GapBody EDT - Coconut Tuberose

I picked this up at the recent Prestige Warehouse Sale, which is by far the worst sale I have ever been to. Not that I am a connoisseur of private/warehouse sales, but I have been to those held by The Body Shop, Molton Brown, L'Oreal Luxury Brands, regular L'Oreal drugstore brands, Shiseido, Luxasia and the mother of all private sales - Estee Lauder (EL) Private Sale.

This was my first visit to the Prestige Warehouse Sale as I was always busy during the other sale times and it was so far away at Jalan Bukit Merah area. I got there around 11am (it started at 10am) and it was not that crowded but the system...oh my goodness.

As you can see from the floor plan (yes, I am too free to even bother creating a floor plan), it was mostly fragrances on sale. 3 rows of tables containing perfumes from brands which I have never really heard of. Obviously I don't remember those brands now, except these which I do recognize or know - Guess, Morgan, Ferrari, Versace, Mango, Givenchy and GapBody.

Most people attended the Prestige Warehouse Sale for Givenchy and Paul & Joe. Based on other people's accounts of previous sales, there were more items being sold. Such as loose powder, gwps items and Loewe fragrance. This sale was thus a disappointment, plus the prices were higher than previous sales too.

So how was this sale bad? As seen from the floor plan (not drawn to scale), Givenchy and Paul & Joe were at opposite end of the table. When I got there at 11am, there were lines forming (e.g. the arrow icons). Apparently when it started at 10am, people were just crowding around and so they decided to have queues to make it orderly. Sound idea, except it took so darn long to wait in line, especially if you could not even scan to see what was available.

Plus if you were there during your 1 hour lunch break, you would definitely not make it back in time. I only queued at Paul & Joe. It took me about 20mins to get there, with only about 10 persons in front of me. People just took too long to try the samples. Since I was helping others to buy, I just asked the person there for the items. All out of stock even though the samples were there. The eye shadows were at $15 each, not really a bargain at all, compared to other sales, so I did not bother. Plus the colors were hard to swatch.

So yes, I decided to just grab the GapBody EDT since I tried that while waiting in line. It was $14, down from $56 or something. At 100ml, it is quite a good deal. I checked online, it is going for US$20 (sale price at US$12.99). Coconut Tuberose has a faint rosy and a light coconut scent. It reminded me of beaches and tanning lotion. A beach holiday.

Anyway, so I went to the payment section. I was directed to Cashier B which was the CASH ONLY line. Halfway while waiting (only about 5-6 people ahead of me), it became a CASH + VISA payment line as the NETS machine over at Cashier A (to be a cash, NETS and credit cards line) broke down. Despite only 5-6 people in front of me, it still took me about 20 minutes to complete my transcation.

Most of this was due to their system of bagging the items customers ordered from Givenchy or Paul & Joe. The items you wanted would be placed in a ziplock bag with a number attached, the matching number will be given to you. Give that number to the guy standing outside the room where all the bags were stored, and he would search for that bag so that you could make payment.

Unfortunately theory always sounded better than in practice. In real life, they could not find the matching bag. Or if they did, the bag did not contain what the person requested for. The staff tried to solve this discrepancy by saying if it is not inside the bag, it means it is out of stock. However, most customers would have been watching what the people put inside the bag when they ordered.

So the other option is for them to go back to the counter and ask for the items. Most times though, the item would be out of stock by then. So it is very frustrating to the customer when that happened.

This is the only sale where I have been to where such a system exists. Already they put your handbags into a plastic bag and tied it so people could not really steal. It is just time wasting to have to queue to see the items at Givenchy and Paul & Joe, and then queue again for payment and to discover your items were not what you requested.

Until the management at Prestige learn from other organizers, I doubt I would make a trip down again just for the sale. The bagging problem happened at last year's sale. The only change they made was instead of writing your name on the bag, they gave out the matching number. So I guess the management is really so worried about letting customers put the items into their basket and make payment.