Logo-rithmic price rise

MYSTERY GUEST

I have a crummy old bag which has seen better days. But now the bag is showing signs of abuse. With this bag dangling on my arm, I dared walk into the Louis Vuitton store in Delhi, which to some is the bag temple. Handbags here sell for a price that should leave any right-minded person gasping. A rather eager young man in a dark suit circles me in a solicitous manner. "May I help you?" he says, half-bending in a pleasingly obsequious way. I point to a red coloured ring displayed and demand to see it. The price in this luxury haven for a humble ring is upwards of Rs 20,000. "What is it made of?" is my next salvo. "Plastic," the half-bent gent responds. Plastic. I mull over this one. My reverie is interrupted by the salesman who says, "We call it the Inclusion line." "Why Inclusion?" "Because" "" here a slip of a girl salesperson steps in to explain "" "we include the LV logo inside the ring." And if someone has taken time to do that then that price is justified, isn't it?

I tinker with some wallets with LV monogrammed all over. "What is this made of?" I once again try to engage the salesman. "The top," he says, "is canvas. The rest is leather." Canvas. I am forced to mull the choice of material by this luxury brand. Canvas as in Monogram Canvas, which the founder's son used to stop the counterfeiting of LV products, or just plain old canvas as in the canvas shoes that we all wore to PT in school?

The salesman isn't willing to tell me any more on the subject and I ask him about the latest collection they have. Bags from the Love collection are displayed and the salesman informs me that they are made of satin. I finger some scarves, look at some belts and then walk out of the store where, though the staff is courteous, the shopping experience is less luxury and more nouveau-riche. The romance of shopping at a designer store is missing and the inability of the staff to communicate the history behind the materials and products disappoints.

Score: 6.5/10. If I have to spend a lakh of rupees to buy a handbag then I need to be pampered from the moment I enter the store, which just didn't happen. I might as well have been shopping at Wal-Mart.