My Chinese friend wants to buy a Hermes "Birkin"purse.
She walked into a Hermes boutique, chose her bag, laid down her credit card and the salesperson flat out refused to sell it to her because... she is Chinese.
Hermes has a policy not to sell too many bags to Chinese people. They flat out refuse them.
My friend has asked me to go to the Hermes boutique to buy the purse, saying I'll be successful in it because I'm a Westerner.
I wonder if this discrimination is even legal? In any and all cases, I can say, "only in France".
I believe it is the British who held a Revolution and then became Americans who provided the script for the Declaration but who would dare accuse the French of plagiarism, which is just like counterfeiting... oh oh!
Did I write €100? Meant to write €1000!
But yes, sure people really do have the purchasing power in China. I have been to a restaurant as one of four UN contractors who were guests of a student working on our research. He paid out in the order of US$1,200 for the meal plus imported French wine at several hundred dollars. Ironically 'we' were paying him about US$60 a day, but he needed the work for his CV and his father is a millionaire several times over... Those people won't touch fakes and would never aid faking either. Ironic, isn't it?
But Kate makes another point too, doesn't she? Chinese speculator shoves €100 in my hand to go buy a Hermes bag, then goes home and churns out 10 million copies. Does Hermes person suspect me and refuse to sell? No, so what is really achieved? Plus, remembering central Beijing well enough, Luis Vuitton, Christian Dior, etc are all available for Chinese customers there anyway...
No, it's not just France. Has happened elsewhere. Chinese go in and buy the branded product, whether that be Hermes, Luis Vuitton, etc., take it back to China and then flood the market with fakes.
Not legal under EU discrimination legislation on trading standards alone, probably French law too. If caught Hermes would get bad press (even if papers expressed favour...), big fine and employee would probably carry the buck.Is your friend actually Chinese (citizen of PRC) or ethnically Chinese resident/citizen in/of Europe? I would get her set up to go in again with a sound device (wire) and a 'trading standards' person waiting outside.
Such idiocy happens. But no, not just France, my UK born nephew's father is half Portuguese, half Goan (So perhaps even more Portuguese in with the Indian) and my sister of Scots, European ancestry. He has been shown out of pubs in case people turn on him and try to 'beat him up'. I think he is in the region of 6' 2" or 3" and being rather overweight, at least 18 stone. Are those bar staff sure what they are saying?