Cheryl Shops

Defeating the purpose of a sample sale
Billion Dollar Babes started on the West Coast to bring joy to the sample-sale-deprived ladies of Los Angeles, and they've since held several sales here in New York, the land of plenty. Now, I've never actually attended one of these, so I may be a bit presumptuous here, but these L.A. people are getting it all wrong. Case in point: Today I received an e-mail soliciting a BDB "New York Platinum Membership." This buys you:
* Exclusive "First-Look" invitation to the Friday VIP Platinum Presale event from noon. (Doors open to Gold Members at 3pm and non-member VIPs at 5pm.)
* Priority Check-In for both the Friday VIP Presale event and Saturday all-day sale.
* Express Check Out registers.
* A Luxury Gift Bag at each NYC sale - full of the hottest beauty and lifestyle products, valued at over $200. (Our November Gift Bag so far includes products from NARS, Origins, DKNY, Crunch Gym, Noir, Virgin Records and more!)
* Four guest invitations for each sale event.
* A personalized membership ID tag.
* Complimentary cocktails.
* Invitations to any additional private VIP clearance sales we may stage for individual designers.
* Non-transferable.
* Non-refundable.

So I went to their website to see just how much this costs, but they won't even tell you until you fill out your credit card information and etc. (I'm guessing upwards of $200.) The membership page notes that West Coast platinum memberships are already sold out. Do these L.A. idiots think New Yorkers are actually going to pay hundreds of dollars for the privilege of shopping three hours earlier than everyone else? You don't pay to go to a sample sale! That defeats the whole purpose!! Clearly, these Angelenos don't understand the concept. So I think they should take their guestlist, velvet rope, and VIP treatment, and head back to L.A. where people are dumb enough to fall for it.

(I will be boycotting future BDB events, but for those of you who aren't, their next New York sale is November 15 at the Altman Building, 135 W. 18th between 6th and 7th.)