23 Luxury Retail Employees Who Deal With The Ultra Rich

Buzz Feed

5 days ago

We recently asked people of the BuzzFeed Community who worked in luxury retail to tell us what it was really like, and they shared their juiciest work secrets and encounters with the super rich — including celebrities. Here are the most surprising responses:
"I worked a call center job for Ralph Lauren. When I say the folks on the phone were entitled, I mean it. They would have full tantrums because socks in a specific color were out of stock, or if we no longer carried a particular item in the store or online. I will NEVER work luxury again."
"My tippy top clients are billionaires. You'd be surprised how many there are; most are not household names. They are actually quite polite. They're either focused on having a fun shopping experience or getting their desired items as efficiently as possible. Many have personal assistants who handle the boring stuff like paying and schlepping their items home. And they'll spend thousands in one shot, easily. The lower upper class/upper middle class clients are almost always polite, but they are definitely the source of all the nightmare Karens."
"It wasn't couture, but I used to have a few very rich clients when I worked in the men's section of an upscale department store. The wife or administrative assistant would call me and say that the man had however many days of travel or needed a new set of clothes for spring — here's the card. Top of the line suits, pants, sweaters, etc. No biggie to spend $7,000, and they wanted it shipped as quickly as possible."
"I worked at a flagship Tiffany & Co. store in the diamond section. It wasn't unusual to see men purchase items for their wife and their side piece (giveaway is that they'd pay with their card on one item and cash on the other). I won't name names, but there was a CEO of a well-known company who openly and casually asked me to pick something for his wife and girlfriend."
"I worked in a wedding dress shop where the dresses were on the higher end. Women would come in with NO underwear on and try on these dresses. Mind you, they had to have a salesperson with them to help. I saw so many private parts, it was ridiculous. And not everyone did us a solid and showered before coming in."
"Worked in Hermès for a while until I just couldn't stand the entitled people anymore. Pro tip: There is no actual waiting list for a Birkin. If you really want one, you'll need to gather $6,000+ of merchandise and toss it on the counter, and then just before the cashier starts to ring you up, casually ask if they have any Birkins. They'll bring you a selection."
"I worked for Michael Kors, and the theft was unreal. While working one night, a group of known offenders came into the store and started grabbing handbags while making it known that employees couldn't do anything about it. They were threatening anyone who even thought about trying to stop them, and customers were frozen in fear. After all was said and done, they got away with thousands of dollars in merchandise. I called the mall police who called in the city police, but the thieves were long gone."
"I worked for a boutique retail store geared toward Maserati-driving soccer moms. Someone came in with their 80-year-old sugar daddy, who stood and pointed at everything he wanted her to wear and dropped $1,200 on outfits for her. She walked in with her husband a week or two later like we didn't recognize her from before."
"I worked for a very high-end luxury department store for six years. Let me tell you every single person, including myself, is doing some shady stuff. 'Accidentally' marking down items, hiding stock, stealing, hooking up with other coworkers and clients in the back, coke in the fitting rooms, getting items delivered to the wrong address on purpose, etc. The worst was we found out our store manager was using the client book to steal credit card numbers and got arrested. Great designer clothing, though."
"I worked for a high-end retailer for home decor. The amount of people who would begin the call with their job title was very high. It gave an air of 'I think I'm more important than you.' And most of the time, they did act like they thought their 💩 didn't stink. I was berated and threatened by many 'lawyers' about back orders or damaged items I had no control over, told how 'important' the order was, had people asking if they could be bumped up in the order line because they needed it for a 'VIP party,' or some other BS."
"Always be nice to the associate showing you shoes. I worked at a luxury department store, and so many times a colleague of mine would come to the back stock room, not look for a shoe, and just tell the customer we didn't have it because 1) they didn't think they would end up buying it, 2) the customer would return it within a week, or 3) they just didn't like them."
I worked in a high-end chain retail store for a long time on several malls. One of them pretty prominent in the Philly area. I had a few customers who would come in with their wife, and then later, their mistress. A lot of Amex black cards (this was the early 2000s) and a weekly visit — and sometimes lunch — from Bam Margera and his then-girlfriend!!"
"A lot of 'luxury' items are made in Asia, but the brands use loopholes that make it look like it was made in Europe or in the US to give the illusion it wasn't mass-produced next door to the Gap sweatshops. There was a big ruckus years ago about some brands getting purses made in India and only getting them finished in Europe, but it was only spoken about in the industry — never made it to the public. Lots of high-end 'American' jewelry is made in Hong Kong."
