Who doesn’t love a good sale?!! I’m in a blogging group on Facebook and one of the members in the group asked who was going to the Gilt Warehouse Sale in SF last week. Since this was the first I had heard of the sale (and I’m not sure why it took me so long to find out about it), I hopped on the opportunity to go.
I tried to rally some girlfriends to go with me as they were serving wine and I thought it would be a good girlfriends outing, but they all declined at the last minute so I missed the early Friday, June 16th admission tickets (7-9PM) and purchased tickets to the 9-11PM time slot. Tickets were $25 on Friday and $5 on Saturday according to the Eventbrite site. Of course, I had to go on Friday because I wanted first dibs on the good stuff.
After driving around and around to find parking (due to downtown SF and the one-way streets) I finally parked and walked a few blocks to The Village where the event was held. When I arrived, there was no line but there was someone waiting to check tickets and a security guard who checked your ID. I walked in and another shopper (I assume who was from the 7-9PM shopping session) smiled and said, “Don’t worry there is still some good stuff left.” I responded to her and let her know that I was hoping there would be. I thought nothing more of it, but after looking around the three floors of items, I now think she was throwing a little shade. 🙂 But more on why later.
Once you get in, there was a bag check for those who had large bags. Luckily I did my research and changed my bag to my Brahmin wristlet so that I could skip the bag check and head straight for the goods.
The first few round tables were full of purses – mostly novelty purses.
I did like some of these purses. They would be great for a photo shoot. But they were extremely over priced to me since I would only be using them for shoots and props. Now before I continue, I must let you know that I really was hoping to find a Gucci Marmont belt. That was my one dream for this sample sale. However, that didn’t happen.
I loved this Pink Kenzo tote but this was also wayyyyyyy to expensive for me. But this one was hard because you guys know I love anything PINK!
This, I’ll call it makeup bag (because that is what I would use it for) was nice but it was also a few hundred if my memory serves me correctly. So I had to pass on this one as well. I’m not sure what I was expecting other than the belt, but I guess I wanted to snag a nice Chanel or Gucci bag for 80-90% off. Or at least see one. 🙂
After making sure I looked at EVERY purse on the tables, so that I didn’t miss anything that I may want to buy, I went to look at the home items and then shoes. Both the home and shoes sections were really picked over. I was hoping that there would be more shoes in my size. I would have loved to get some Valentino heels on sale and in my budget. But no such luck. I went to the third floor next as that was where the clothes were.
Racks on racks on racks of clothing separated by size were upstairs and I immediately went to my size to find that one special thing that stood out to me. Again, no such luck. I felt like you could see a lot of these clothes at Nordstrom rack. And at least at Nordstrom Rack I could collect Nordstrom notes for any of my purchases.
I was determined to find at least one thing to buy that would make my trip to the sale a success. So I walked the purses floor again and then the shoe floor again. As soon as I made it down to the shoe floor, the workers started saying we had nine minutes to line up and check out. Wait?!! Had the two hours gone by that fast? Nope. It was 9:50PM. So I asked one of the gentleman working about the time and he said there was a miscommunication on the tickets that were advertised. So…is Gilt giving refunds to the people who bought $25 tickets and only got to shop for 50 minutes? I have not contacted them yet but will keep you posted.
I did go back up to the home section and pick up this cute elephant bedding that will be a gift for someone. It was $35.
Overall, I would go to the Gilt sale again with the caveat that I have to get the first admission tickets. That way I can really see if there were any good items that I totally missed out on. And when I do, you will be the first to know.
Have you been to a Gilt sample sale in your area? Leave a comment and let me know what you found.
