rinnah’s consumer views|what a consumer really wants and thinks about products and services

Ah, my favorite warehouse sale is back.

As the picture says, you can get deals on cosmetics and fragrances from Lancome, Biotherm, Shu Uemura, Ralph Lauren, Giorgio Armani, Cacharel, Guy Laroche and Diesel.

I’ve never missed a sale since I found out about it two years back, and if you shop carefully, there are likely bargains to be found especially if you know the usual recommended retail price. It is interesting to note though that prices at these ‘warehouse/clearance’ sales have been steadily increasing and while still cheaper than the average over-the-counter price, it is no longer a steal by any means. Still, as the savvy shopper who can suss out a good deal from an average deal, you’ll be fine.

Happy shopping!

Note: This post is back-dated to 23 August 2008.

When I’d first heard of this warehouse sales, my first thought was that of dismay as it was a 1 day only sale. I had a scheduling conflict in terms of an exam scheduled for that very day at 10:00am, which happened to be the time that the warehouse sales began. I figured that all the good stuff would be snapped up before I could even possibly hope to get there. Luckily, I was proven wrong.

After insanely rushing through my exam in record time (I wonder what the results will be like?) I drove over to the Parkroyal Hotel, which was where the warehouse sales was being held. Saw a number of people evidently leaving the sales with plastic bags of stuff, and my heart sank. The lack of any queue as I headed up to the first floor was even more discouraging! Apparently the organizers only opened the doors every 20 – 30 minutes or so, and I arrived with perfect timing to get in without even having to wait. Yay!

My colleague was a bit disappointed because she’d asked me to get her Ralph Lauren Romance perfume, but there was only Ralph Lauren Rocks available then. The Biotherm stocks rapidly dwindled too, but there was plenty of Lancome skincare around. Pity that my favorite Lancome mascara was not available in black, but only in odd party/funky colors. Still, I got my hands on some Lancome lipsticks and grabbed a couple of Lancome skincare items for mom and myself, plus a Biotherm moisturiser.

It was a far better set-up than the previous warehouse sale I’d attended just a week earlier and I was pretty happy with what I got. Definitely one of the warehouse sales to put on my list for next time!

I’m such a sucker for sales, especially warehouse sales. Haha. So when I heard about this warehouse sale of branded fragrances and cosmetics happening in the area near my office, of course I had to go and check it out. No pictures of the sale though, as I didn’t bring my camera along.

Image credit

Like the flyer says, brands on sale are : Givenchy, Ferrari, Paul & Joe, Esprit, Loewe, David Beckham, MNG, Versace and others. I targeted to check out Givenchy and Paul & Joe as I wasn’t too interested in the other brands.

Even though I was there at 12.00pm on the first day of the sales, already some brands had sold out. Givenchy makeup was available in limited quantity only, as was Paul & Joe and some of the better shades available were finished. The more well known brands of perfume were selling out fast but there was still ample stock of lesser known branded perfumes (I can’t remember any of the names, that’s how unknown some of the brands were).

I was there only out of curiousity but I still ended up getting something anyway. Here’s a shot of my stash below – I Loewe You perfume (50ml) and Paul & Joe eyeshadow in a pale nude-y pink (09).

I’ve been to other warehouse sales held at Corus Hotel before and I have to comment that the organizers could have put more thought into the whole setup. Firstly, instead of having the entrance immediately as you come up the stairs, they made that the exit instead. Inside the ballroom, the setup was very spacious and quite well segregated. I would like to suggest that the organizers make coffee beans available as after less than 5 minutes in the area, I couldn’t really tell the difference between perfumes – they all smelled the same! However, the cashier queue area sucked. There were three cashiers but the processing took too much time and the queue snaked its way into the browsing area. It is not very fun to try to see what products are available because the payment queue is blocking your path.

If you don’t mind the selection of brands available, this is a good sale as far as the price goes. But if you’re picky about the brands you use, you may as well skip the sale and save your time.

I can’t think of a better way to re-launch my reviews (and other consumer-related stuff) blog at this new domain than to blog about this year’s Estee Lauder Staff Sales. )

Firstly, I have to thank my fellow blogger Beetrice for the invite to the Estee Lauder Staff Sales. I didn’t know that I was holding on to a Willy Wonka Golden Ticket until I read about the good bargains, crazy queues, massive hordes of people and some near-obsessed females practically begging on different blogs/forums for an invite. Some of these coveted free but limited invites were also being sold for a nice sum (enough to feed my little Kelisa with one tank of petrol) before the event day.

I had originally planned to be there early, say around the ungodly hour of 6.30am, exactly one and a half hours before the doors were scheduled to open at 8.00am. Kiasu? Yes. I am female AND Malaysian after all. Haha. I was a bit late but all was good in the end because I arrived at exactly the same time as Beetrice, around 6.55am. The sight that greeted me was nothing short of amazing/shocking. I wonder at what time did these people start lining up?

Due to the overwhelming size of the crowd and possible crowd control issues, I’m glad that the organizers opened the doors early. Even though the sales was only supposed to begin at 8.00am, by around 7.30am they were already letting the people in. And, the lines moved quite rapidly and without incident, save for one or two people who tried to jump queue by hopping over the barricades. Ish. Malaysians never do learn, do they?

Didn’t manage to take any photos inside the Grand Ballroom because I was too busy trying to grab the stuff I wanted. *grin* Best-selling stuff went really quickly and there was limited stock too. Bobbi Brown sold out within half an hour and the better/popular skincare products for Clinique and Estee Lauder also finished quickly. I just managed to sneak one of the last few jars of Clinique’s Repairwear Contour firming cream for my mom. Needless to say, mom was quite happy with that and the two Clinique lippies that I gave her (the colors suited her better). As for me, I bagged myself a nice enough stash of 6 glosses (Clinique & M.A.C.), Estee Lauder’s Idealist skin refinisher and DKNY’s Be Delicious perfume. Let’s just say that the damage to my credit card was quite hefty. Hehe.

I think overall this year’s event was pretty well organized and I would go again next year if I managed to get an invite. When I left around 8.40am (approximately 1 hour after I got in), the queue to go in now stretched down the stairs and all the way out onto the street. Yikes!

Pictures and reviews of the products bought will be done as soon as I can draft ‘em!

Edit : Beetrice has also blogged about the sales (and her loot) here!