How to Spot a Rich Person

I was talking to a Jaguar salesman last week and asked him what the hardest part of his job was.

“You can’t tell who’s rich anymore,” he said. “It used to be if someone walked in with jeans and a T-shirt I could ignore them or ask them to leave. Now that guy could be a billionaire. You have to be nice to everybody these days.”

Tim Blixseth, the billionaire timber tycoon, once told me about the time he visited a men’s clothing store near Palm Springs to buy a suit for his son. When they walked in, wearing work boots and jeans, the salesman headed them off at the door and said “I think you’d be better off at the mall.” They eventually bought a suit, but Tim made sure to drive by the front door in his Rolls Royce and wave goodbye to the salesman.

Identifying the rich used to be fairly simple: They dressed, talked and looked a certain way. They had iconic last names like Hutton or Hearst or Phipps, often with Roman numerals at the end.

Today, wealth has been democratized and individualized, and the rich come in all ages, shapes, sizes and ethnicities. People often ask me, “What do the rich wear? How can you tell by looking at someone today if they’re rich?” Such questioners are usually recalling old myths about watches and shoes, but my answer is that there is no way to tell. The rich don’t have a uniform anymore. Today, they all wear their wealth differently, from the dot-commers in T-shirts to the hedge-funders in khaki to the CEOs in classic pinstripes.

In her Journal column today, Christina Binkley takes a stroll down Rodeo Drive to do an “emotional audit” of salespeople — i.e., to find out how nice and welcoming they were. A woman at jeweler Van Cleef “sent us out the door with little more than her scowl,” she writes, while a woman at Yves Saint Laurent didn’t offer a smile but a “single upturned corner” of her mouth. In other words: not welcoming.

As Christina writes, “Many luxury companies are finding there’s a fine line between positioning themselves as lofty — to signal just the right amount of exclusivity — and being so haughty they alienate their customers.”

I think it goes beyond balance. When that guy who walks in your art gallery wearing jeans and a sweater could be David Geffen, you need to be nice to everyone. It’s especially true for retailers trying to peddle “mass luxury.” Once you start selling $50 silver trinkets and $60 sunglasses and calling them “luxury,” you can no longer be as choosy with your customers.

http://blogs.wsj.com/wealth/2007/11/01/how-to-spot-a-rich-person/trackback/

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