"A sugar daddy came into our store with his two 'babies' — they were sisters, by the way. They had gotten him drunk at lunch and went around the store picking out clothes, handbags, and shoes. Anytime he would ask about the price of something, they would kiss his cheek and whisper things in his ear to shut him up. It was really disturbing. In the end, he spent, like, $20K on them. Who knows what he did or how he got that money. They all looked happy in the end, so it worked out, I guess?"
"I worked at Nordstrom in downtown San Francisco (which is now closing) in the designer section. A famous news reporter came in (who was married) with a younger lady friend and bought her $3K in clothes in about eight minutes. Nordstrom also has a 'million dollar sellers club' for the sales associates that obviously sell over a million a year; they get special assistants to help them sell. The busiest time was the anniversary sale where professional women from all over the country would make appointments at our store with these associates to come and pick up their clothes or have them shipped out."
"I worked as the assistant to one of the in-house personal shoppers at a high-end department store in Beverly Hills. Some of these extremely wealthy clients would not purchase anything in a size that was labeled anything different than the size they thought they were in their heads. So, I would be sent to the alterations department with multiple couture items that needed their size tags 'switched.' I would take them garments in a size 8, and they would remove the inside tags and sew in a new designer tag that would say it was a size 2 instead — even though the woman buying the clothes was definitely not a size 2. I was shocked that my boss made me do this, and I felt like I was committing some type of fraud. Now, I just look back and feel sorry for those women that needed to be fed a lie in order to buy clothes."
"I worked in a women's boutique in an affluent area outside of San Francisco. It was easy to distinguish the rich from the wealthy by how they treated our sales associates when the owner wasn't around. Rich customers were some of the rudest and most insufferable people I have ever encountered while working retail. I've had shoe boxes thrown at me and full glasses of wine spilled on designer handbags without as much as an apology. In contrast, the truly WEALTHY were the most unassuming and appreciative."
"Not necessarily 'luxury,' but I sold high-end designer watches once and had a customer come in whose English was wanting. The associate who was helping her became frustrated at this and asked me to take over. Turned out, the customer ended up practically clearing the counters! A little patience goes a long way."
"I had a client who would buy three of the same item — one for his wife, the other two for his side pieces. He said he'd buy the same things so he didn't forget who he gave which item or get confused and blow his cover. And there were many, many of these guys who would do the same. We also had a lot of cash purchases that usually still had drug residue on the bills."
"I worked at Rolex for exactly 30 days during busy season as their 'ambassador,' meaning I was every sales person's sales assistant and the store manager's personal assistant. Any time someone would come in and sit down to discuss a purchase, it was my job to offer fancy coffee and sparkling water; I'd then take down the order, run across the street to the boutique coffee shop, cut the line, and pay nothing (because Rolex had a limitless tab set up). When I wasn't doing that, I would be handed the boss's Amex and car keys and told to go shopping for his holiday gifting with a vague direction of 'this high-end store, no more than this amount' (which was usually a couple grand)."
"I worked at a large luxury department store in the UK, and the customers who didn't have money were so rude. We had a few regulars who would come in and buy the odd candle or designer jumper every now and then, and if you couldn't bend everything to their whim, they would become so aggressive it was unreal. The customers who would regularly do large orders with us or were shopping with us daily, however, were some of the nicest, most polite people I've ever met. One day, close to Christmas, we had a family come in with their children who proceeded to absolutely terrorize the store. When we approached them and told them they needed to control their children, they screamed that they were spending a lot of money and didn't have to do anything we asked. They spent around £200 on the cheapest things they could find in store."
"There are demanding customers — especially the ones who pretend that they have the money but don't. Many of the repeat customers, especially socialites, often buy expensive outfits to wear to a fundraiser or major event and return them a few days later for all sorts of odd reasons. These ladies can't be seen in the same outfit again, so they constantly wear and return garments. One time, a lady returned an expensive designer dress and claimed that she hadn't worn it, but was caught in a lie when the salesperson showed her a picture of her in it from the society column of a newspaper. She was stunned and said that she had forgotten what she had worn to that event. I've seen women try on expensive clothes and throw them in the corner of the dressing room instead of hanging the garment back on the rack or laying it on the chair in the room. There were women who would buy the same garment somewhere else on sale and return it to store to get a full price refund."
And finallly...
"Working in the home department at a Nordstrom in LA, I grew to hate children. Ninety percent of the time, if someone came into our department with a kid, they would NOT watch them. I once pulled a cake knife out of a kid's hand, and the mom just rolled her eyes. Christmas was the worst because kids would regularly grab an ornament off the tree and throw it on the ground to break it."
If you've worked at a luxury retail store, what was your experience like? Feel free to tell us in the comments, or use the anonymous form below.