Queuing Is Not A Luxury Experience
It’s time for executives to rethink the lines outside luxury stores, writes Imran Amed.
LONDON — One of the most frustrating things about shopping for luxury fashion in the post-pandemic era is queuing — or “lining up,” as North Americans say. The default experience at luxury brands is increasingly arriving at a store — be it Chanel, Dior or Balenciaga — and being told by someone with an iPad that you must wait outside, often behind scores of other people, before you’re allowed in to have a look around.
This is something I have encountered everywhere from Bond Street to Bicester Village, and what’s bizarre is that sometimes these stores seem to have massive queues outside while the store inside looks completely empty.
If you have a direct relationship with a sales associate and are able to make an appointment in advance, you might be able to circumvent the queue, but this makes it difficult to pop by spontaneously. And it’s not a particularly smart strategy if brands want to welcome new customers to explore their stores, something that is more important now that the post-pandemic luxury boom is waning.
When I’ve quizzed luxury executives about the thinking behind this system, they’ve said it’s to ensure they can assign one sales associate to each customer to deliver the best shopping experience while also helping to manage the higher levels of shoplifting that they’ve had to contend with in recent years.
The thing is, these days one of the greatest luxuries of all is time. And sometimes I just want to efficiently pop into a store and have a look around. I don’t need a sales associate to assist me with that and I don’t want to wait in a line.
That’s why it was so refreshing to walk into a Celine store on London’s Bond Street over the weekend, and to be welcomed in without a hassle. Even though the store was very busy and a sales associate wasn’t available to help me right away, I was told I could have a look around on my own and they would send someone over when they became available. So simple, but so effective and as a customer, it made me feel like the brand valued my time.
At the other end of the fashion spectrum, I found myself at Uniqlo the other day to stock up on some socks. When I arrived at the till to pay, there was a short queue. A sales associate guided me to the self-checkout, and I cringed. (There is nothing I hate more than scanning my own groceries and then having to wait for the staff to help with the inevitable problems that arise.)
But there’s a twist! According to The Wall Street Journal, Uniqlo recently started using a “next-generation process powered by radio frequency identification readers inside the checkout machines, which automatically read hidden RFID chips embedded in price tags.” Using RFID also helps Uniqlo with stock keeping, managing inventory and loss prevention.
So, I was able to bypass the queue, put my socks into a checkout basket and, like magic, it calculated my bill in an instant, without having to scan each item individually. I tapped my credit card and I was off in less than a minute.
Now that’s a real luxury experience.