I love the Stella McCartney brand and had a gift card to use so I went to the store to shop.
First issue: the hours are comically challenging. The store is closed every Sunday and also closes very early on weekdays. Also, until recently, the hours posted on Yelp were inaccurate. Anyway the hours are great for employees but not for people who want to shop. The department stores that carry the brand have great hours.
Second issue: Almost everything in the store was over $500 even though the handbags and wallets are not real leather. I get that it's a nice brand but this made it a not-so-good place to use a gift card. Also the store is super tiny and doesn't have such a good selection.
Third issue (well more like advice): most of the things that are sold here fan be purchased from Harrod's or Harvey Nichols for way lower prices (same exact items) and shipped for free to the U.S. Those stores even take coupons which makes this a great option.
Most important issue of all: I found the store associates to be extremely unfriendly. Once they realized I had a gift card they didn't seem like they wanted to help me find something. When I asked questions they gave me very brief and flat answers. They even told me I wasn't allowed to use gift cards on perfume, which was inaccurate, but once I showed them the gift card (perfume was clearly not excluded) they backed down. I would imagine they are nicer to people who spend thousands on clothes in one shopping spree, but who knows.
Other stores have much nicer and more friendly sales associates. I even found the sales associates at Chanel to be nicer. I guess all of this explains why people prefer shopping onljne to shopping in stores. Moving forward, I'll be buying all of my Stella McCartney online. read more