Jill, thanks for the chat thread. I didn't think it was going to happen, but this morning I found the sticky!! Yea!
Ok...here's some chatting. And I just typed all of this once and lost it. I will try and get it all down again quickly because my family is sitting patiently waiting for me!
We are in Canada on vacation and having a lovely time. The weather is great. I got to go shopping on my own yesterday because my dh thought I needed some time to go look at antiques. I figured that I wouldn't correct him on the antique part.
I first went to the flagship Chanel store. It was very small and I knew more than the SA they had working that morning. She was sweet but totally clueless. I discovered that the C$ prices (after conversion) were higher than the US$ prices. For example the large new portobello is C$3,150 vs US$2,695. They didn't have much bag inventory either and what they had was mostly basic stuff.
So then I was off to Prada. It was a nice size store and the SA I met was very nice. They had all the bags that we've all oohed and aahed over this Fall, but not the bag I was looking for....
Next was Holt Renfrew (seems like the Canadian Saks). I met some lovely SA's and got to see my favorite lines--BV, Chanel and Prada. The BV was nice, but fairly basic. The Chanel boutique was even smaller than the small flagship store. The Prada boutique was a nice size and the SA was super sweet. And, more importantly, the Prada Canadian $ prices were more inline with US prices, unlike the Chanel. And btw, I found the bag I was looking for.......hmm....more on that another time....
I did find out one thing that might have allowed me to buy a bag for less than the US price, but alas it didn't work for me. Holt Renfrew exchanges US dollars at their own rate. So yesterday when the actual exchange rate was US$ 1 = C$ 1.07, they were giving US$ 1 = C$ 1.25. A significant difference. I do think the exchanged $ had to be spent in the store. If only I was carrying thousands of US $'s on me!!
Well...the family wants to go sightsee. Imagaine that!