STYLETHREAD -- LET'S TALK SHOP!

*I apologize if this is incoherent. I'm just really pissed.*

I was out and about because I had to get some blood tests done. Since it's the fasting test that requires a 2 hour break between taking each sample of blood, I decided to head on over to Fred Segal for shits and giggles to see if I could get the Anya Hindmarch "I'm Not A Plastic Bag".

I get on line at 9:59 AM and am given a little paper slip with a picture of the bag and #82. The SA handing out the tags is really sweet, letting us know that we can get max. 2 bags per person. She told someone that there was a shipment of 150 bags at the store already and 200 more coming in by noon (why can't they come 2 hours earlier?). I waited and assumed that the whole thing was organized, as the SA made it sound like everyone who got a ticket would get a bag.

At 10 AM the line starts moving and the first group of people is. So how did they sell out of bags before #50 gets through (including some people who clearly looked like they were going to ebay them? I guess maybe there was only 100 in the first shipment? However, the worst place to give incorrect information is a line of hot, angry people who have other places to be (like, I had to go back for second round of bloodwork at 11 AM and others were clearly super-late for work).

Worse yet, the people who didn't get the first round of the shipment were told that they had to prepay to reserve their bags. However, they could only prepay 1 bag because they "wanted to let everyone have a chance to own the bag". Well, um, if that was your original intention, then why didn't they think ahead and limit EVERYONE to one bag? The policy was changed while we were all in line! I understand the sentiment behind their thinking, but the worst thing is to change the policy in the middle of the line.

Basically they made everyone wait in line to prepay at the one register. They did not take down names or had any other system to ensure that the people who waited in line would get the bags. They KNEW there was going to be a line and a frenzy, so WHY is there only one register? So many of these people, including me, were willing to pay cash.

Also, the security guard was telling people that they could leave and return later in the day...something the SA had to run and do damage control for. I ended up leaving the line after 11 AM because I had to finish the bloodwork. Any other day, I would've been willing to wait. There were still over 30 people ahead of me who needed to prepay.

So. F***ing. Disorganized! I hate how they are so clearly about the revenue...you know how even if you're not the one who's going to buy from them, someone else who doesn't give two shits about how they're treated is going to get the bag anyways so they'll still sell out.

I'm so happy I haven't bought anything from them since 2004. Now, I never need to.