So why is it that certain races are overwhelming drawn towards flashy, branded statement pieces?
I live in a fairly wealthy area and we have a diverse pool of shoppers who frequent our malls. There are the area residents, who are mostly Asian, white and Arab/Persian; and then there are the consumers who flock to our malls on the weekends. It's interesting to watch them shop and see what they are wearing.
From what I've seen, the black customers (who are almost never seen during the week, presumably because they are wage slaves) go straight for commercial luxury: Gucci, Prada, Louis Vuitton, Versace, etc. But these same customers are very seldom upper class or even upper middle class, many of them coming from the lower middle and sometimes even lower class strata of society. They are extremely concerned about their appearance and social status, and very sensitive to the outwardly apparent representations of these, which leads them to spend large quantities of their paychecks on high profile garments, accessories and jewelry. As a rule they avoid all the subtle brands (Brioni, Loro Piana, etc) and also all the subtle pieces in a given designer collection. They will never buy an unmarked polo shirt, for instance, when a monogrammed one is available. They stay away from inconspicuous watch and jewelry makers (IWC, Omega, Cartier) preferring the status pieces (Rolex, AP if they can afford it) or the flat out flashy bullshit (Breitling, etc). The women are never caught without a handbag that can be clearly identified at 20 yards.
The Arab customers are much the same, having a penchant for excessively gaudy and even poorly produced products (Giuseppe, Fendi, etc). The woman who wear a veil prefer patterned prints (Gucci or LV logo), and their default handbags are the entry level Channel clutches. Arabs in general are extremely careful about what they wear, but paradoxically lax about how they appear, often being unkempt, obese, poorly groomed and malodorous
>>10762145
tl:dr
>>you do what you want when you poppn'
Of these groups, I find the blacks to be most intriguing. They are nowhere to be found during the week, and then suddenly appear in droves on Saturday and Sunday, many of them to window shop at designer stores and then go buy the cheapest branded thing they can find at Macy's, usually Ralph Lauren Polo or Hugo Boss. They rack up enormous tabs at lousy restaurants like Cheescake Factory and P.F. Chang, ordering drink after drink and more food than they can actually eat. Then, if you chance to catch them on the way out, they usually get into a leased luxury car, usually a Mercedes or BMW (Lexus or Infiniti if they're not doing as well).
It seems they want so badly to stand out among their peers back in the suburbs or city while still managing to fit in around all these wealthy foreigners where I live. No one really takes them seriously, and most stores have a dedicated black associate who handles all the ghetto and semi-ghetto shoppers (there are lots of drug dealers who shop here as well, paying for their sunglasses and sneakers with enormous stacks of small bills).
I find it all very curious. These people were really nowhere to be found 5 years ago.
>>10762145
Race =/= culture
Different cultures and different life experiences and education result in different people.
Let them eat crack.
No one forced you to go smell immigrants desu
>races
Anyway, a lot of it is about flaunting wealth when usually a generation before your whole family wasnt shit, most likely your parents were in some dead end job or a farmer. Just look at 'new money' Chinese, you can't really blame them when going for gaudy pieces because humility/humbleness wasn't taught to them and artistic value generally does not fall into the equation when making purchases, it is quite literally about being a material boy/girl
>>10762145
new money, race is just a symptom because a lot of blacks havent had money before and now that they do, they show it off as distastefully as possible
A nuanced eye catches the small details. I see tons of Louis Vuitton bags floating around (and the occasional fake), but the leather oxidation betrays who really has money and who just wants to look like they do. An old designer bag is to them still better looking than a new non-designer one. Micheal Kors and other pseudo-luxury brands are more popular among middle class whites who don't seem to know any better.
The Chinese customers have an interesting divide. There is the split between new money and old money, but the fact of the matter is that most Chinese are new money. The real divide is between the older, more conservative generation (Omega watch, Ferragamo loafers, Zenga clothes, Bottega belt) and the younger, more liberal generation (Hublot watch, Versace loafers, SLP clothes, Gucci belt). Families rarely seem to shop together: usually the wife and husband go together, and the children go with their friends.
>>10762158
Kek
>>10762196
Hey there. Just wanted to say this is actually a really interesting thread that somewhat coheres to the rules of the board. Also I have noticed the phenomenon you speak of. The poorer populations tend to over-compensate for lack of true economic stability.
I remember in middleschool in the early 2000s a large percentage of the school population were publicly housed blacks.
But their clothing was nothing but Bape, Jordans, Ralph Lauren, and around this time everyone had these Gucci embossed AF1s.
