Home

'Get-It-Cheap Party' for Luxury Goods Ends at Saks BusinessWeek

19.04.10

(Adds closing part prices in sixth paragraph.)

By Cotten Timberlake

April 19 (Bloomberg) -- Lisa Hagen bought a $395 Diane von Furstenberg sundress at Barneys New York last week, paying 58 percent more than she did for a alike resemble dress two years ago.

“A lot of the high-end designers are at remarkably high prices,” said Hagen, 51, a marketing specialist in New York. Still, she said, “I am willing to pay higher prices and full prices if I like it, it fits my need and I positive I will use it.”

Luxury chains including Barney’s and Saks Inc. are selling costlier goods after scaling back discounts and promotions they offered to appeal to shoppers in the recession. Tiffany & Co. raised prices across the store. U.S. sales of luxury goods may rise 4 percent in 2010 after falling to $60 billion last year from a 2007 report of $72 billion, according to Bain & Co.

“The get-it-cheap party for luxury consumers has ended,” said Milton Pedraza, chief number one officer of the New York- based research firm Luxury Institute. “When consumers now turn over the result and look at the price, they see that those days of incredible discounts on luxury goods are over.”

Source: