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I dropped over 40 grand when I could have spent $100

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Re: I dropped over 40 grand when I could have spent $100

#101
post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"She told me she did sell a wool sweater to somebody who went home and washed in hot, it shrank, and then heard no ends of complaints about it, so she resolved to never sell wool sweaters unless they are specially commissioned." n=1 there then, right? Perhaps she was a bit to hasty based on that single data point? One of the things luxury brands do is bake into their costs margin to account for customers like this. O…

I think I'm also unusually snobbish about materials. If you go to a crafts store they usually have a big section of wall devoted to acrylic yarn. You might find one or two kinds of wool yarn and maybe a blend, but it's pretty clear that grandmothers who knit stuff for their grandkids value 20 hours of their time less than the $10 or so difference in the price of the materials.

To the point of wool vs. acrylic with respect to knitting:

http://www.knittinghelp.com/forum/showthread.php?t=86186

Re: I dropped over 40 grand when I could have spent $100

#102
post #41

The target audience for Rewire Attire, the high end fashion marketplace, was women with enough money ... Whenever I read "target audience" and "with enough money" in the same sentence, I run the other way. My experience with prospects "with enough money": - there are far less of them than everyone else - many of them didn't earn it themselves, so... - they really don't really understand the concept of "value" - they…

I'm going to guess (purely a guess) that before your experience with rich people you already held some sort of grudge against rich people in general. I say this because most of your complaints (besides the first complaint, obviously) either apply to consumers in general or are based on nothing more than your opinion. And it appears to be a poisoned opinion. If I have a net worth of $10B or -$100K, paying $250 or more…

On the contrary, people accustomed to fine things often forget how "roughing it" works.

Re: I dropped over 40 grand when I could have spent $100

#103
post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"perfect fit" may be less of an issue than you think for high end fashion. If you asked them if they have trouble finding the perfect fit, I wonder what they would say. A lot of these women wear things like Lululemon, which fits really well, and makes their butt look good. They don't necessarily wear high end fashion (heels, skirts, whatever) because it "fits". They wear it because they like how it looks, how it make…

I'm a little puzzled by the "perfect fit" thing myself. In college I worked for a men's specialty clothing store in NYC. All the expensive stuff (IOW, most of what they sold) was adjusted by the in-house tailors. You'd buy something off the rack, and then be immediately taken to someone who would take your measurements and take it in/let it out to get a good fit. Doesn't this kind of thing happen anymore? D

Even cheap stuff looks better if you get it altered, but yeah; the price-point this guy is targeting doesn't really wear 'off-the-rack' clothes. I wonder if he did any research at all, or he just thought "People with lots of money will pay lots of money for clothes". They shop pretty much entirely differently than your average (or even above average) consumer.

Re: I dropped over 40 grand when I could have spent $100

#104
post #94
post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"She told me she did sell a wool sweater to somebody who went home and washed in hot, it shrank, and then heard no ends of complaints about it, so she resolved to never sell wool sweaters unless they are specially commissioned." n=1 there then, right? Perhaps she was a bit to hasty based on that single data point? One of the things luxury brands do is bake into their costs margin to account for customers like this. O…

Or they price discriminate, by selling the wool sweater at a high markup to customers who self identify as especially interested in handmade wool sweaters while advertising the cheaper acrylic sweater to everyone else.

I'll give you an example of this.

We offer a service which we charge $10 for. When we first started offering the service we didn't really commit to a time period for completion but generally did it as fast as possible, perhaps it took maybe 4 to 8 hours but sometimes it might be done in an hour or two.

We then changed the pricing as follows:

12 to 24 hours service ($10) 8 to 12 hours service $12 2 to 8 hour service $15

Many people pay the extra fee happily. Instant revenue.

We have something else which is higher priced, say $120. We offer expedited service on that as well charging $25 for "rush". Same thing. Many people choose to pay the rush fee for the better service.

I guess the only thing that is really different from what we do with this and what Fedex does is the fact that it doesn't cost us anymore to offer the service faster at all. We are just allowing people to self identify and feel better by having some kind of guarantee. (Although we don't really guarantee anything we just guarantee we will attempt to get it done faster if we don't they pay at the rate that they would have paid for the "default" service.

(Disclaimer: Figures approximate but accurate enough for the point I am making).

Re: I dropped over 40 grand when I could have spent $100

#105
post #41

The target audience for Rewire Attire, the high end fashion marketplace, was women with enough money ... Whenever I read "target audience" and "with enough money" in the same sentence, I run the other way. My experience with prospects "with enough money": - there are far less of them than everyone else - many of them didn't earn it themselves, so... - they really don't really understand the concept of "value" - they…

This might be late, or a topic no one wants to bring up, but I am supremely pleased to hear your voice in these parts again. Thank you for contributing.

Re: I dropped over 40 grand when I could have spent $100

#107
post #45

Fun fact: Women seem to be more willing to share their body measures than men: http://www.google.com/insights/consumersurveys/view?survey=b... http://www.google.com/insights/consumersurveys/view?survey=b... n about 450 each

OK, that's what they say ... the body measurements these women say they'd submit, are they their actual measurements in units of length or their "dress size" in the shop that makes their sizes bigger every year to flatter their customers? Maybe that goes for men too?

What I can't get my head around is why anyone would choose to get clothes that don't fit when they could have ones that do? It seems like going to a restaurant and refusing to tell the waiter what you'd like to eat and instead hoping that what they'll bring is something you like.

Well I can imagine some scenarios, perhaps a spendthrift likes to get roomy clothes and so doesn't want a "perfect fit" because they can't afford to grow out of them after Sunday lunch. Or, maybe a "perfect fit" is interpreted as "skin tight"?

People are strange.

Re: I dropped over 40 grand when I could have spent $100

#109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All your points except number 1 and 2, I’ve experienced far more often with small clients (self employed, or a small business), not with larger companies or independently wealthy individuals. It’s the ‘I Built This!’ mentality.

You don't need to actually have "built this" to act as if you did, naturally.

Sure, but they are the people who feel that they don't need to pay taxes and that anyone doing work for them are lucky not to be unemployed and can easily be exploited.

Re: I dropped over 40 grand when I could have spent $100

#110
post #41

The target audience for Rewire Attire, the high end fashion marketplace, was women with enough money ... Whenever I read "target audience" and "with enough money" in the same sentence, I run the other way. My experience with prospects "with enough money": - there are far less of them than everyone else - many of them didn't earn it themselves, so... - they really don't really understand the concept of "value" - they…

Yep; I was immediately reminded of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boo.com
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