Their parents would literally blow all of their paycheck on their child's clothes and have them fed with foodstamps and free school lunches. Having a huge welfare state with a culture that worships material goods and consumption just produces some awe-inspiring niggery.
Another interesting thing is to watch how people pay for their good. The Chinese and Arab customers are almost invariably credit card users, many of them not even carrying cash (the tourists and visitors often don't feel like going through the hassle of converting their currency). Blacks on the other hand are almost always cash customers, even the ones that aren't clearly drug dealers. It seems the physical act of pulling out a wad of cash to buy something is sufficiently pleasing to them that they will lug around a large wallet or stuff their pockets with banknotes for just this purpose.
In the nicer mall, bills are not supposed to be tested in front of the customer; in many cases they are not tested at all, or only after the customer has paid and left. This is because many cultures consider it strongly offensive to have the authenticity of their money challenged. Arabs in particular are extremely sensitive to this.
Sales associates also have to take care who they offer deals and discounts to. While most customers are elated to find something on sale or be offered a reduction at the register, some customers (again, mainly Arabs) will become offended, taking it to mean that the associate does not believe they can afford an item at full price. One one occasion I found myself shopping elbow to elbow with the Saudi Royal family at a jewelry store which was having a sale. None of the sale prices were offered to these clients, and everything was rung up at full price, the payee seemingly pleased to hear the ridiculous final tally.
The behavior of security and general store policies is also worth mentioning. Most designer boutiques have some form of loss prevention on the floor, usually near the entrance. The policy for hands-on hands-off security varies by store; at some places, the LP officers are allowed to detain you; at some places, they are allowed to actually tackle you; at other places they are not allowed to do anything but look menacing.
Security officers (as distinguished from security guards, who as a rule cannot do anything except call for the real police) are trained to look for customers who don't belong, who behave abnormally, or who arrive in large groups and crowd up the entire store. The phenomenon of 'being followed' is mostly an invention of the liberal media, because these stores are sufficiently small that no one is ever far out of sight, and cameras are everywhere. In the department stores the LP officers circulate, many of them wearing earpieces and slightly less well cut suits than the associates. The high end department stores around here also have an uniformed police officer who usually sits between women's handbags and the fine jewelry department (these are the most heavily robbed departments).
Jewelry stores themselves usually have a private security guard who carries a weapon protect against strong-arm robbery, but in most places they are not actually allowed to shoot a shoplifter. The windows on the outside of the store are ballistic glass, both to keep thieves out and keep wayward rounds in. The cheap jewelry stores (Kay's, Zale's) have low quality display cases with cosmetic glass which is often not even up to automotive standards. The higher end jewelers (Tiffany's, Bulgari) have shatter resistant safety glass, which is one step below banker's glass (almost impenetrable, but it has a green tint that makes it poorly suited for display cases).
Some jewelery stores cover their wares at closing, removing the most valuable pieces and storing them in a safe; others have cases which are safe-like themselves, and the jewelry shelves retract into the case for storage. These cases seem to malfunction frequently because they are mechanical, but they are used to save the labor of having to remove and replace piles of tiny jewelry pieces from each case every day.
A watch and jewelry store which is local to this area carries some of the finest brands (AP, Patek, Breguet), but they have an interesting policy about showing their wares. Each case has a tiny placard which reads "For insurance reasons, we are only permitted to show one item from this case at a time". This policy is not however universal, and in point of fact the store uses its own discretion when choosing when to apply it. It exists solely to allow the associates to refuse certain customers (ones who obviously do not belong in the store) from being able to lay their hands on more than one item at a time, limiting the potential of any snatch and dash. But if a well-heeled customer presents himself appropriately, they are more than happy to pull out the entire case for him to look at. Thus they elude any charges of discrimination by having a policy posted, and avoid hampering their associate's ability to show merchandise to actual customers.
tl;dr
Adidas > Nike
>>10762304
What country are you living in that has so many high end places concentrated in a single mall? I've been around the USA almost everywhere I've visited primarily target upper middle class and downward.
Many stores intentionally place their most valuable products at the back of the store, which serves a double purpose. First, it entices the customer to walk through the entire store, and second, it increases the distance between the high dollar items and the door, making theft a more difficult proposition. Jewelers I've seen which carry Rolex, for instance, seem to place their Rolex cases either all the way at the back, or at an oblique angle to the door, giving their security officer a better chance of intercepting any would-be shoplifter before he can clear the doorway.
Theft in general has become more and more of an issue in recent years, with blacks and even Hispanics arriving to these places and finding them relatively unsecured. The local police presence has increased as well, spoiling the relaxed atmosphere of the area and making it a less pleasant place to spend the day.
