Live Reports and Updates on Hermès Sales in Paris and the US

I went to the NJ sale yesterday (Thursday). I lined up at 7:30 am and there already were about 200 people ahead of me in the parking lot. Security was well represented and in charge. Doors to mall opened at 8:30 am. We were funneled through a roped off area, then sent up the escalator, then roped off into small groups of 20. Doors to sale opened at 10 am, and they sent a large group in (space is large.) By about 10:45 am I was in the doors, but like Disneyland, we were held in another roped off area. At 11 am I was in the sale (total wait time – 3.5 hours.)

Did not feel rushed or crowded. Lots of staff available, and very nice. Responses varied from some willing to go in the back to look for a size vs. those who say “what is out is it.” You can see behind the curtained area that there were many orange boxes available so I’m sure they re-stock daily.

Discounts of 50-60% off. No bags or jewelry (fashion or fine.) There was Ready to Wear for Men and Women, Shoes for men and women. Housewares (trays, pillows, blankets,) women’s bathing suits and sweaters, pareos, scarves, beach bags, men’s ties. As expected, women’s shoes and scarves had a lot of activity. Men’s and women’s ready to wear didn’t have crowds. Women’s RTW seemed mostly smaller sizes – 38/40 vs. 42/44.

Shoes were arranged by size. Boots were along a wall and you had to look at the photo and search with intent for your size. Lots of size 38. I’m a size 40 boots and pickings were slim, although I did find the pair below (originally $2300, 50% off.)

There were a few sneaker options available including a style I saw two years ago at the Paris store. Most boot styles were from last year. Didn’t see too many classics, but as you can tell from my selection, I prefer an edgier style.

Ties for hubby were $97.

Heard that the VIP sale on Wednesday had a lighter response than was expected. Also heard that the retail store in Short Hill will move into this brighter, airier space for the holiday season, allowing them to stock more merchandise.

VIP day (today) was very calm and well organized. Invites were given by email with the time you were allowed in. Just needed to show your ID. No time restrictions on this day (I spent an hour at the sale). Not crowded at all today.

Lots of inventory on silks, cashmere shawls and mufflers (designs from 2-3 seasons ago). Designs included la Mer Au ciel, peuple du vent, Tyger Tyger, clic clac a pois and Collection Imperials (plenty of cws). Lots of shoes, boots and booties. Plenty of the common sizes too (6.5 to 8). Neo boots, riding boots, please and joueuse boots caught my eyes. Surprised to see a decent selection of neutral shoes/boots (not just seasonal colors). Racks of RTW (Shirts, coats, dresses, skirts), wall of hats, and plenty of swimwear and beach accessories. Blankets and pillows too but no Avalons. A small section for baby as well (pillows, hats, toys). No jewelry at this sale. Most items at 50% off except RTW which was at 60% off.

Some logistics – no food or shopping bags allowed in. You don’t have to check in your bags. You can keep you phones with you but no photos. Staff are super friendly and helpful!!

Dear Pursebop team,

We are writing this email in the hopes that it will help your readers – and that hopefully someone on the Hermes team will read it and act upon it!

I have been going to the Paris Hermes sale for the last 25 years (I remember when it was in the stock room at the back of the store!) and sadly – this year was the worst experience I’ve ever had shopping – by far. It is not what the Hermes brand stands for and it certainly turned off all of the loyal Hermes fans who came from afar!

My mother had come from Canada to London and we took the Eurostar the day before – going to the Hermes sale together had been on our bucket list of experiences!
Given your report from last year we decided to go at 7 am (rather than my usual 5am). We just wanted to find a few nice things and have fun!

When we got there at 7:15am there were 850 people in front of us (according to the security guards). This was initially hard to assess as there were quite a few ‘place holders’ who were joined just before the sale. I would estimate that about 85% of the people in line at that time in the morning were professional resellers. (There are quite a few distinct hallmarks of resellers that are easily observed).
Once the sale opened at 9am the line moved up and we made it to the main waiting hall – but it took until 2:30pm until we made it into the sale. We nearly lost our determination during this 7 hour wait – but since we had travelled so far we decided to hang in there!

Once inside we found, to our great disappointment – that the lines would continue. My mother lined up at the silk scarf table (40 minutes), the throw table (30 minutes) I lined up for the jewelery counter (1 and a half hours). Then the line up for paying – another 50 minutes. At each counter you had either 6 minutes or 10 minutes to look at the various goods and make a decision.

We emerged from the whole sordid affair with a few scarves, a pair of shoes, a hat and two clicclak bracelets at 6pm. We were exhausted, the staff were exhausted, most of the other non-professional shoppers were angry, disappointed and felt absolutely let down by Hermes. Here are our suggestions (gathered from the French , NY shoppers, Australians, Canadians and Germans all in the line with us or who helped each other in the sale)

1. It is obvious that everyone is back – the American women’s shopping trip, the Asian tourists, the European ladies who travel – so please Hermes – take note and extend your sale dates back to 3 or 4 days- part of the reason there was such an overload of people is because the sale was only 2 days. (We assume it was cut to that as there were less people after the horrible attacks in Paris 2 years ago) If people know that you restock a bit every day then shoppers will spread themselves over the whole sale.

