Don’t Shoot That Hat!

I’m at Bergdorf-Goodman Department Store in New York, arguably the snootiest 5^th Avenue shopping shrine of them all.  Diane Feen, editor of both the Hat Life Directory and the Hat Life Newsletter, and I are meeting to check out the store’s hat departments.  At the men’s side of the street (the B-G behemoth occupies both sides of 5^th between 57^th and 58^th), I pop on a natty straw hat with a stingy brim ($175!) – Diane pulls out her digital camera and snaps a shot.  Security from Al Quada terrorists should be so good – we are surrounded - “No pictures, No pictures in the store”.  Well, excuuuuuuse us.  The same scene transpires later at the women’s store side of the street.  This is clearly an important store directive.  I have been a hat merchant for 27 years, currently with four locations throughout California.  For the life of me, I cannot make sense of this policy.  Here are the reasons, as I see them, why people will take pictures wearing hats in a retail store.  Am missing something?   Please use the comments link below and let me know if I am:

1. Hats are fun and a picture in a hat is a good memory of an occasion, something to share with family or friends.  People will talk about the picture with others: “Here I am at Bergdorf-Goodman Department store wearing this cute hat, yada yada”.  Isn’t that good store marketing?
2. Maybe one wants to purchase a hat and the image is a reference.  The idea is to go home and get an opinion from your spouse or friend.  You note the size and when ready to buy, go on line and purchase it.  Or find it in the store’s catalog, or call them up and give this hotsy-totsy store your credit card number an have them ship it.  “Oh, you’re not sure what hat I want.  No problem, I’ll email you the image taken at your store”.  Isn’t this good for business?
3. You are a big bad competitor and want to knock off the hat.  Well, you can’t make a decent knock-off without the product.  If you have the resources and the resolve to have this hat copied, you are going to need to buy the hat to get it right.  It’s a ridiculous notion that one would make the necessary big-dollar investment to replicate this hat and not at least purchase one unit for the project.
4. You are a terrorist and your objective is really to stake out the store and the hat picture is a ruse.  (Or, you are looking to copy the store’s interior design, fixtures, or accoutrements.)  Well, if your purposes were that nefarious, wouldn’t you be using one (or many) of the small hidden cameras that are all over the place (and getting cheaper, smaller, and more clandestine all the time)?  I mean James Bond had this technology forty years ago. 

Am I missing something?  If hat merchants allow customers to take pictures, isn’t this good for business?  Policies like “Don’t shoot the hats” come from a lemmings’ mentality.  Oh, everyone institutes it, this must be good policy.   Big institutions are not immune from bad ideas (think USA).

Fred Belinsky

http://VillageHatShop.com

Comments

[Sue Dewhurst]

Great to read your comments and find an enthusiastic hatophile.I have been a milliner since the late 60's and have seen the ups and downs of the industry. Iwas delighted to happen on your site and hope that you continue to wave the hat in the air. I am still and will forever be making and designing hats, Ive just made 200 for the in production Harry Potter film. If you come to London do let me know as I have a considerable archive of literature relating to hats etc., books which you may not have any knowledge of also I have a large collection of hat blocks. I may begiving masterclasses in Belfast next year, which may be of interest too. Good luck keep up the extremely valuable work you are doing
Yours SueDewhurst.

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