For most of us, we walk into a store, ask to see some item and the store hands it to us. Or, we walk into a car dealership and say we want to test drive the latest Buick and they hand us the keys.
How does this work with hugely expensive items? For example, will a Patek Philippe store hand over a $25,000 watch to anyone who walks in and wants to try one on? Will a Bugatti dealership let anyone test drive a Chiron ($4 million car)?
I cannot imagine they treat any Joe off the street the same as someone who can legitimately afford such things but how do they discern those who are potential buyers from the riff-raff?
This is a friend of a friend story, FWIW. A friend of ours owns a number of nice restaurants with his two siblings. I’m sure his net worth is over $100M.
He says he went into an ultra luxury dealership and was pretty much ignored by the sales staff even though he was the only customer there. He was wearing Jeans, a Harvard sweatshirt and sneakers. He drove upon a BMW X5. He is Asian.
He was so pissed he went all the to the next dealership, 150 miles away (in the New York area). He was received very warmly and he had his car delivered to his home, ironically by one of the salespeople (er “consultants”) in the local dealership. I think it was over $200k. Most of the customers in the New York area dealership were Asian.
I’ve been handed jewelry to try on that i couldn’t possibly afford. I’m a white women who doesn’t look dangerous, and the clerk didn’t have any real customers.
I’ve also been ignored by auto dealerships. Because I’m a woman. Pisses me off, too.
Me too but it was at a Zales jewelry store (or something like it…I forget). I think Tiffany’s would not treat me so well (although to be fair, I have not tried).
My wife was ignored by the salespeople at a Volvo dealership. Where most of the salespeople were women, and I imagine the vast majority of the customers were as well. She was pissed. She called me, I went over and they descended on me like sharks on a wounded seal.
Joke was on them. My wife is a terrible negotiator. I’m a complete bastard. I bet she’d have paid at least $1000 more. She didn’t want me there because my negotiation style embarrasses her.
I have a vague memory of the NPR legal correspondent, Nina Totenberg, relating a story on “Car Talk” where she was at a dealership but wasn’t really in the market for a car. As she tells it the dealer was aggressive and pushing her so she would tell him to wait while she called her husband. She said her husband had less clue than she did about prices but she went through that pantomime a few times, saying no each time to the offered price, and got the price so far down she decided to buy the car.
Mrs. J. and I once made the mistake of car shopping at a foreign makes dealership that handled various automakers’ products, including some models that were very expensive. We were completely ignored (while casually dressed on a weekend, we shouldn’t have been mistaken for street people).
Apparently we just didn’t look like folks who deserved to drive a Volvo/BMW/Land Rover or even a Volkswagen.
As for super high-end cars that one wants to test-drive, I suspect there’d be a need to make a substantial deposit as well as provide suitable ID.
I’ve been in very high end jewelry stores wearing jeans (not ripped, but just Levis.) They’ll hand me anything I wish to see. Hell, in Bergdorf Goodman recently, salesclerks were falling all over themselves to show my wife and me all manner of stuff. Such stores generally have pretty strong security.
Probably not the same thing. There’s a Lambo dealership buy my house. My son who was 12 at the time kept bugging me to take him there so he could check out the cool cars.
When the sales guy came to ask if he could help. I was honest and told him I couldn’t come nowhere near affording one and that I’m just here for my son. The guy offered to give my kid a ride in one.
Like letting me try on the jewelry, if there are no real customers, it’s more fun for the salespeople to show off their wares to you then to just twiddle their thumbs.
I remember strolling around Geneva, and the high-end watch boutiques had nothing so vulgar as price tags on the items in the window. I assume that asking how much something costs would have been at least a partial red flag (if you have to ask, or even care, can you really afford it?). However, as I was not in the market for a $40,000 watch, I did not bother going in and wasting their, and my, time browsing.
When I wanted to sell some old silver serving pieces about 15 years ago, I called a local storefront business that was by-appointment only. I had to hold up the pieces before he’d unlock the door and let me in.
I’ve never worked on the sales side of a high-end store. However, we’ve got friends who are antique jewelry dealers, and I’ve been in several high-end stores such as jewelry and watch stores, art galleries, wine stores with premium bottles, and antique stores. I’ve experienced and observed a few practices.
One is engaging the customer and asking about their product awareness. “Have you ever worn a Patek Phillipe watch before? Have you looked at models online? What about this watch has attracted you - I may be able to show you other models with similar features to the ones you like?” Basically, a practiced salesperson will use friendly chatter to assess the customer.
Another is flattering the customer by taking them to the special private viewing area, which also happens to be well away from the shop entrance. “Would you like a cappuccino or a glass of champagne? It will only take a moment for me to get the product ready for you to view.”
One other is asking the customer to make an appointment for later so they can receive proper attention. “I’ve got several watches that I think you might like. If we could arrange a time, I can retrieve those watches, have them polished, and present them to you so you can select the one you like best.”
This reminds me of a story I read many years ago, about a high-end car dealership in Las Vegas. The sales guy made the point that he couldn’t ever ignore anyone based on their looks, because that guy in ragged cut-off shorts and flip-flops might have just hit a big win on a slots jackpot, or something, and be in the mood to drop a hundred thousand on a car.