2. The organization and processes of the sale that have been designed over the last years were made to minimize theft – (and probably reduce some of the resellers) but unfortunately they are also hugely inefficient and leave everyone – sales people and shoppers – hugely frustrated and angry (and reduce shopping time!) For example: The line up for the jewelery counter was 1.5 hrs. Some wares were displayed in glass cases but it was impossible to tell what was available. Each ‘turn’ allowed for only 7 people to look at the assortment for 6 minutes only. In that 6 minutes they had to ask for what they wanted, the sales people had to try to go find it, then unpack it out of the plastic bags, try it on, put it back in the bag, and if they wanted it – write down the information on the card and then put the item into an envelope and label it to be send to the cash register. Inevitably someone would take longer (even if they were given the two minute warning) as you can imagine – doing all of this looking, selecting and writing takes time. With one or two laggers the 6 minutes would stretch into 10-12 – but the next group had to wait until everyone was physically out of the viewing area before letting in the next group. I kid you not – women were crying, resellers were shouting instructions to each other (several would get into line at the same time) and security men were barking – it was chaos. Hermes – please seek professional consulting on how to run a better sale process!!!

3. Entry – again a process issue. To enter the sale the security would not let one shopper in for every shopper who left – the waited until 20 shoppers left and then let the next 20 in. This aggravated the wait outside.

4. Security officers- while they may not work for Hermes – they represent the brand and the experience on that day. As such they need better customer service orientation. I would expect them to act professionally – but what we saw is that they took the few chairs available in the wait room away from older ladies who were taking a respite (from their 7+hr wait), they were very unfriendly, uncommunicative, and forced everyone to push together like a herd of cattle. They obviously saw that the situation on that day was veering towards the ridiculous – but no one seemed to be in charge or managing the changing flow of events (ie announcing to people in the line outside how long their wait could be, answering questions etc) There also needs to be better judgement made to the dress rule – I had worn a white cotton shirt with a little fur vest – and was told I had to take my vest off (I had no pockets on the vest), the elderly French lady in line with me had to strip down to her t-shirt and was not allowed to wear a cardigan!! A bit ridiculous!

5. Resellers! The Hermes sale has always been (in my estimation) for the loyal fans of Hermes who love the brand, the craftsmanship and quality and who would like to collect or wear a bit more of their favourite brand at a more affordable price (and are therefore willing to travel and dedicate a lot of their time) The sale has not been created to serve the financial interest of professional resellers. I therefore quite support the limits on individual items (especially the ones that are most commonly resold – scarves and jewelry) and would encourage stricter limits. Alternatively – some sort of online registration with email addresses – and allotted time slots – (as with other luxury brands) could also be a solution.

If you’ve made it to this far down my email – thank you so much for listening and taking our requests and concerns into consideration. We love what Hermes stands for – but on this occasion the company really disappointed their loyal fans!

Best,

Patricia Adrian-Hanson

What we scored:
2 shoes for myself: land boots & mambo platforms
3 for my hubby
RTW for both of us including ties for him. I bought two black dresses and a black top.
Argent CDC belt for myself .
I did not buy scarves this time and although tons of home goods I skipped them.

Hi, I’m curious too as I have the notification email but not the registration link yet. Thanks

I usually get an invitation a week before hermes sale, I dont know why, this time, I didn’t receive it, while the 2 people I took with me did receive theirs. 2 years ago I gave my invitation to IG friend. Luckily the old fashion of the list with names was available and very useful because my name was still there. I’m not going to make stories, I was embarrassed showing up without noting. VIP policy sale is more and more strict. The new rules is to get more people with invitations on the 1st day, so the 2 days left for public are no longer chaotic like it was. You dont even get to the stairs without showing invitation at the security entry. rules also are very strict, two people per/invitation has to go in together otherwise entry is denied, they careful check your full name on the list and take away the invitation. finally in, unlike January sales, for the 1st time I was lucky to finally get my hands on an hermes avalon blanket –my best catch.

Unlike the winter sale I find it more crowded because any guest bring in give her his address so that personne will receive an invitation, maybe to lower the time public wait on the line on the public days.

About pictures, is very difficult, the security is instructed to stop people for taking pictures, ???????? are all over the space. as soon as somebody pull out a phone to take pic they are behind you to warm that’s is STRICTLY forbidden.

@kinneret9 see my posts here on IG https://www.instagram.com/kinneret9/?hl=en

Hermès sale in Milan till 17th of Oct

How does then oricing compare at the semi annual sale to retail euro pricing?

I went to the Hermes VIP Private Sale today and total time from waiting in queue to checking out was under two hours. I managed to sneak a couple of pictures inside but security quickly glimpsed over and shooed my phone away.

Accessories were 50% off and are limited to a total of 3 units (1 per category) this includes leathers (Rivales, Hapis), assorted enamels, Clic Clacs (mainly pinks and blues).

Shoes are 50% off. No Orans. Jump boots in “Moka”.

Cashmere and silks were 50% off w limits of 2 cashmeres, 4 silks.

RTW is 60% off but I’ve heard previous sales discounted at a steep 80% in this category.

Ties and pocket squares were 50% w limits of 4 ties, 2 silks

I also saw gloves, hats, heavy cashmere scarves. No belts or houseware.

Bob I received your invitation for the NYC Hermes event sale on October 25, 2023
I need the code I already registered. Thank you I can’t wait 💙🥳
JLieb

I would like to attend @9:30AM