Viva la Recessionistance: Back from Behind the H&M CDG Lines

So, I'm just back after the early am run up to H&M. I am exhausted! The whole experience was surreal. Only in Beverly Hills does a mall security guard wear Prada sunglasses while supervising shoppers waiting for bargains. Yes, this was the best dressed security guard I have ever seen wearing Prada sunglasses from 7 am to 9 am to shield her eyes from the bright glare of the mall lights :) No gun, no handcuffs, just the Prada shades. That was all the protection she seemed to need. From 7 am until 9 am, my fellow shopper Debbie & I patiently waited in line to be allowed in. From 7 am to 8 am we were out on the street. Around 8am we were ushered into the mall. It was pretty orderly, much more orderly than the Cavalli line up last year, which was frankly chaotic. H&M was even nice enough to serve complimentary Starbucks coffee and some pastries. That was a nice reward to the faithful recessionistas who came out at dawn today.

Our efforts were rewarded as the gates to the store opened at 9 am pst. Unbelievably, the crowd was actually counting down as the gate to the store was going up. Even though I was about number 20 in line, I still did not get everything I wanted. The coveted woman's blazers were all gone by the time I got to them. I did manage to snag the dress pictured above, and that was a major win. I also got the trench coat which was great & the beautiful ruffled blouse. The ruffled blouse is my favorite.

The men's line was a great hit! I have to say, I was surprised by the suit jackets and how well done they were. For the price, the tailoring was impeccable, 50% of the H&M queue line was made up of guys eager to snap up the CDG deals. I asked all of them to come to the blog later & post their comments. Check out Ty's comment here to see pics of the event & the men's stuff.

By 9:20 am, every single piece was GONE! The entire collection had been snapped up & I do mean snapped. There were girls snatching all the shirts off the rack in one fell swoop. Despite the efforts of the H&M staff to try to stop hoarding, some shoppers were still misbehaving. A rebel throng grabbed all the polka dot satchel bags. It was akin to a shopping "storming of the Bastille. " And perhaps most shockingly of all, the hanging signage fell down from the ceiling, splat in the middle of the sales floor. Luckily, it missed all the shoppers including yours truly. Word to H&M: Why even bother to hang stuff from the ceiling? The store is overcrowded & the supply of goods is insufficient. You don't need hanging signage to sell this stuff. Save the $$$ and keep the peace.

So to sum it all up, I'm glad its over & that is only comes once a year. I got the items on my Christmas wish list that I wanted. H&M also honored my 10% off coupon, so I felt good about the additional savings. Personally, I still liked the Victor & Rolf and Stella McCartney collections better. They were more my taste. But there were some good choices here. I never did see one single pair of the "drop crotch" crazy looking MC Hammer black pants though. They were probably gone by 9:10 am. Oh well, I'm going for a nap now. Its all I can do to stop from slipping into a shopping coma :)