Perkins’ Picks

From today’s WWD:
[P]rices are often open to negotiation. As one Lord & Taylor salesperson said when a shopper inquired about the length of a sale: “There’s always a sale!”
So when exactly did it become okay to negotiate prices at department store?  They might as well get a fold out table and put up shop downtown in [...]

“In the heart of Paris’s medieval Marais district, amid the designer shops and cafes, embarrassed Parisians furtively emerge from a discreet doorway, zipping envelopes of cash into their handbags.”
– Angelique Chrisafis explains in yesterday’s Guardian what’s on the other side of that door: Le Crédit Municipal, France’s public pawnbroker and, for a country with basically [...]

New York department store Henri Bendel has a new way to deal with the economy. The store, which is part of Limited Brands, will stop selling clothing, switching focus to accessories and beauty products. With less merchandise the Fifth Avenue store will need less room and so it will give up one of its three [...]

I love the Charlie Rose show and Channel 13. Bill Ackman is well informed and very smart, every time I see him speak at a conference or otherwise, he keeps it simple and smart. The smartest people always keep it simple in my opinion.
Sit back and learn the real problems of the banking crisis, and [...]

We’re used to seeing things get more expensive – especially luxury automobiles – but here’s an example of getting more for less: Mercedes-Benz USA has announced that the price of its new E-Class sedan will actually drop by nearly $5,000 with the introduction of the new model next month. So while the outgoing E350 currently [...]

The Wall Street Journal’s magazine, WSJ., asks a question we ourselves have been wondering: Can the luxury-retail market survive the recession and the resulting everything-must-go 70 percent off sales that consumers are growing accustomed to? When was the last time you paid full price for anything designer? If we think back to the big Saks [...]

No one is safe in the age of the swine flu. Not even the chic people. Not even LVMH, the ever-profitable stalwart that has somehow managed to make money in this economy. Yesterday, shares in luxury-goods stocks were down across Europe, as new cases of swine flu were reported in Canada, France, New Zealand, Israel, [...]

NEW YORK via (CNNMoney.com) — General Motors announced plans to cut 23,000 U.S. jobs by 2011, drop its storied Pontiac brand and slash 40% of its dealer network in its latest bid to stay out of bankruptcy.
GM also announced an offer to its bondholders to swap $27 billion of the company’s unsecured debt for stock. [...]

When the economy’s down you have to have a side hustle!  Just check out what Giselle Bundchen’s been up to…

• Gisele has reportedly won over $1 million by betting on Italian soccer games. Because she needs the money, okay? [British Vogue]
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So yesterday news broke up regarding the Portfolio.com article by a mystery “TARP wife”. For those of you who haven’t read about this article. It chronicles that devastating poverty (note my sarcasm) of the wife of a investment CEO. She details day to day experiences such as shopping in her own closet, forgoing a Michelin-starred [...]