Archive for the ‘Shopping’ Category

Construction is finished on the imposing new Louis Vuitton store at NorthPark (directly across the courtyard from the movie theater), and the big guns are coming in to christen the place. Louis Vuitton president and CEO Daniel Lalonde is jetting in to host Thursday’s grand opening party, a benefit for Big Thought.

Daniel is a veteran luxury executive clad in the clothes and physique of James Bond. He’s a staple of glossy party photos: Daniel with Scarlett Johansson, Daniel with Angie Harmon, Daniel with Julian Schnabel.

Publishing titan Patrick McCarthy will also be in the house. Patrick is chairman and editorial director of W magazine and Women’s Wear Daily.

Daniel is coming to the NorthPark Louis Vuitton opening (hosted by Kimberly Schlegel Whitman) direct from a similar LV opening with Maggie Gyllenhaal on Fifth Avenue in New York.

It’s that time of the year boys and girls!

Neiman-Marcus has unveiled the 2009 Christmas Book. Oh happy days and damn any recession because we have visions of cupcake-shaped electric cars for the kiddos, the world’s fastest electric motorcycle, and dinner with some of today’s bestselling authors. These are just a few of the fantasy gifts for sale in Neiman Marcus’ 2009 Christmas book.

Dallas-based Neiman Marcus made a conscious effort to offer more affordable options while not disappointing loyal luxury shoppers as it unveiled its Christmas Book at the Dallas Contemporary today.

Among this year’s offerings are a customized Cupcake Car for kids that costs $25,000 and reaches top speeds of 7 miles per hour. For adults, there’s a 2010 Jaguar XJL super-charged sedan, priced at $105,000. Neiman Marcus customers will be the first to be able to purchase the vehicle, which comes with a 5-piece set of luggage that matches its leather interior.

This year’s his-and hers gift – an annual tradition – is an ICON A5 sports aircraft, with pilot training for two. It costs a mere $250,000.

At $200,000, the Algonquin Round Table Experience includes dinner for two at New York’s Algonquin HotelMalcolm Gladwell, John Lithgow, Nora Ephron with eight famous authors, including and Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

About 40 percent of this year’s catalog items are priced under $250.

The luxury retailer’s his-and-hers gifts and other over-the-top holiday gift ideas represent a tradition that dates back to the 1950s. Stanley and Edward Marcus started picking attention-grabbing gifts to get the store on national TV, and it still works.

Last year, the Dallas-based retailer offered all 530 square yards of one of the end zones at Texas Stadium and a party to go with it for $500,000. His-and-hers gifts were life-size Lego likenesses of the buyers for $60,000 apiece.

A limited-edition 2009 BMW Individual 7 Series sedan offered a year ago didn’t sell out. Thirty-one were offered to represent the number of years that BMW has been selling in the U.S. A car has been part of the catalog for many years and has been known to sell out in a matter of minutes.

Luxury has been hard hit by the recession and has experienced some of the biggest sales declines. Neiman Marcus is adding more merchandise in its middle price points this year, while it continues to sell its highest priced luxury brands.

For the second year, Neiman Marcus is publishing a separate holiday book featuring “giftable” items, many under $100.

The always fantastic North Texas Irish Festival is going on RIGHT NOW at Fair Park in Dallas. This event will probably pull in record numbers this year because of the gorgeous weekend weather we are having!

Check out the doghouses built to benefit Habitat for Humanity, Scottish clans, bagpipers, cutting edge AND traditional Celtic music, dancing, tons of vendors offering everything from foods to clothing to swag you just gotta have!

This IS a dog-friendly event so bring Fido out with you.

If you’ve not attended this event before, you really must make time for it today or tomorrow. Today’s schedule (Saturday) will be 10:30a - 11:30p; Sunday: 11:30a - 7:30p. Ticket prices are $15.

And yet another sarcastic “chalk me up as surprised” announcement, the ultra hip showpiece restaurant of Victory Park shut its doors after last night’s dinner service.

N9NE Steakhouse closed, just six months after sister restaurant Nove Italiano shuttered.

This closing is sure to be a less than savory blow for Victory Park which is struggling to establish its identity. Just a couple days ago, word leaked out that home furnishings boutique Haven is moving to the West Village in Uptown which should do wonders for its foot traffic.

As of now, there’s no word on what Victory developer Hillwood has planned for the N9NE space.

Chalk this move up to the sarcastic “Are we surprised?” category….

The guys at Haven, which has been a mainstay at Victory Park, is currently having a big “50% off everything in the store” sale as they prepare to move to their new digs at West Village which will be just two doors down from Taco Diner.

Haven gave it a great run at Victory Park, but like so many other retailers, they are packing up and moving on since the VP concept is just not working yet. And retailers cannot just sit idly by as they have serious overhead.

We’re looking forward to checking out the new place!

Some of us did and YES, this happened to us:

If you shopped at Macy’s on the Saturday before Christmas – one of the season’s busiest shopping days – and paid with a debit card, carefully check your bank statement because a computer glitch may have caused your account to be debited twice.

Macy’s Inc. spokesman Ed Smith said a “very small number” of customers were affected, but he didn’t know exact figures.

“Macy’s had a system issue on Saturday, Dec. 20, from 1 to 2:45 p.m. at stores in Macy’s Central and East divisions, which may have caused multiple debits to some customers’ checking accounts,” he said. “The problem has been identified and corrected.”

Macy’s Central division, which includes Texas, has 236 stores in 18 states in the South and Midwest. The East division operates 253 stores in 20 states and the District of Columbia.

Smith said Macy’s “has communicated with customers’ banks. The banks will credit customers’ checking accounts.”

The glitch affected only debit cards and not credit cards, Smith said.

Smith said Macy’s needs the bank statements to verify that the computer system glitch caused the bank accounts to be overdrawn.

“We will have the charges removed,” he said.

Consumers affected by the glitch should send a fax of their bank statements to 513-573-2433 and label it “Attention: Third Party Credit.”

Consumers should closely monitor their bank accounts to ensure that other checks they’ve written didn’t bounce, said attorney Mary Spector, who teaches consumer law at Southern Methodist University’s Dedman School of Law.

“Monitor the checks and recipients of any checks or other payments that they might have paid in the interim to make sure that there are no problems caused by checks and debits attempted to be made in the period before Macy’s discovered the problem,” she said.

Editor’s Note:

Interesting story. I was at the NorthPark location that Saturday buying a gift and used my debit card. It was scanned, I entered my pin, waited a couple minutes and was told to rescan it as they would run it as a credit card. When I checked my online account later, BOTH transactions had posted and I promptly called Macy’s. The woman who identified herself as the manager overseeing the men’s fragrance section said for me to call back on Tuesday if both transactions had indeed gone through and she would hand process my refund. I called back last Tuesday, left her all the info and there’s been no follow up.

I would NOT fax my banking information to some unknown 3rd party. I called my bank and have already filled out the dispute claim and MY bank will deal with it since obviously even Macy’s upper management can’t even return a phone call to address this situation.

This year is proving to be tight on the gift giving side and you’ve been given a maximum of $5 to spend on the office Secret Santa exchange.

But you’re craving to give a worthwhile gift to someone you know well. Consider buying them a session of French classes at Alliance Francaise de Dallas.

With all levels of French from beginner to intermediate to advanced for adults, teens and kids, you are sure to find that perfect match for someone.

After all, if you are craving to visit Paris but you are a vegetarian, you need to make very sure you can communicate that so you can avoid any unpleasantness over the steak tartare! (Avez-vous des plats sans viande?)