Inside a ritzy new San Francisco luxury consignment store from the first resale company to go public, where Louis Vuitton, Gucci, and Supreme should attract a deep-pocketed clientele
The RealReal is not your average resale retailer.
It focuses on the resale of items from luxury brands like Louis Vuitton …
… Gucci …
… Supreme, which also recently opened a brick-and-mortar in San Francisco not far from The RealReal ...
… Rosie Assoulin …
… and Chanel.
The RealReal was the first resale company to go public in July 2019. The company raised $300 million in its IPO, according to Forbes.
Source: Forbes
The success of its public offering and the company's estimated valuation of about $1.5 billion shows teh market demand for luxury resale goods, a niche that The RealReal has long filled.
Source: Business Insider
San Franciscans have previously been able to shop the brand's inventory online, but the new Union Square brick-and-mortar provides a physical location to peruse the offerings.
Clothing is curated by category, like this section devoted to "Stealth Luxury," a term used to describe understated items that discreetly exude opulence.
There is also one dubbed "Everyday SF" geared for San Francisco. This store has a heavier focus on knitwear because of the mild Bay Area climate.
This featured a $300 dress, a pre-owned $105 Jill Stuart sweater, and a $1,225 Loewe purse.
The RealReal has 10 brick-and-mortar locations in the US, but new to the San Francisco store is radio frequency identification trays.
Source: Business Insider
The trays are able to read a product that is placed atop it via a tag and then display details about the item — like its price and brand — onto a tablet.
The store is rolling that feature out for only watches and fine jewelry for now.
There are also home decor items, like this figure priced at $2,595.
The top brands in San Francisco online handbag purchases have been Celine, Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Prada, and Bottega, so handbags from those brands are heavily stocked.
The company prides itself on its authentication process conducted by trained specialists, who expertly vet each item.
Though in 2019, the Washington, D.C.-based The Capitol Forum, an organization that investigates potential consumer protection issues, found that The RealReal's authentication practices may not be as thorough as they're made out to be.
Source: Fashionista
The report alleged that untrained hourly workers instead of professional authenticators were conducting the authentication process for the consigned items coming through the site.
Chanel also filed a lawsuit in 2018 claiming that The RealReal has sold fake Chanel handbags. The suit is pending in a federal court in New York, according to CNBC.
Source: Fashionista
In a statement to Fashionista in September 2019, The RealReal dismissed The Capitol Forum as lacking credibility. "The RealReal stands 100% behind our state-of-the-art authentication process."
Source: Fashionista
When we toured the store, we took a peek at the lower-level consignment office where specialists like Lauren will be on-hand to examine items brought in for resale.
She was handling two Van Cleef & Arpels pieces, one of which — a necklace — was priced at $6,800.
Another specialist explained the intricacies of both designer brand items and their counterfeit counterparts and how they can differentiate between the two.
Details as small as the type of zipper used can help the specialist spot the fake from the genuine.
This lower level features men's items.
Back up on the ground floor, where the women's items are located, there's also a cafe ...
... and a kids' section.
The new store sits on Post Street in San Francisco's Union Square. There are two entrances: one on Post and one on Maiden Lane.
It's surrounded by brick-and-mortar stores of some of the brands that it sells — shops for Gucci, Cartier, and more are in this part of town.
It's the ultimate shopping destination for those who can afford the finer things in life.
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