Sephora

My friend Karen works at Sephora and she invited me to their pre-Grand Opening Special Event for Friends and Family at their new Powell Street last week. It's a store dedicated to cosmetics, fragrances and body care. They have their own line of beauty products but also sell other well-known brands such as Nars, Urban Decay and Cargo. I love Sephora and I don't even wear makeup.

I went there after my kickboxing class, so I looked dishevelled and out of place dressed in athletic attire. Meanwhile, the other customers looked like they had just stepped out of Vogue magazine, so understandably, I got some quizzical looks. Fortunately, the "salespeople" remained professional, gracious and polite. I put the word "salespeople" in quotes, because thankfully, I distinctly got the impression that they were not trying to sell me anything.

Therein lies the difference between Sephora and department store cosmetic counters. At Sephora, representatives genuinely try to help customers by offering assistance. Contrast this with department stores cosmetics witches, who are in-your-face and obviously on commission. They point out your flaws and gnaw at your insecurities all in a shameless effort to sell you their useless products. If you haven't seen it already, rent the movie "The Truth About Cats and Dogs" starring Uma Thurman and Jeanine Garafalo. There's a great scene in there that depicts the department store makeup nightmare to a T.

I emailed Karen about this, and she told me that they call their salespeople "cast members". Their selling floor is the "stage". It's a direct French translation they adopted when the Sephora concept first came to the US from France. I think Disney uses similar terminology. Disney folk are also called "cast members" and their visitors are "guests". Great imagery.

I wear makeup less than five times a year, partly because I don't know how to apply it properly, so while I was dazzled by Sephora's chromatic displays, I was at a loss at what to do with any of it. Instead, I took my time browsing other sections and loaded up on all sorts of goodies like shampoo, body scrub, body wash etc. Enticing a makeup grouch such as myself to spend money at a cosmetics store is a spectacular feat. My hat's off to the Sephora marketing department.

Comments

[bi]

HI L

Have moved jobs and your last email didnt work for me. email me !!

Love Bi