12 HOURS OF NON-STOP SHOPPING

Saturday was one of those crazy days when all you do is shop, shop and shop. From 10:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. a group of Chinese VIP customers joined me for a Shopping Tour throughout the best stores and boutiques around Madrid.

The overall experience was exhausting but very rewarding. To be honest, I beat my own record in terms of time and money spent on a Shopping Tour. I’d like to specially thanks this group for trusting me in such an important day for them during this quick business trip to Madrid.

As we visited so many different stores during that day, I’d like to give a constructive feedback about some of the main stores visited and let you know my impression of what is being done well and what still has room for improvement.

It all started at Madrid’s Golden Mile, the most exclusive shopping are located in the heart of Salamanca district. 1st Stop: Chanel Showroom in Ortega & Gasset st. From my point of view, the service can be considered average. When you go into any store (not only from luxury market) and you show interest on any of their products, the minimum that you are expecting is some attention from the staff. If it wasn’t for that nice Chinese lady, I would have refused to allow my customers to buy anything at that store. We purchased 2 handbags and if the service had been better we would probably have bought even more. Another thing to remark is that they have very few models in exhibition, which ends making the showroom less attractive for people who really know the brand.

Right beside Chanel was Hermès… Sadly I have nothing good to say about this place; the service was simply woeful (in both Ortega & Gasset and El Corte Ingles showrooms). The “consultants” had a really bad attitude and they were out of stock of every single item we asked for. When you’re willing to pay high amounts of money for certain items, the least that you’d like to do before paying is touching, feeling and analize the product without being harassed by a salesperson every time you make a move. I really don’t think that a successful brand like Hermès have come so far by treating their customers in such a shameful way, so I honestly believe this is directly related to the Spanish team. I’ve been in many Hermès showrooms in different cities around the world and have made some interesting purchases in some of them as well, but in none of them none I had a feeling even remotely similar to the shops in Spain. I really like and respect this brand, but at least in Spain, it has a lot of work to do when it comes to customer services. Of course, we did not buy anything there.

We continued our tour and stopped by Tod’s and Ferragamo and I have no complaints about the service; the sales team was very nice and concerned about my costumers needs. In Prada the service was pretty good as well (in both Serrano and El Corte Ingles showrooms) and we ended up with 3 beautiful handbags that we got from the two showrooms.

We finish our tour around Salamanca district at my favorite jewelry brand, Carrera & Carrera; their pieces are simply unique. Everything is handmade in Spain with the highest quality materials. The new collection “Tesoros del Imperio” (Treasures of the Empire) is wonderful, it has everything, it is classy, stylish and looks like nothing you’ve seen before. Every time I take a client there they end up just amazed and unable to avoid the temptation of owning some of their unique jewelry, and of course this case was no exception with the purchase of two beautiful necklaces. Many thanks to Susana, Cristina and all the team from Carrera & Carrera for the great service and all the attentions to my customers. As always is a pleasure to visit this place. In case you’re not familiar with the brand, I encourage you to visit their web www.carreraycarrera.com and discover the amazing thing they have to offer.

After spending all morning in the Golden Mile, we headed to El Corte Ingles Castellana; a new concept of luxury which approaches to their customers the best brands in the world in three unique spaces: Gourmet, Luxury and Wellness. Once we got there it was like getting to shopping paradise; every single brand you could think of was there. From Chanel, MAC, Estée Lauder, Clinique and Dior  cosmetics, to Prada bags and IWC watches, where I must say the team was very professional and patient while helping us to decide which watch to buy. I could not thank enough Felipe, from the China Desk, for the amazing service and how he took care of us during the complete visit and the incredible lunch he organized for us at the Gourmet Experience. If you ever come to Madrid this is a place that you just can’t miss.

Our last (but not least) stop was in Las Rozas Village (Chic Outlet Shopping). Although everyone was very tired, the excitement and expectation about finally going to Las Rozas Village was much bigger. If you’re looking to buy luxury brands at outlet prices, this is the place to go. As usual we received an excellent treatment from the staff and once we arrived we were received with a welcome pack for each one of the visitors. Every single store of the Village was kind and helpful with us, but I have to make a special mention to Coach, L’Occitane and Michael Kors; two thumbs up for being so patient and really knowing the meaning of customer service and customer satisfaction.


As the agenda was so tight I didn’t have time to take many pictures, but here you have a few including some of the excellent purchases we did that day.











                                                                                                                                                                                            
Massiel Féliz Rivas
Image & Shopping Advisor

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