Sample Sale Horror

We all know the song "The Lady is a Tramp". It is remarkable how well this applies to normal, sane individuals like you and I when the words 'sample sale' come into play. All of a sudden, all good behaviour is thrown out the window and we turn into savages. It seems that we will do just about anything to get our hands on that coveted Chanel bag or Jimmy Choo pump. Just how bad does it get? Here are a few hair-raising examples of good girls gone bad.

At one Marc Jacobs sample sale, a PR-executive was trying to purchase a bag. "One hundred people were crowded around a four-foot-wide table-security actually had to break everyone up. I was trying to purchase a bag I was holding and some lady grabbed the bag out of my hands saying, 'That is the one I WANTED!' I was totally shocked!"

Some women actually bring their own clothes racks with them and fill them to the brim with clothes and shoes. It's like one of those 'all you can eat' buffets, where some people pile on the food. No one likes a pig.

Scenarios can get ugly, with women screaming profanities at one another, simply to get closer to the items. Lying also seems to be a favoured method to beat the competition. "In the line to get in, this one woman told everyone that the sale was awful so that they would leave and she could move up. She even told the police officers who were there that everyone after a certain point would not make it and told the officers to spread the news, which they did," recalls one woman of a Jimmy Choo sale. Another sale offender tried a different, but equally loathsome, tactic. Her victim, a PR coordinator, recalls: "I was looking in the mirror to see how a jacket looked on me and some woman said, 'That jacket really doesn't suit you. It makes you look heavier than you are.' I was insulted a little but appreciated her honesty. Then, to my amazement, the second I took off the jacket, she grabbed it and ran to buy it for herself. I later overheard her saying to her friend that the jacket looked great on me but she just wanted it for herself!" All's fair in love and sample sales?