Current Events > Payless opened a fake luxury store to see how much people would pay for $20 shoe

(+) Yeah! (+)

*shoes

Party goers, having no idea they were looking at discount staples from the mall scene, said theyd pay hundreds of dollars for the stylish shoes, praising the look, materials and workmanship. Top offer: $640, which translates to an 1,800 percent markup, and Palessi sold about $3,000 worth of product in the first few hours of the stunt.

https://www.adweek.com/brand-marketing/payless-opened-a-fake-luxury-store-palessi-to-see-how-much-people-would-pay-for-20-shoes/
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bahahah
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sylverlolol posted...

bahahah

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https://s3.lightboxcdn.com/vendors/fa326600-3d11-46ca-9bff-f8d76abc17a3/uploads/d91d40c9-43d0-4357-8944-18bebb734e48/AW_logo_BLK01.svg

No
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I cant get to the link but if you pay a luxury amount and you cant tell the difference between premium and non premium materials then the joke is on you.
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If you serve fast food on white tablecloths in a tony-looking restaurant, people sometimes think its haute cuisine. (At the very least, it tastes a lot different than it does when youre scarfing it down from a drive-through bag).

It turns out you can do the same for bargain kicks by showcasing the footwear against the kind of chic backdrop usually reserved for luxury labels like Jimmy Choo and getting people to pay outrageous markups.

Thats what Payless did recently in Santa Monica, taking over a former Armani store and stocking it with $19.99 pumps and $39.99 boots. The chain, via agency DCX Growth Accelerator, invited groups of influencers to the grand opening of Palessi and asked their opinions on the designer wares.

Party goers, having no idea they were looking at discount staples from the mall scene, said theyd pay hundreds of dollars for the stylish shoes, praising the look, materials and workmanship. Top offer: $640, which translates to an 1,800 percent markup, and Palessi sold about $3,000 worth of product in the first few hours of the stunt.

Payless, or Palessi, did ring up those purchases but didnt keep the money. Influencers got their cash back, along with free shoes. Their reactions caught in the short- and longer-form adsthose shocked gotcha momentsare fairly priceless.

The retailer wanted to push the social experiment genre to new extremes, while simultaneously using it to make a cultural statement, said Doug Cameron, DCX Growth Accelerators chief creative officer. Payless customers share a pragmatist point of view, and we thought it would be provocative to use this ideology to challenge todays image-conscious fashion influencer culture.

Payless CMO Sarah Couch says the chain aimed to tackle the brands perception issues head-on at a time when retailers are feeling more heat than ever from giant ecommerce sites.

The campaign plays off of the enormous discrepancy and aims to remind consumers we are still a relevant place to shop for affordable fashion, Couch says.

Ads will run on cable TV networks like Bravo, Lifetime, TBS, Telemundo and USA and on social channels like YouTube, Facebook and Instagram through the holidays.
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this reminds me of when someone dropped their glasses in an art museum and a bunch of art critics were reviewing the glasses on the floor and taking pictures n shit as if it was some high profile and sophisticated art piece or something
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FLUFFYGERM posted...

this reminds me of when someone dropped their glasses in an art museum and a bunch of art critics were reviewing the glasses on the floor and taking pictures n shit as if it was some high profile and sophisticated art piece or something

lol
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Nice
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The market works!
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Antifar posted...

The market works!

It does work. That is why there are discount shoes and shops like Payless that sell goods for low costs.

Demand for luxury goods, and people talking shit about perceived luxury, doesn't somehow suggest that the market doesn't work.
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Tequilawhatitdo posted...

I cant get to the link but if you pay a luxury amount and you cant tell the difference between premium and non premium materials then the joke is on you.

I think what makes this a lot less interesting/funny is that the people in question are 'influencers' rather than anybody who would necessarily have an idea about the difference between those two types of product
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Shows that influencers, and those who they influence need, need to be shipped off to some island.

The X Dawg posted...

Shows that influencers, and those who they influence need, need to be shipped off to some island.

If influencers are influencing shit, why would anyone pay them any attention.

I hate this social media society. No one can create their own fucking thoughts.
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Like honestly it's kinda telling that they targeted people whose whole MO is to jump on whatever trend or wave they see as being worthwhile.
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FLUFFYGERM posted...

Antifar posted...

The market works!

It does work. That is why there are discount shoes and shops like Payless that sell goods for low costs.

Demand for luxury goods, and people talking shit about perceived luxury, doesn't somehow suggest that the market doesn't work.

