December 10, 2008--Highway Bulgari
Walking in Soho the other day, on Greene Street, it wasn’t necessary to read anything in the Wall Street Journal or New York Times to see directly the effects of the recession on high-end stores.
It was about 11:00 AM and there was literally not one customer in any of the shops between Spring and Houston Streets. Admittedly it was a little early for that neighborhood but this was still a sad state of affairs. Not a sole in La Perla; no one at Moss; even the line at the post office was half what it usually is this time of year. The Apple Store, on the other hand, was as usual hopping.
Not only are Wall Street and Main Street hurting, but obviously also the Fifth and Madison Avenues of New York and most of the rest of the world.
So it was not surprising to read that the exclusive jewelers Bulgari’s sales are way off. (See NY Times article linked below.)
Most concern, especially in this season of giving, should flow to those who are most affected—those who have lost jobs and their life savings, those who have or are about to lose their homes, those struggling to keep their kids in college. But again in the spirit of this time of year, it wouldn’t hurt us to think at least a little about those who had formerly been wealthy but are now just rich.
I’ll try, but it doesn’t make it easy to do so when I read that at Bulgari cutting back means not, as in the past, polishing the underside of the white-gold band of one of their signature $10,000 watches.
Though to some this might sound like the Grinch has been hyperactive, to me it feels like social justice.
I’m not intending to incite class warfare or be insensitive, but what’s this business with a $10,000 watch in the first place? And if you’re going to try to sell one, what’s the big deal about polishing both sides of the watchband? To me it sounds like 15 minutes of extra work. How fair or smart is it to expect newly cost-conscious customers to put up with such a thing?
But then again, maybe Bulgari has figured out its own version of the zeitgeist. At their 259 stores worldwide (sidebar--how exclusive is it to have so many shops, until a few years ago there were only 5) they are apparently picking up a new sense of political correctness: a partner, Claudia D’Arpizio, says of many of their customers, “Even if they’re not affected in terms of purchasing power, customers feel it’s ethical to spend less. They don’t want the additional piece of jewelry.”
On the other hand, maybe if that watch I can’t live without has a band that’s not fully polished . . .
It was about 11:00 AM and there was literally not one customer in any of the shops between Spring and Houston Streets. Admittedly it was a little early for that neighborhood but this was still a sad state of affairs. Not a sole in La Perla; no one at Moss; even the line at the post office was half what it usually is this time of year. The Apple Store, on the other hand, was as usual hopping.
Not only are Wall Street and Main Street hurting, but obviously also the Fifth and Madison Avenues of New York and most of the rest of the world.
So it was not surprising to read that the exclusive jewelers Bulgari’s sales are way off. (See NY Times article linked below.)
Most concern, especially in this season of giving, should flow to those who are most affected—those who have lost jobs and their life savings, those who have or are about to lose their homes, those struggling to keep their kids in college. But again in the spirit of this time of year, it wouldn’t hurt us to think at least a little about those who had formerly been wealthy but are now just rich.
I’ll try, but it doesn’t make it easy to do so when I read that at Bulgari cutting back means not, as in the past, polishing the underside of the white-gold band of one of their signature $10,000 watches.
Though to some this might sound like the Grinch has been hyperactive, to me it feels like social justice.
I’m not intending to incite class warfare or be insensitive, but what’s this business with a $10,000 watch in the first place? And if you’re going to try to sell one, what’s the big deal about polishing both sides of the watchband? To me it sounds like 15 minutes of extra work. How fair or smart is it to expect newly cost-conscious customers to put up with such a thing?
But then again, maybe Bulgari has figured out its own version of the zeitgeist. At their 259 stores worldwide (sidebar--how exclusive is it to have so many shops, until a few years ago there were only 5) they are apparently picking up a new sense of political correctness: a partner, Claudia D’Arpizio, says of many of their customers, “Even if they’re not affected in terms of purchasing power, customers feel it’s ethical to spend less. They don’t want the additional piece of jewelry.”
On the other hand, maybe if that watch I can’t live without has a band that’s not fully polished . . .
posted by Steven Zwerling at
7:18 AM
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