DONTCHA HATE FINAL SALE ITEMS OR DO YOU WANNA BUY A DOWN JACKET?
Case in point. For my dad’s birthday, my sister and I decided to buy him a Brooklyn Industries down jacket. We went to the Brooklyn Industries on Fifth Avenue at Union Street and looked around. We noticed in the back of the store a rack of marked-down Glacier Down jackets in aubergine, gray, and yellow marked down to $35.00 from $98.00. Just what we were looking for.
We knew it was risky to buy a final sale item for a gift but we figured what the hell. We liked the jacket, it was a good price and we’d cross just our fingers that it would fit. To be fair, the sales person made it VERY CLEAR THAT IT WAS A FINAL SALE ITEM. IT’S NOT RETURNABLE AND NOT EXCHANGABLE.
But since it was only $35, we figured, if it doesn’t fit or he hates it, we’d give it to Son or chalk it up to a shopping fiasco.
"To be honest," my sister now says, "we weren’t really thinking."
At The Garden Cafe on Saturday night where we celebrated my father’s birthday, Dad loved the jacket and tried it on. It seemed to fit but when he went to the restroom to see how it looked in the mirror, he decided that the next size might be a better fit.
"Surely you can exchange it for the next size?" my stepmother said. My sister and I looked at each other nervously. "Actually, we can’t," I explained. There was a moment of shocked silence. "But don’t worry about it we’ll get if for you in the next size." We were between a rock and a hard place. If we admitted how little the jacket cost we might seem cheap…
On the way over to Brooklyn Industries Sunday morning, my sister said: "You can handle this. I don’t think they’re going to let you exchange it for the next size. But I don’t to have a scene with the salesperson. " I knew she was probably right but I wanted to try to appeal to their humanity.
ha ha.
"I know this is against the rules," I said cheerfully to the woman behind the counter. "But I’d like to exchange this for an XL because I bought it for my dad and it was a little small." She then launched into the "WE TOLD YOU IT WAS A FINAL SALE SPEECH" and explained: "final sale means we’re trying to get the merchandise out of the store and to bring it back in defeats the purpose. We’re not the Gap or Banana Republic, you know," she added.
Anger was mounting inside of me. I’m from the customer is always right school of thinking. Especially in a community like this. "I know you’re not the Gap or Banana Republic," I said. "That’s not the point. It’s more of a customer satisfaction issue. I just wish he could have the size he needs. But I understand," I said with all my resevoirs of restraint. It was obvious that she wasn’t going to move an inch on this matter.
Besides, they didn’t even have the jacket in XL.
TO MAKE A LONG STORY SHORT, I picked out a slightly more expensive army green jacket for Dad (try 4x more expensive: $138.00). It wasn’t on sale and is returnable or exchangable for 14 days.
But now I appeal to readers of OTBKB. Does anyone need a brand new, never worn aubergine down jacket that looks something like this one except it doesn’t have a hood. http://www.brooklynindustries.com/Glacier-Down-P353C50.aspx
It’s really nice and I can give it to you for $35.00. Email me at louisecrawford@gmail.com if you interested. SPECIAL BONUS: BUY IT HERE AND HUGH CRAWFORD WILL TAKE A PICTURE OF YOU IN THE JACKET AND WE WILL POST IT ON NO WORDS_DAILY PIX.