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The scene inside at 10:10am
Weren't there when the Mayle sample sale started this morning at 9:55am? Well, you really needn't head over now. It's too late. Within 7 minutes of opening, the racks had been picked over by the swarms of women who'd been waiting patiently outside the tiny showroom in a hot, cramped hallway. The reason for the madness: aside from the generous markdowns, we got the impression that the staff wasn't replenishing. What they had to start was it. There were plenty of frocks—gold brocade, eyelet, animal-print silk numbers—a reasonable selection of blousy tops, a box full of handbags, a small selection of pants (which no one was touching), some vintage items and a good amount of Dessous underpinnings (also relatively untouched). The prices weren't rock bottom, but paying $25 to $125 for a Mayle blouse and $175 for a dress is nothing to sniff at.
As we said before, the space was cramped, and no one from Mayle was doing much crowd control. People kept pouring off the elevators into the tiny hallway, where they stood, faces almost pressed against the glass of the door as the early arrivers grabbed and shoved inside the sale. There was no dressing room to speak of, just a corner with a rolling rack and some mirrors. That area was a real shitshow. One woman lost her shirt, literally—took it off for a second, put it down, and looked away, only to look back and realize another rabid shopper had snatched it up. We ran into her at the check out line, where she was begging frantic Mayle staffers to find it for her so she could leave.
Brutal, just brutal.
· Live at the Mayle Sample Sale [Racked]
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