I suspect overinflated bling like that designer purse carries a 50% markup. Maybe more.
So the shop perhaps lost 19k profit on that 38k purse. The saleslady lost her commission. A hefty loss for treating a rich customer poorly.
She went on TV after it was reported that Switzerland was enacting some draconian segregation laws against refugees seeking asylum to illustrate what seemed like a racist incident she encountered.
First Anne Franks, then Rosa Parks, then Matthew Shepard. Now this.
When will the hate end?
Reported for calling black people apes.
Poor Oprah. She’ll have to wipe her tears away with million dollar bills.
That’s kind of my thought. On the one hand, it’s inexcusable and almost certainly racist bullshit on the employee’s part. On the other hand, if we’re gonna solve the evils of the world, a massively rich person not getting to see a handbag ranks lower than one or two other injustices I can think of.
Now we’re talking! 
I was telling this story to my wife and added, "It is not up to salesman to tell a customer something is too expensive for them. My wife replied, “If you’re Swiss you can!” We have lived in Switzerland for a total of nearly three years, about half in Zurich and half in Fribourg and got to know the Swiss fairly well.
Devil’s advocate: So I guess we found the point at which casual racism is okay or not worth dealing with/worrying about? If the person getting discriminated against is rich enough?
Ok. Buy shop but instead of firing the clerk, get rid of all stock other than display goods.
Keep paying clerk to explain that each item a customer wants to purchase is out of stock… Presto, one of the worst jobs in the world.
I don’t think anyone thinks that.
Maybe it was because she acted like a typical American tourist, didn’t speak any native languages, and expected to be treated like the queen she has become accustomed to.
I don’t see any reason why Queen Oprah, unknown in Switzerland, couldn’t have simply engaged the clerk in a friendly conversation about affordability.
“Yes, ha ha, don’t worry. I can easily afford the purse. I’m quite famous in the US. To tell you the truth, I’m thinking of buying it as a gift for another famous person from the US.”
Is that all that fucking difficult you entitled bitch?
Maybe I am missing something here. What evidence is there that this is racism?
mmm
If the story went down as it did, IMHO, it’s certainly suggestive of a salesperson who sized up a person and came to a conclusion based on that assessment that they couldn’t afford a certain item. Sure, it might have been based on something else–maybe Oprah was looking particularly disheveled and poor that day, but something suggested to the salesperson that Ms. Winfrey couldn’t afford a particular purse. That is, if the story went down that way.
That doesn’t presume a lot. No, not at all.
I don’t know what you mean. If I walked into a BMW dealership in Munich, in jeans and a t-shirt, couldn’t speak German, and asked to take a test drive, what the fuck kind of reaction would I get from staff?
Fuck you Oprah.
ETA: On the other hand, if I really was a rich Canadian and was serious about a purchase I would have somehow relayed that information to the sales clerk. “Hey, I know you’re concerned. I’m a Canadian hockey player. Believe me, the price isn’t a problem for me.” Is that so difficult?
I don’t see it as racism either. It’s more of a realization that if you want to take a closer look at a $35,000 purse you should be ready to show some credentials.
Do you think any ol’ white person can go in there and ask for a closer look at the $35k purse?
I think queen Oprah was more peeved that she’s not internationally known.
Well, no differently than anyone else. The car biz is full of anecdotes where someone scruffy was turned away or treated poorly, only to have the salesman discover they were wealthy. I’m a member of the RROC (Rolls-Royce Owners Club) and a lot of members sort of get off on looking eccentric/scruffy and seeing how they’re treated.
Porsche and BMW sales people have long since gotten used to buyers being all types of people; my sales guy said that when he started everyone was a doctor or lawyer but since the dot.com boom everyone is wearing jeans and flip-flops, even the doctors and lawyers.
When I still watched TV I rarely missed Oprah. Learned a lot from that woman.
If I were her I’d have had a moment of clarity and thought, Here I’ve spent half of my life learning how to be a more spiritual, more giving, less worldly person and encouraging others to do the same. What in the hell am I doing in here looking at thirty thousand dollar handbags? And why am I getting my ego out of joint when I want to deal with people on a spiritual level? :smack:
Then I’d have walked out, all the stress of personal outrage falling off my shoulders and onto the sidewalk as I went and gone to have a hot fudge sundae.
Sometimes I reward myself. I don’t work nearly as hard as Oprah probably does. I’m not nearly as generous either. Yet I still feel the urge to splurge and pat myself on the back for a job well done every now and again.
And when I splurge on myself, I don’t expect people to give me a hard time. Because it’s my money, my time, and it’s no one fucking business what I do with it.
Of course, my idea of splurging is watching a $1.99 episode of Futurama over take-out Chinese food. But I don’t make a kabillion dollars either. Maybe if I did, a $35K purse would be my idea of a pick-me-up.