Hermes has apologized to Oprah Winfrey for turning her away

In article 1gymxej.1jdnwkgugt5qtN%this_address_is_for_spam@y ahoo.com,
chancellor of the duchy of besses o' th' barn and prestwich tesco
wrote:

Go Fig wrote:

In article , Jack
Campin - bogus address wrote:
[]
Does Hermes even have significant sales in the US?

I would be surprised if it wasn't a majority of their sales... surely
the most significant single country for gross sale.

Probably not a majority, but most significant, sure.

I can't help but think they didn't know that they were dealing with
Oprah...

So they turned Oprah away, complaining about north Africans? Is that
what you think?

This particular store is also a tourist attraction. I would not pay my
staff overtime for lookie-loos.. I have no way, at this point, of
knowing why she was turned away.


on any other day, they would send the entire store to her
suite for review. If they did know... I'd probably fire them.

Given your assumed scenario-

I have no scenario.

jay
Thu Jun 23, 2005




I'd fire yourself first, for employing them
to begin with.

Oprah is a phenomenon, like non other. If you get on her 'book list'
you are a millionaire.... recently every member of her studio audience
got a free car...

What an idiotic thing to do. I'm more impressed by her donations to the
real poor, however, than donations to her trashy audience.


she just took her entire staff and their families to
Hawaii for a week.

Despite giving studio members cars, she certainly has some very good
sides to her. I'm a bit disturbed by the gossip column rumour. I don't
think these things are accidental- they are often planted, and I
wouldn't be surprised if in this case it was positioned by some
misguided person in her entourage who overdosed on champagne on the day
in question. However, I suspect that in 'the fall' it will all have died
away, and you won't get any gory details. Hermes have denied the
incident took place as described, and say their CCTV backs it up. (Most
CCTV doesn't include audio though, so I don't know how they know that.)

Go Fig wrote:

[]
This particular store is also a tourist attraction.

It depends on what you define as a tourist attraction.

I would not pay my
staff overtime for lookie-loos.. I have no way, at this point, of
knowing why she was turned away.
[]
I have no scenario.

In which case, I don't see why you bothered to post what you did. Oprah
Winfrey is not the superstar in Europe that she is in the US. It's _not_
news here, though it's not particularly big news in the US either. If
you think that sales in the US of Hermes will plummet as a result, well
I don't know- I'd doubt it, unless there was some truth in the 'racism'
charge, and that smells a bit. No doubt she'll reveal all in 'the fall.'
Or not.

--
David Horne- www.davidhorne.net
usenet (at) davidhorne (dot) co (dot) uk

Oprah is a phenomenon, like non other. If you get on her 'book list' you
are a millionaire.... recently every member of her studio audience got a
free car...

What an idiotic thing to do. I'm more impressed by her donations to the
real poor, however, than donations to her trashy audience.

The car company paid for them. Wanting to promote their new car line,
they felt that this car giveaway stunt would generate a huge amount of
publicity for much less than the cost of a national advertising
campaign.

I do give her credit for doing a lot of real charity work. She's very
active on behalf of South African charities, including AIDS orphans, as
well as for inner-city youth in the United States (she has a program
where she sends hundreds of poor, deserving students to college).

wrote:

Oprah is a phenomenon, like non other. If you get on her 'book list' you
are a millionaire.... recently every member of her studio audience got a
free car...

What an idiotic thing to do. I'm more impressed by her donations to the
real poor, however, than donations to her trashy audience.

The car company paid for them.

Ah. Unlike Figgy to gloss over details like that!

Wanting to promote their new car line,
they felt that this car giveaway stunt would generate a huge amount of
publicity for much less than the cost of a national advertising
campaign.

Probably did. Figgy knew about it.

I do give her credit for doing a lot of real charity work.

Yes- me too. Maybe she should think about re-educating some of her
publicists though?

--
David Horne- www.davidhorne.net
usenet (at) davidhorne (dot) co (dot) uk

In article 1gyn0st.1u1hoadzu2v8lN%this_address_is_for_spam@y ahoo.com,
chancellor of the duchy of besses o' th' barn and prestwich tesco
wrote:

Go Fig wrote:

[]
This particular store is also a tourist attraction.

It depends on what you define as a tourist attraction.

I would not pay my
staff overtime for lookie-loos.. I have no way, at this point, of
knowing why she was turned away.
[]
I have no scenario.

In which case, I don't see why you bothered to post what you did. Oprah
Winfrey is not the superstar in Europe that she is in the US.

