Ch. 15 Retailing

           

              For this weeks blog post I visited Saks Fifth Avenue in midtown. The specialty store is located at 611 5th Avenue and has being providing its customers with high end luxury goods since 1924. Saks is a high-end department store featuring women's and men's fashion, shoes, bridal wear, and jewelry. Although Saks looks and feels like a deptment sotre because of its size, the large amount of goods that it sells, and the various segments for shopping that it offers, within each department there are specialty items for customers and the feeling is one of being in a small boutique while being well cared for and attended to with a high level of customer service that the store offers.  Like other stores in the area offering high-end luxury goods, Saks competes most notably with Bergdorf Goodman, Bloomingdales, and Barney's New York, three stores which offer goods from the highest quality brands in fashion, Louis Vuitton, Chanel, and Prada to name a few. The store encompasses an entire city block and is located directly across from Rockefeller center, there are 10 levels ranging from high end brands like Gucci, to mid-level brans such as Marc Jacobs and Juicy Couture. Classic pieces are arranged together while contemporary styles are displayed separately in different sections of the store and on different floors entirely.

            The first thing I noticed as with most other department stores, is the massive size of the place, filled with perfume jewelry bags, ladies in black uniform selling perfumes, or giving customers directions for other parts of the store. There is a cafe inside of Saks, and a salon, providing customers with the flexibility to shop, eat and groom themselves all in one place. Everything is organized in a way to maximize the customers choices for purchase. As I walked through the first floor I passed by the booths of many brands, Chanel, Cartier, Gucci, Christian Dior. All of these options were at my fingertips, and I was literally spoiled for choice. The downside, however, if there is one, is perhaps that there too much choice, so many options that if you don't know exactly what you want, you may be overwhelmed by the endless possibilites to choose from.

           There was no point during the whole experience at Saks that I did not feel assistance and a high level of customer service were far away. I talked about lipsticks and perfumes, things I wanted for myself, and was given advice, tips on makeup, and new products that brands were featuring for the spring and summer.