I'm not sure Payless is your best example here. This stunt is the first time they've been in the news for something besides store closings in months.
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Gheb posted...

FLUFFYGERM posted...

Antifar posted...

The market works!

It does work. That is why there are discount shoes and shops like Payless that sell goods for low costs.

Demand for luxury goods, and people talking shit about perceived luxury, doesn't somehow suggest that the market doesn't work.

I'm not sure Payless is your best example here. This stunt is the first time they've been in the news for something besides store closings in months.

Fuck, I guess I'd better choose from one of the hundreds of other shoe stores that have shoes at low prices.
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Pretty much all ultra-expensive shoes aren't worth even a fraction of their price tag and exist only to part fools from their money.
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I think this is interesting, but I also think there's a big piece missing from this experiment: What will the customers think of the shoes they bought after they start to fall apart (as typical for Payless Shoes) in 30 days?

I don't think the issue with Payless Shoes was ever that they weren't stylish or comfortable...but rather that they simply deteriorate very quickly....at least in my experience. My Doc Martens, for example, which costed me $130 about 12 years ago, are still in pretty damn good shape.

Clever ploy on Payless's part to try and make their shoes seem more worth buying, though.
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FLUFFYGERM posted...

this reminds me of when someone dropped their glasses in an art museum and a bunch of art critics were reviewing the glasses on the floor and taking pictures n shit as if it was some high profile and sophisticated art piece or something

http://hoaxes.org/archive/permalink/pierre_brassau_monkey_artist

clearaflagrantj posted...

FLUFFYGERM posted...

this reminds me of when someone dropped their glasses in an art museum and a bunch of art critics were reviewing the glasses on the floor and taking pictures n shit as if it was some high profile and sophisticated art piece or something

http://hoaxes.org/archive/permalink/pierre_brassau_monkey_artist

Art critics, journalists, and students, glasses of wine in hand, silently contemplated Brassau's creations. Their praise was almost unanimous. Rolf Anderberg of the morning Posten later wrote that most of the works at the show were "ponderous," but not those of Brassau:

"Pierre Brassau paints with powerful strokes, but also with clear determination. His brush strokes twist with furious fastidiousness. Pierre is an artist who performs with the delicacy of a ballet dancer."

One lone critic panned Brassau's work, declaring, "Only an ape could have done this." As it turned out, this critic was correct. Pierre Brassau was, in fact, an ape. Specifically, he was a four-year-old West African chimpanzee named Peter from Sweden's Boras zoo.

lmfao
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HenryAllbright posted...

I think this is interesting, but I also think there's a big piece missing from this experiment: What will the customers think of the shoes they bought after they start to fall apart (as typical for Payless Shoes) in 30 days?

I don't think the issue with Payless Shoes was ever that they weren't stylish or comfortable...but rather that they simply deteriorate very quickly....at least in my experience. My Doc Martens, for example, which costed me $130 about 12 years ago, are still in pretty damn good shape.

Clever ploy on Payless's part to try and make their shoes seem more worth buying, though.

Yeah it's just clever marketing.
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FLUFFYGERM posted...

clearaflagrantj posted...

FLUFFYGERM posted...

this reminds me of when someone dropped their glasses in an art museum and a bunch of art critics were reviewing the glasses on the floor and taking pictures n shit as if it was some high profile and sophisticated art piece or something

http://hoaxes.org/archive/permalink/pierre_brassau_monkey_artist

Art critics, journalists, and students, glasses of wine in hand, silently contemplated Brassau's creations. Their praise was almost unanimous. Rolf Anderberg of the morning Posten later wrote that most of the works at the show were "ponderous," but not those of Brassau:

"Pierre Brassau paints with powerful strokes, but also with clear determination. His brush strokes twist with furious fastidiousness. Pierre is an artist who performs with the delicacy of a ballet dancer."

One lone critic panned Brassau's work, declaring, "Only an ape could have done this." As it turned out, this critic was correct. Pierre Brassau was, in fact, an ape. Specifically, he was a four-year-old West African chimpanzee named Peter from Sweden's Boras zoo.

lmfao

I liked this

Initially Peter preferred eating the paint to placing it on a canvas. He especially liked the tart flavor of the cobalt blue. But eventually he started smearing paint on the canvases provided to him. Because of his taste preferences, cobalt blue featured heavily in his work.

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Tequilawhatitdo posted...

I cant get to the link but if you pay a luxury amount and you cant tell the difference between premium and non premium materials then the joke is on you.

