Why Koreans are only allowed to buy one Chanel bag per year

This may come as heartbreak and high stress to high fashion brand addict Koreans 🙂 But Chanel has put its foot firmly down. And here we are thinking the world has bigger problems. Not in Korea it seems 🙂 Read on.

So here’s what’s breaking the internet in Korea.

• Chanel Korea is limiting its customers to only one bag per person, per year – these limits also apply to its small leather goods like wallets and pouches.
• The measure comes amid an increasing thirst for luxury goods, and a trend of people queuing up outside Chanel stores in Seoul for hours to take home mass hauls.

Chanel has started restricting the number of bags each customer can buy in Korea. In the case of some popular bags, a single person can now buy only one per year.

According to the Hankook Ilbo, the sister paper of The Korea Times, Chanel Korea has adopted a new policy in which each customer can buy one Timeless Classic flap bag and one Coco Handle handbag per year. The “one bag per person per year” rule also applies to items that it categorises as “small leather goods.” mainly wallets and pouches, if the customer wants more than one of the same model in the category.

The measure comes following increasing “reselling” of Chanel bags. At major department stores in Seoul where Chanel stores are located, people have been seen standing in line starting in the early morning to do “open runs,” or dashing into the store as soon as it opens. They wait for hours to enter the shop as early as possible and increase the possibility of getting the items they want. While many of them want the bags for themselves, some of them seem to be reselling the bags at higher prices else where.

Chanel has raised its prices frequently in Korea – in February, July and September of this year – but consumers don’t seem to care. Market analysts say that the pandemic seems to have added to the thirst for luxury goods as people’s desires for overseas travel can’t be satisfied.

Chanel is not the only luxury brand restricting per capita purchases. Hermès allows each customer to buy only up to two bags of the same design per year. Rolex also restricts per capita purchases to one or two watches each year. Consumers, however, expect resale prices to rise further following the announcement of Chanel’s per-capita purchase restriction.

When asked if the “one bag per person per year” rule is also applied in stores overseas, Chanel Korea declined to confirm.