relocation in and of itself that results in decreasing quality. In the case of workers, they may go from being paid a salary to being paid by the number of pieces they complete. This would result in the worker doing their best to pump out the highest quantity (not quality) of pieces to attain the higher rate, and eventually there is an expectation that the high rate of production becomes the norm. When you cut costs with an eye only to make as much profit as you can, quality does suffer.
For raw materials, perhaps the shift also is to cheaper skins that are locally available, rather than quality skins as previously. There is also an expectation to get as many cuts from those skins as possible, even if that results in a less than optimum piece being cut. Waste is seen as money, and in a highly competitive or a highly greedy environment, waste is not tolerated. I don't think the quality decreases come from a lack of oversight or supervision, but rather from the direct oversight rules of increased production at the cost of quality. This is a high management decision.
Chanel prices are pretty darn close to their tipping point, and as more people notice quality issues (again, look how many threads are started each week about poorly stitched this, or unglued that or faulty lock here, etc.), people are starting or increasing to wonder how much they will take before it's too much. The price increases are not justified by raw materials, labor costs, or even marketing/advertising budgets. The high costs are because they can.
Yes her factory is in the north part of China (Xinjiang, Neimenggu etc) where there are large farms and it's fairly direct to get the raw materials (not sure if it's dedicated farms or not though). This is also the major source of domestic high-end cashmere/wool products in China. Her factory makes the actual scarf/stoles, and she maintains contracts with not just loro but many other foreign companies... Of course it's strictly prohibited to make/sell extras off the book...all defective products have to be destroyed etc. It's just not worth it to do it.
In relation to a later post, regarding the AAA fakes, they couldn't have come from these large-scale factories, regardless of what the seller tells you, for exactly the same reason. For smaller brands it's possible (although still illegal and quite rare). I've seen such 'leaks' of equipment silk shirts, and tory burch handbags..for example. They were the same things you buy from legit channels...
I am picking up a bag on saturday at Saks and I will ask.
I wonder what a SA would say if we asked them directly when buying a bag?
At risk compensation is a term used for commission plus base - meaning a significant portion is "at risk" based on several factors such as: economic factors - is the brand being consumed/demand, are they developing relationships and spending time with the right customers that buy the product from them, are they cultivating those relationships to maximize as many transactions as possible , are they successful etc.
So any and all of those factors make up the at risk portion of this compensation- so let's say there's a insatiable collection and it is a complete sell out, the over all cost for the brand increased as well as sales, which with good efficiencies most likely increased profit, BUT now demand has increased and here we go another price increase etc...
An SA told me they get calls from everywhere all day long from people that just waste their time with questions... My response - if the brand would make basic info available on their web site or more people knew about TPF they would get the calls they want from people ready to buy.
HTH
Thanks for the info South Beach! I can't believe that an SA said outloud that many people who call are time wasters! That's incredulous.
Good customer service includes answering calls from custoners who are curious about inventory, stock, etc. One just never knows how loyal a customer can be or how much that custoner may spend,if they don't "waste their time" with that someone. Same goes for in person custoners to the shop. One just never knows.
I pop into the Cartier store once in a while to try on the watch I'm saving for...let's say it isn't cheap and is 5 figures. If the SA thinks I'm wasting his time then I'm happy to take my business (including the commission he would've gotten) elsewhere.
Anyway thanks south beach for your insight!
Good customer service includes answering calls from custoners who are curious about inventory, stock, etc. One just never knows how loyal a customer can be or how much that custoner may spend,if they don't "waste their time" with that someone. Same goes for in person custoners to the shop. One just never knows.
I pop into the Cartier store once in a while to try on the watch I'm saving for...let's say it isn't cheap and is 5 figures. If the SA thinks I'm wasting his time then I'm happy to take my business (including the commission he would've gotten) elsewhere.
Anyway thanks south beach for your insight!
In other words, working on commission...
SAs shouldn't be complaining about wasting time with potential clients (everybody is a potential client
); answering questions (politely) about their products is an important part of their job IMO.I commented on South Beach's post before reading this. Totally agree, calling 'time wasters' to potential clients shows a tremendous lack of education that should be unacceptable at stores like Chanel.