And the joke is there is no real difference.

Handmade is the only real exception except handmade doesn't mean it is better made, it just means the markup is to cover the expert laborers wages as they took hours to craft it.
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eggcorn posted...

Influencers got their cash back, along with free shoes.

laaaame
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darkphoenix181 posted...

Tequilawhatitdo posted...

I cant get to the link but if you pay a luxury amount and you cant tell the difference between premium and non premium materials then the joke is on you.

And the joke is there is no real difference.

Handmade is the only real exception except handmade doesn't mean it is better made, it just means the markup is to cover the expert laborers wages as they took hours to craft it.

I disagree a bit. See my post above. Style and comfort? Maybe little to no difference. But durability? Absolutely.

Then again, that's just my personal experience with Payless Shoes vs shoes from elsewhere. I realize anecdotal evidence doesn't prove anything.
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darkphoenix181 posted...

Tequilawhatitdo posted...

I cant get to the link but if you pay a luxury amount and you cant tell the difference between premium and non premium materials then the joke is on you.

And the joke is there is no real difference.

Handmade is the only real exception except handmade doesn't mean it is better made, it just means the markup is to cover the expert laborers wages as they took hours to craft it.

No, the "joke" is that the worth people put in something subjective like style is often times (always?) silly. When it comes to durability, support, and comfort, shoes are definitely not created equal. This was a cool experiment, but Payless shoes still suck and are a bad investment if you do anything more extreme than walking around town.
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HenryAllbright posted...

darkphoenix181 posted...

Tequilawhatitdo posted...

I cant get to the link but if you pay a luxury amount and you cant tell the difference between premium and non premium materials then the joke is on you.

And the joke is there is no real difference.

Handmade is the only real exception except handmade doesn't mean it is better made, it just means the markup is to cover the expert laborers wages as they took hours to craft it.

I disagree a bit. See my post above. Style and comfort? Maybe little to no difference. But durability? Absolutely.

Then again, that's just my personal experience with Payless Shoes vs shoes from elsewhere. I realize anecdotal evidence doesn't prove anything.

What do you make of this?
https://www.survivalistboards.com/showthread.php?t=234437

Anyways, ofc there is differences in quality.
To explain what I mean, doc martens being worth $130 is not tested by comparing ro payless, but other shoes that aren't purposely cheaply made (payless) but still not a luxury brand.

That is, you could probably finding durable good boots for $40-50 rather than $130.

Luxury vs. Non luxury.

Payless on the other hand is like off brand of the non-luxury.

Also, nikes for example has "luxury" lines while still being mass produced.
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Paragon21XX posted...

Pretty much all ultra-expensive shoes aren't worth even a fraction of their price tag and exist only to part fools from their money.

this. sneakerheads are a joke
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most humans are sheep, this isn't news
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I've bought $500 boots and $50 imitation boots for when it rains.

The $500 still look brand new, the $50 shoes look like they've been through a warzone.

Also, protip: you can't maintain fake leather like you can with real leather.

There's definitely a difference between quality shoes and Payless shoes. Just because "influencers" weren't able to tell doesn't really say much. Compare a $15 pair of boots you get on Amazon to high end boots and you'll see a huge difference.
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clearaflagrantj posted...

I've bought $500 boots and $50 imitation boots for when it rains.

The $500 still look brand new, the $50 shoes look like they've been through a warzone.

Also, protip: you can't maintain fake leather like you can with real leather.

Wouldn't the $500 boot be handmade?
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Chuck taylors 4 life
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Damn_Underscore posted...

Chuck taylors 4 life

I always have two pairs of chucks.
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eggcorn posted...

FLUFFYGERM posted...

this reminds me of when someone dropped their glasses in an art museum and a bunch of art critics were reviewing the glasses on the floor and taking pictures n shit as if it was some high profile and sophisticated art piece or something

lol

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Tequilawhatitdo posted...

if you pay a luxury amount and you cant tell the difference between premium and non premium materials then the joke is on you.

Yeah, every time I bought shoes from payless that's under 40, it has never done me any good. Probably got a few injuries from wearing their lower end shoes to be honest.

They have some decent stuff, but the price of the decent stuff is the same as the market price in any other store any way.

There was a brain games on this

Cake instead of shoes iirc
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Reminds me of when wine snobs were proven to be bullshitting.
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You can tell the difference by the texture and even the smell of higher quality shoes. A well made hand crafted shoe lasts a long time. I swear by the shoes made by Taft Clothing and Paul Evans.
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