Hello-Hello, it is a glorious Friday here at The Prepatorium, we hope you are enjoying warm breezes and sunshine at your Palace.
Today we have a follow-up on our quick preview of the Lilly Pulitzer Warehouse Sale last week. Not only did Racked Philly do advance coverage of the event, London’s The Daily Mail covered the sale.
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The Daily Mail June 7, 2013
The Daily Mail piece borrowed heavily from a Racked story about the sale. The Racked article featured text and lots of wonderful photos from Julie Davis, below, the line waiting for the sale as of 5am Thursday morning, the day the Sale started.
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Julie Davis/Racked Philly
I was confused by the Daily Mail story, it spoke about people camping out ahead of time, talking about info posted on Lilly’s site.
The site revealed that shoppers had been lining up outside the 240,000 square-foot venue in Oaks, Pennsylvania, since last Sunday so they could snap up the best bargains when doors opened Thursday.
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Julie Davis/Racked Philly via The Daily Mail
The confusion comes because I thought camping out ahead of time was against Lilly’s “rules” for the Sale.
At any rate, Julie’s photos show that once inside there was a lot of merchandise available Thursday morning.
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Julie Davis/Racked.com
Things looked well-organized by item, size, etc.
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Julie Davis/Racked Philly
And prices seemed clearly marked.
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Julie Davis/Racked Philly
From the Daily Mail:
Dresses started from $79, marked down from $178 to $348, and wedged shoes were discounted from $198 to $99.
The section for ‘seconds’ really had people ‘going nuts’ as merchandise dropped as low as $10.
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Racked Philly
1) People were aghast that anyone would wait in line for five days for bargain bin clothing (“Nope, nope, nope. This makes me rashy and panicky just to think about,” said a commenter on Jezebel, who picked up on the story); and
2) Swarming eBayers are the devil for hoarding the event’s merch with the intention of resale, keeping the goods from Lilly’s “real” fans.
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Julie Davis/Racked Philly
Back to the follow-up story by Ms. Davis:
Multiple commenters left accounts of run-ins with resellers, including this tale of woe on our sister site: “Woman came out with 10 trash bags basically trashing Lilly saying they were dizzy and wanted to vomit with all the color of the horrible clothes, my friend asked why they bought so much and they said they were ebayers. My friend said it was horrible because she had to leave without getting in and the woman handed her a card saying you can buy from me I’ll only charge you 2 times the price I paid.”
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Oxford Industries
- “I hope Lilly wises up and cancels the warehouse sale and makes it an online sale instead so we all get a fair shot at the goods.”
- “I have to agree with the poster above, move the sale online and discontinue Warehouse Sales if it is not going to be fair to all.”
- “They should can the Warehouse Sale and take those funds and put the money into the Online Sales and everyone will have a fair chance at the Lilly. Limiting items in online shopping carts can deter the Resellers.”
- I”f Lilly corporate doesn’t want to lose their core customers and still wants to preserve their “cash cow” the smart move would be to have Rue La La handle their sales. Let the liquidation experts handle it.”
Even if it can be successfully argued that resellers have put a damper on this event, we doubt Lilly Pulitzer will revert back to inviting VIP shoppers via mailer only. True, the mailer kept resellers at bay—but it also prevented the sale from becoming the cash cow that is today. And while signs posted around the warehouse noted that the brand reserved the right to limit shoppers’ purchases, but we never saw (or heard of) anyone being flagged. What do you think? Has the Lilly Pulitzer Warehouse Sale jumped the shark?
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Stephen Bonanno
All is not peace, love and happiness for the fabled company. Apparently the company was overwhelmed by the volume of orders received during its one-day 50th anniversary sale. Customers have been waiting almost five months for the sandals purchased at 50% off during the sale. Below, a graphic from the Stephen Bonanno website:
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StephenBonanno.com
“Everything will be delivered, it’s just going to be delivered late,” said Lisa Simone, an employee of the sandal company and the owner’s fiancée. Simone says the company was flooded with orders during that one-day sale with some women buying 8 or 9 pairs.
The company had a whopping 4,000 orders in just one day. Simone says in an average day they get 50 to 75 orders for sandals. She claims they were so overwhelmed they got behind.
For more information, the Bonanno Facebook page may be found here.
Until next time, may everyone enjoy a simply splendid weekend!