But she is a 'superstar' client for Hermes.

I don't believe you understand the level of service this company
extends to their good clients... they have failed miserably in this
case.

Indeed, that is their opinion as well, disrespectful of that bad PR
this will cause... you do not turn Oprah away from your store, your
more likely to rent her a suite at the George V and ask her when it
would be convenient to bring by the store or send the Rolls to collect
her.... Good grief, she just dropped $70K on purses... which is the
product that put Hermes on the world stage in the 50s... by another
American who used it, Grace Kelly.


jay
Thu Jun 23, 2005



It's _not_
news here, though it's not particularly big news in the US either. If
you think that sales in the US of Hermes will plummet as a result, well
I don't know- I'd doubt it, unless there was some truth in the 'racism'
charge, and that smells a bit. No doubt she'll reveal all in 'the fall.'
Or not.

Go Fig wrote:

In article 1gyn0st.1u1hoadzu2v8lN%this_address_is_for_spam@y ahoo.com,
chancellor of the duchy of besses o' th' barn and prestwich tesco
wrote:

Go Fig wrote:

[]
This particular store is also a tourist attraction.

It depends on what you define as a tourist attraction.

I would not pay my
staff overtime for lookie-loos.. I have no way, at this point, of
knowing why she was turned away.
[]
I have no scenario.

In which case, I don't see why you bothered to post what you did. Oprah
Winfrey is not the superstar in Europe that she is in the US.

But she is a 'superstar' client for Hermes.

And some staff in Paris didn't know who she was. It's not earth
shattering news

I don't believe you understand the level of service this company
extends to their good clients...

No, I do, and I've mentioned it in other posts.

they have failed miserably in this
case.

Maybe- the fracas around it is also a 'failure' and I'm not convinced
it's Hermes' fault.

Indeed, that is their opinion as well, disrespectful of that bad PR
this will cause...

dot dot dot. The point in this case is that the bad PR could backfire.
Tell you what, I'll look out for Oprah's special in the fall, when she
explains how she was racially discriminated against. Thing is, I've got
a feeling that by then the story will be more a case of "well, one of my
assistant's assistant's assistants heard them say..."

you do not turn Oprah away from your store, your
more likely to rent her a suite at the George V and ask her when it
would be convenient to bring by the store or send the Rolls to collect
her....

And when she makes a fuss that they didn't, you know what? The tide can
just as easily turn against people like that.

--
David Horne- www.davidhorne.net
usenet (at) davidhorne (dot) co (dot) uk

Jack Campin - bogus address writes:

Does Hermes even have significant sales in the US?

I don't know. They do sell to a lot of Americans abroad, though.
However, most of these Americans care nothing about Oprah.

They may well
come out ahead by acquiring a reputation as "the store that told
a filthy rich arrogant Yank loudmouth to get lost".

True. It's a fickle market.

--
Transpose gmail and mxsmanic in my e-mail address to reach me directly.

Go Fig writes:

I can't help but think they didn't know that they were dealing with
Oprah... on any other day, they would send the entire store to her
suite for review.

They might not have known because Oprah is a nobody outside the U.S.

If they did know... I'd probably fire them.

Why? Why should stores open after hours just for certain people?

Oprah is a phenomenon, like non other.

Not outside the U.S. And even in the U.S., she's a phenomenon only with
certain segments of society.

If you get on her 'book list' you are a millionaire ...

I'm surprised her fans can read.

--
Transpose gmail and mxsmanic in my e-mail address to reach me directly.

chancellor of the duchy of besses o' th' barn and prestwich tesco
writes:

In which case, I don't see why you bothered to post what you did. Oprah
Winfrey is not the superstar in Europe that she is in the US. It's _not_
news here, though it's not particularly big news in the US either. If
you think that sales in the US of Hermes will plummet as a result, well
I don't know- I'd doubt it, unless there was some truth in the 'racism'
charge, and that smells a bit.

Even if there were truth in it, the impact would not be that great.
Oprah's fans in the U.S. are not a key market for Hermès, and Oprah is
an unknown outside the United States.

--
Transpose gmail and mxsmanic in my e-mail address to reach me directly.

John Bermont writes:

Looks like an "ugly American" episode pure and simple.

That is my impression. Oprah was huffy because a store wouldn't open
after hours just for her. Well, Hermès refuses to open for just about
everyone else, too. And even if they opened for special celebrities,
Oprah is nobody outside the U.S.

--
Transpose gmail and mxsmanic in my e-mail address to reach me directly.