Hi musicguy, welcome to the Hermès subforum of the Purse Forum.
I suspect that you'll find most luxury brands, e.g., Hermès, Louis Vuitton, Rubinacci, John Lobb, Puiforcat, Breitling, etc. try to perpetuate the image of exclusivity in order to maintain the mystique and caché of their respective houses.
Why is brand exclusivity important? Because it's human nature to want what is difficult to attain, expensive, or in limited supply, and a luxury brand's financial success is dependent on that. Why do people want to drive a Mercedes or Range Rover instead of a Toyota Camry or Jeep Grand Cherokee? Partly because of the intrinsic value of the item -- its engineering, safety, reliability, resale value -- and partly because of the perceived value -- the exclusivity, the luxurious quality of the item, the personal wealth one must have in order to possess the item.
The same holds true for Hermès products. Not only are they ridiculously expensive, they are also extremely well-made, and have the kind of hand-crafted luxury that makes them coveted items for the aficionado. There is also a certain amount of insider information that goes with the territory of each brand's mystique -- the code, the terminology, the inside scoop. Knowing the secret handshake generates a certain amount of clout for the possessor.
Poor Mr. mafoofan was trying to gain entry to the Hermès club without knowing the secret handshake. He admitted himself in the first bit of dialog that he was not particularly familiar with the brand nor the various designs. Can you imagine how quick your buying trip to the Aston Martin showroom would be if you admitted the same level of ignorance about that brand? "Hi, I'm interested in a metallic blue Aston Martin car." "Are you interested in the DB9 Volante, or the Vantage Roadster, or perhaps the One-77?" "Well, I don't really know much about the cars, I just know this is a good brand, and I want it in metallic blue."
It simply isn't done that way. Nor is it possible to be completely uninformed about any luxury brand and expect a sales associate to take one seriously.
Now it does seem that perhaps Hermès needs to send some of their staff to etiquette refresher school so as not to waste an inordinate amount of time in sending the not-so-subtle message to Mr. mafoofan et al that there's a certain way to approach a purchase in the flagship store of an extremely coveted brand.
It probably would have allowed him to trim about seven paragraphs from his tale of failure.
Hope this helps.
Cakey.....you're my hero!
