I was shopping last night and found the jacket of my dreams, the one I
have been searching for for a year(and wasn't sure it even existed.
One of those "I'll know it when I see it" things). And there it was.
On the clearance rack! A red and black tweed Alfani hip length
jacket. Fringe on the sleeves and collar. Beautiful.

Except it was a size 8. I need a 10. And there was no tag of any
sort on the jacket. No price, no SKU number, nada. I asked the
salesgirl if she could help. Because there was no tag and no other
jacket like it in the store, she couldn't (or wouldn't). Said they
were sending it back to the manufacturer.

Today called the main branch (Lazarus/Macy's). Got the same answer
there as well. They only could tell me it was either from the fall or
even spring 2003 line. Googled Alfani.com. Apparantly they don't have
a web-site. Can any of you shopping pros help me find a way to track
down this jacket? I would move heaven and earth to find it. Some one
out there has to enjoy a treasure hunt as much as I do. And if the AF
pros can't do it, well no one can.

Thanks in advance. Love the group. Will be posting more soon.

i went through something like this recently with a coatdress...

i would suggest calling one of the flagship macy's stores, either in
NY or SF, request the personal shopper service, and enlist their help
in finding it. i think it's called Macys by Appointment.

--

robyn
robynew <at> yahoo <dot> com

blktrp@msn.com (Barbarizia) wrote in message news:<b468418c.0401081234.5953431e@posting.google. com>...
Try eBay? Not exactly systematic, but you never know...

~ellabella

blktrp@msn.com (Barbarizia) wrote in message news:<b468418c.0401081234.5953431e@posting.google. com>...


Alfani is one of Macy's private labels, therefore I doubt you would be
able to find it anywhere else except another Macy's store.
In situations like this, any Sales Manager for that section should be
able to give the cashier a price so she can ring up the sale. The
Sales Associate, as you suspected, just didn't want to go through the
trouble of doing this.
Following the procedure above is nothing extraordinary, it's a basic
part of their job. The sales manager will either remember from
memory, consult a sales/inventory report, or if necessary call the
Corporate office and find out the information for the jacket.

If the sales person continues to give you grief over this, I would
report the behavior to her manager.


--Maria

blktrp@msn.com (Barbarizia) wrote in message news:<b468418c.0401081234.5953431e@posting.google. com>...

sometimes the sales person wants the jacket for herself and dont want
you to get it.

lots of times outfits that i like or want dont have the price or size
tags etc. or even one or several of the buttons are missing to
discourage you from buying something a sales person want for herself.
(think some take and keep the button so others wont buy it, and
because its missing button or buttons, it is marked down and later
they buy it and sew back the button they taken earlier...i never tried
this, honest, but i would buy the top or bottom of an outfit, usually
the skirt, and later come back to by the jacket or top when its marked
down on sale but some places wise up to this and remove the matching
item from being sold instead of reducing the price so thats a gamble
if you try this techique of shopping . . . i have lots of "orphan"
skirts as proof)

i know at some stores theres a certain restriction for the sales
person from buying anything for herself until the buying public have
the first priority to buy it so to develop a customer base etc. i
know at one time i found a dinner suit in the women's department
rather than the misses. when i went to purchase it, the sale person
said that she wanted to buy the outfit to wear to a wedding and tried
to talk me out of purchasing it. (if she wanted it so bad, she could
had a friend to purchase it for her but she didnt think of this so it
hangs in my closet now).

other techniques they use is to mix the size of an two piece outfit to
discourage you from buying it, let it hand in the extreme dressing
room cubical or the restock rack etc.

i found lots of great styles and outfits by looking in pettie or
womens department that were my misses size that i would not otherwise
knew were there there if i just looked in the misses department. it
was either placed there by a customer who was gonna come back later
for it or the salesperson when she was allowed to buy for herself
later.

tina