Warning: story time, long post alert!
I am about 2 years into my Hermes collecting, and have not visited the Hermes Paris stores before. My home store is NBS London. We’ve been to Paris 3 times, we’ve done all the sights and we live in the UK so we are only over the water.
A long time lurker on the thread, absorbing information on here like a sponge, I thought I’d give update for visiting on 5th Aug. We were in town for the Olympics and had a day for shopping before flying back in the late evening. We went to Serves at around 12:30pm, surprisingly the store was very quiet. I approached someone at the main desk for help with RTW and shoes, we waited about 30 mins to be seen by a lovely SA but no luck in finding my items. I asked why it was so quiet during the peak summer season and he said ‘I think everyone is at the Olympics.’ I asked him about a leather appointment and he said he couldn’t help but to try at the desk anyway. Summoning up the courage I approached a female SA. Now I wasn’t after a quota bag here *key point, but after reading this forum and speaking with my SA for advice, I clearly stated that I was after a Mini Evelyne in a brighter colour (ushering towards the caban coloured one I was already wearing) or a Mini Lindy. I didn’t ask for an appointment cancellation, but I was clear in what I asked for and what colours I was looking for. My UK SA had told me they hate it when customers are brief in their request, if you want an item tell them exactly what you’re after and the colour you want. I was then told ‘We should be able to squeeze you in!’ I gasped, I couldn’t believe I managed to get an appointment! I was told to wait and about 20 mins later I was greeted by an SA who asked me what I was looking for. I told him a ME in any type of green in any hw or a ML in a dark colour. He shook his head when I said ML, so that was out of the question. He went anyway and we waited for around 5 mins before he returned with a box. Unfortunately it wasn’t a green I liked, Sage, so he went to check again. He then came back with a Blue Jeans ME, it was lovely, but not for me. He then said, “These appointments are rare, is there any other bags you might be interested in?” I said “Not at the moment, I have my wishlist in the UK,” he then said “I will check and see if we have any green bags.” He wasn’t being pushy he just wanted me to be happy with an item he was bringing out. He then brought out a Vert Yucca In the Loop with ghw and I said “I barely use my Cargo Picotin, so as lovely as it is, it’s a no.” I left empty handed but I am not chucking money at something I don’t love and he respected my decision. I did ask for his contact details but was politely rejected, worth a try! Serves was a lovely store, all the staff were really polite and welcoming. The atmosphere was very pleasant. I felt that the store was probably more for the locals? As we left it was starting to pick up but I thoroughly enjoyed my experience even if I didn’t find anything.
Round 2: FSH, we got to FSH at around 3pm, it was definitely buzzing with tourists (like myself). It was my first time there so it was difficult navigating where things were. There seemed to be a lot of SA’s standing around in groups talking amongst themselves and not serving customers. The store was a completely different atmosphere to Serves, a tourist (again like myself!) hotspot. Once I managed to flag an SA down I explained that I had online orders to pick up and that I was interested in RTW and shoes. She explained to me that there’s a team in each department that can assist me and that once I’d finished I could come back to her and pick up my orders. So off I went, I breezed past the leather desk to get the ‘feels’ of the store. The way people talk about this leather desk on this forum: I imagined it to be an opulent desk with wood carvings or something, but this was just a simple wooden plinth in the middle of the mens/ women’s bag display! Three SA’s were crowded around it, not many customers were going up to the group but at this point I was just going to browse first before approaching. I also wanted to be sure that was the leather desk before I made myself look like a complete fool! I went up to the ladies shoes section and RTW, no joy, the SA’s (in both departments) seemed a little disinterested. So then I decided to approach the leather desk. The lady in front of me had just been rejected so I didn’t have much hope. One of the female SA’s looked at me knowing I was next in line. Again I used the same tactic as I did at Serves and she said “We are fully booked right now, but you can try again in an hour.” Now I wasn’t sure whether to leave at this point. We had dinner reservations at 6pm and I didn’t want to wait around for an hour as there was no guarantee that after the hour was up we’d be seen. I also didn’t want to miss an opportunity where we could have made it to George V. We decided to sort my online orders first and make a call afterwards. 35 mins later I said to my Husband let’s try the desk again and if they say no then we can go to George V. I just wanted to know, because if we’d left we’d never have known if we’d successfully got an appointment and it would have killed me! 4pm we went back to the desk. The same SA from earlier remembered me and immediately took my details, result! I was in! We sat near the desk and in that time we witnessed a meltdown of a lady desperately wanting an appointment arguing with the male SA at the desk. My husband whispered “She’ll never get anywhere with that attitude.” Customer after customer getting turned away, I felt sorry for both parties. We waited for about 40 mins before a lovely and polite female SA greeted us. She ushered us into a quiet area of the store and I explained to her what I was looking for. She reeled off of her phone what was available. The ME colour she had mentioned: Vert Moyen? I was not familiar with, so I asked to see it. The ML colour, I specifically asked for darker colours (not black), with ghw. She came back with drinks first and then left us for around 5 mins. Out of the corner of my eye she returned with 2 boxes, I was so excited! She said “I think you’ll like this Evelyne, it’s a new colour,” she pulls it out of the dust bag and it was immediate love at first sight. I took it right away! The other box, I was dying to know what colour the ML was. She said “I think you’ll like this one, it’s the exact colour you asked for, Bleu de Prusse!” I died, I couldn’t believe it was the exact spec I requested with ghw. I immediately took both and she rang them through. I was ecstatic! I didn’t ask for her details, something about asking didn’t feel quite right and I’d already been burned earlier at Serves, but I am patient and I can wait for my wishlist at my home store.
In all my favourite store today was Serves, I know I got my bags in FSH and I was lucky to get a lovely SA but I liked the atmosphere more at Serves. No time to make it to George V but I am so happy with the two bags I did get. I know they aren’t B or K but I am just happy I got something on my first experience! These are the two beauties:
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