So, I've been familiar with TUMI for many years and never owned a piece of its luggage. Yeah, it's expensive, but I have other luggage that's expensive, such as Briggs & Riley.
[Did you know Briggs & Riley has a LIFETIME WARRANTY, and states on their website: "Briggs & Riley, we don't want to sell you a bag, we want you to be part of our family. It's been our philosophy since day one. And in typical family fashion..."]
Frankly, I don't want to be part of a typical family, never was, so why should I start now? And I wouldn't want my family name to be Briggs or Riley. But I could thrive being a TUMI, it sounds Italian. (Italians are hot!)
Admission 1: I didn't go to this location to buy anything. I had purchased two pieces of sexy TUMI luggage at a remarkable price earlier in the week at Nordstrom Rack. And neither had any instructions for use or how to register the warranty. Nothing. Not one little piece of paper. I figured it was lacking info cause I got it at the Rack, and I could get the paperwork at this retail location. (Not so)
Admission 2: I own stock in TUMI. Acquired when the IPO was made a few years ago. It's in the red, deep red, and recently dropped to a new 52 week low. So I was curious how this retail location was doing and figured, let me check it out.
The store is filled with inventory. Lots of luggage styles and handbags and assorted other items, such as iPhone covers and iPad covers and scales and wallets and like I could go on and on. Very expensive. Very Boca.
The store was EMPTY, but so was the Town Center Mall. Out of nowhere appeared RACQUEL (actually she was in the backroom, but not the MarqusStyleBackRoom). She was upbeat and informative, and explained why my luggage purchased at Nordstrom Rack had no paperwork: none of their luggage does. Everything is on their web. If I purchased my luggage at a retail store they would, though, have automatically registered the warranty (5 years).
I looked at a luggage scale, would have bought it even though it was $50., but it wasn't sexy enough and was so light it turned me off. It didn't exude high quality or scream "I'm a TUMI luggage scale", and I looked at their iPhone leather covers, also VERY pricey and frankly, but I like those sold at Apple.
Racquel was really charming, informative, knowledgable, patient, and diplomatic (I couldn't get her to admit that many of their clients were beyond "challenging") and I really left feeling bad that I didn't buy anything. I did see a piece of hot black luggage with wild flowers (see pic) and would have bought it for AllenS, but our relationship hasn't progressed that far yet.
Note, the TUMI website was cumbersome to use, clunky, and while I did register the warranty and find information on how to lock the TSA approved lock and other good stuff, please TUMI management, invest more in website development. It was a challenge to navigate. A slick on-line presence Is critical to drive sales!
I have a story to tell about my cousin Harvey's ex-girlfriend Rena, who once told me "every guy who owns TUMI is a homosexual", to which I responded "not so, some are gay..", [she didn't get it], and she also worried that her VERYHOT son, who was a pilot for a fancy executive jet which flys into the Boca Executive Airport was a "homosexual" [her term] , cause he had lots of TUMI [no, I told her, even if he did go to gay clubs in Manhattan, cause everyone knows the music is fierce at gay clubs, as well as the women, and maybe he was just fashion forward], but I'm running out of characters. Ask me at a YelpElite event. She was bizarro. And nasty. And ignorant. Oh, I digress.
BUY TUMI. IT WILL HELP MY STOCK PORTFOLIO. and if you see it at Nordstrom Rack, grab it, it didn't stay on the floor more than a few hours. It's high quality, incredibly light weight (unlike Briggs & Riley), and you'll appreciate it for years.
Racquel rocks as a sales associate. And she wasn't gay either, not that there's anything wrong with that! [credit Jerry Seinfeld]. read more