Contrary to popular belief, customers are seldom profiled based on their skin color. These stores seem to use what I call a general appearance quotient, or GAQ. Essentially, it takes all the aspects of your appearance and behavior into account and divides it by the dollar value of the store you're trying to get into. Race is only one factor among many: clothing and accessories, grooming, speech, loudness, body language, companions, attention level and so on are all taken into consideration. These stores are of course not allowed to refuse entrance to anyone unless they are doing something illegal; customers are occasionally asked to leave if they (or in rarer cases, their children) cannot behave.
>>10762351
The stores seem to be more indulgent towards good and regular customers in this regard as well, so that a black family with mischievous children will be politely asked to buy something or get out, whereas a Japanese family will be treated with respect and deference while the adults shop. It is not uncommon to see an older lady looking at handbags while her children or grandchildren horse around on the store's fine leather furniture. At the Prada store one particularly charming associate went into the back room to fetch a glass of champagne for the mother and two cupcakes for the children.
The malls have posted policies against pets (with the exception of service animals), but in practice there is little enforcement. Small dogs are often seen either in carriers or held in the hands. Occasionally there are leashed animals as well; I have even seen unleashed toy dogs romping around while their owners try to corral them.
The facilities are kept fastidiously clean for the most part, although certain places clean more thoroughly than others. On prom night it is not unusual to see young ladies walking about in bare feet after having gotten sick of wearing their heels all night long.
The general demographics of the area have changed markedly over the years. Mostly it seems that the commercial luxury vendors drag in the steerage from surrounding districts. 5 years ago, Louis Vuitton and Gucci were both located in standalone locations; since they have moved into the Galleria, their undesirable customer base has come with them. Other stores have even begun courting and pandering to this low-taste, high-dollar customer: Saks has added collections from Fendi and Versace, while Neiman Marcus now includes Guiseppe, Ballenciaga and MCM). The older associates don't appear to like dealing with these customers or selling these products, which is why there is usually a dedicated associate or associate team that handles them specifically.
I can't think of much more to add at this moment. Maybe we can have some kind of discussion.
>>10762377
whoever u r ty so much, great read
10/10
You seem to be repeating the same shit everyone already knows. Poor people like gaudy, expensive things. How long did it take you to realize that?
>>10762439
I think it's a bit more complicated than that.
I wander what /fa/ thinks about sumptuary laws
It's a universal hood thang.
In Spain, gypsies like to rock Lacoste and Polo, carry tons of gold with them and drive third or four hand Audis, Benzitos and Beemas. Same with hood people desu. And this ain't an american influence, shit has been like this since the beginning of times.
In Tanger, Morocco, everyone wears fake Armani, Lacoste, LV or Prada tees. Tons of fake stuff dealers in the center of the city.
>>10762145
>>10762162
OP I'm black I will explain it, because it is extremely simple.
> Black people who walk around, and dress like a "thug"
( which can literally just be a poor black person) are hated by socitey
> black people are 100% judged on what they wear in society by strangers
> if black people were overtly noticeable name brands, they can clearly be defined as having money
> clearly having money makes them less threatening, because people think "eh he has gucci and louis vuitton on he won't steal from me he has shit to lose"
> that is why black people do it, their social status is increased, and it provides a level of safety and security for them in society
> the black women are also attracted to the black men who do this because they are typically poor, and money = security = safety which are all things women care about,
I hope this helps you understand OP
>>10762556
Nah, it's quite like anon said.
You ever heard of Trimalchio?
>>10762556
I'm genuinely curious as to how long it took you to form this idea if how poorfags dress
>>10762580
so they do all this without understanding that people assume that they've acquired this image they're flaunting by selling drugs? seems like the plan backfires more than it succeeds...
mulatto guy here, don't know why I'm specifiying that but anyways, despite listening to a lot of hip hop i dress in rick and other "gothninja" brands ,and literally own one pair of pants from the brand versus(ie. versace's diffusion line) and they're pretty low key for a pair of pants from that brand.
Best thread in months
>>10762580
see
>>10763575
never have i once thought a black person wearing high end designer stuff didn't sell drugs, or wasn't a rapper of sorts, I actually work with a guy that bought his lv belt off of another person and he's pretty cool however, no drug dealing, no rapping.
Quality thread OP
>>10762338
There are a lot of high end malls. Lenox mall in Atlanta, Galleria in Houston. I'm sure there a more like these in NYC and LA but I've never been.
