Hermes lawsuit

[learieonthewildmoor]

Hermes is being taken to court because apparently they won’t even show you a Birkin bag if you don’t buy a bunch of other stuff.
Do any other high end brands hold you hostage? It seems extraordinary to me.

The resale market is so valuable that many of the luxury brands, not to mention the big conglomerates such as LVHM and Kering, want a piece of the pie.

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I agree with everything @Opine has written. Brands, particularly their sales associates, like loyalty. The latter is more important to many than the number of items you actually buy.

It's actually very clever.. not that I'd want one! But makes their target cleintelle want them even more.. what could be better for the brand?

If you want to jump the waiting list for a particular Rolex you have to have an existing relationship with the shop or know someone in the business who's willing to get you one.
At the moment if you go into Rolex in Selfridges in London and ask if they have any Rolexes they look at you sympathetically as if you were mad. They don't have any, only the waiting list.

Absolutely! 😂

This isnt new.
It's been going on in the luxury watch industry for donkeys years.
Rolex, Patek, AP - any of the big brands whose watches have a significant difference between RRP and market price operate a similar system to Hermes.

Effectively its an attempt to keep the grail bits that everyone wants in the hands of "preferred" customers - ie those who arent going to immediately walk out of the store and straight into the grey market to flip the watch/bag for a profit.