Shopping Secrets: Boutique Technique

By Melanie Medina

This ran in the September 2004 issue of Atlanta magazine.

Drop the black T-shirt, and step away from the plain-front khakis. There’s no need to wear those tired staples when Atlanta boutiques are ready to outfit you in couture cool enough to make Carson Kressley swoon. Intimated by high prices? Worried about unforgiving return policies? Don’t be. Here, Atlanta boutique owners share the low down on how you can score the best deals:

Become a regular and get on the mailing list. Store owners reward frequent shoppers with incentives at the beginning of each season. “I’d rather my customers who shop here year-round get the benefits of the sale, not the people who come in once a year,” says Andrew Capron, owner of Andrew, a Midtown boutique.

At the Bilthouse, where the shop’s point-of-purchase software tracks how often customers buy, shoppers get permanent discounts after making a certain amount of purchases, says owner Jan Bilthouse. If you’re not a regular, sign up for the store’s mailing list anyway to receive a coupon, valid during the month of your birthday, for 25% off one item.

Stop by your favorites often because owners regularly rearrange merchandise. “It gives customers an opportunity to see something they may have passed when they were here last,” Capron says. Plus, designers have different delivery times, so boutiques— including Andrew, Posh and Blue Genes — restock daily, usually in the afternoons, after UPS has stopped by.

Break out your BlackBerry and mark down important sale dates. After Thanksgiving, head to Decatur during the city’s Terrific Thursdays celebration, when boutiques offer special deals every Thursday. If you missed the granddaddy of blowouts, the Boutique Warehouse, in August, don’t worry. There’s another one scheduled in January. Dozens of Atlanta boutiques band together for this event at a central location and offer as much as 70% off on end-of-season items.

Don’t worry about those notorious seven- to 14-day, in-store-credit return policies. Work around them. Fickle types should try Fab’rik, which offers a 60-day return policy, or either Bilthouse shop, which lets customers take home outfits for 24 hours before deciding if the clothes are keepers. Squash Blossom in Decatur makes exceptions for regular customers to its 14-day return policy.

And despite how those snobby Rodeo Drive clerks snubbed who Julia Roberts pre-makeover in Pretty Woman, Atlanta boutiques don’t cater only to the well dressed. “A lot of women come in after the gym,” says Elaine Gardner, Scout co-owner. “Even if she’s sweaty and wearing a sports bra,” co-owner Shalini Vora says, “she could be our next big customer.”

One last tip: Though you may find the same brand at more than one boutique, owners try to give customers something they won’t find anywhere else. In fact, Decatur shops make a point of not duplicating any collections. So slide those khakis out of the way and make room for fashion inspiration, courtesy of Atlanta’s boutiques.