How A Game of Telephone with Anya Hindmarch became…
What do you do when your client wants an iconic, limited edition tote for an event, and the desired object not only sold out long ago, but was still highly sought after on EBay years later? Welcome to our world.
One of our hedge fund clients wanted a hip, chic, green conference bag for an up-coming investor meeting. Someone suggested Anya Hindmarch’s instant classic, “I’M NOT A PLASTIC BAG.” Initially, we thought no way. Finding 200 of these bags, new, would be impossible, right?
Before shutting the door on the idea, we decided a look beneath the surface was in order. We called Anya Hindmarch’s corporate office in NY, and believe it or not they did not laugh at our request. Rather they promised to get back to us within 24 hours. What followed was an international game of Telephone.” The NY office called London and London called Tokyo. Tokyo in turn contacted Mitsukoshi, one of their independent retailers on the Ginza, who called us. It turns out that they just happened to have 200 bags sitting in one of their warehouses and were willing to sell their entire inventory. WOW*. It took a few days and surprisingly little effort on our part, but within 72 hours we had found our 200 bags at $19.00 a piece.
*(Keep in mind that Japan was where the craze tipped**– where bags worth $25.00 sold for $250 on the black market.)
** The term coined by Malcolm Gladwell in his best seller, The Tipping Point.
