The Takeover

On November 5th, the Palm Beach Gardens Mall, as it was formerly known, transformed into H&M. People no longer say, "I'm going to the Gardens mall." Instead, "I'm going to H&M!" is the popular choice of words. The frenzy is sure to die down but judging by the waiting line on grand opening day H&M won't have any problems keeping sales up.




The line outside H&M wrapped completely around the second floor of the mall in a DOUBLE ROW. I managed to catch the attention of a security guard on duty for the grand opening and asked him how many people he thought was in line. He stated that he stopped counting at 800 people around 9 am. Doors didn't open until 12 pm. You do the math! I arrived at 11 am - an obvious laggard compared to the many who arrived in the wee hours of the night - around 12 am for some. Scattered throughout the H&M cult-like fans were mother's with baby strollers, people in wheelchairs, obvious fashion junkies per the leather jackets and lace leggings, and even old men stooped over with wooden canes. As the clocked tick-tocked towards 12pm, H&M employees began getting the crowd hyped up by dancing to the likes of Katy Perry's California Girls and Taio Cruz's Dynamite.

As promised the first 250 people in line received an H&M bag of goodies (Magazine, T-shirt, and Gift Certificate). The gift certificates/fashion passes were advertised to be from $300 to $10. But, did anyone actually receive the coveted $300 piece? I was not able to find the persons that did. I'm pretty sure by the time I got to actually enter the store they were too engrossed in shopping for me to even find them. Or, for them to even want to talk to me. Nonetheless, they did exist. I spoke to a lady (pictured below) who traveled all the way from Miami, Florida with her 18 year old daughter for the event. They arrived at 4 am and waited outside the mall until 7 am when the doors were opened. Only to proceed to wait another 5 hours for H&M's doors to open! She received a $75 pass and her daughter received a $100 pass. All together that $175 plus the feeling of being one of the lucky few to receive more than just $10 off. Judging by her face in the pic, I'd say she thinks it was all worth it! She told me that the people who actually managed to be in front of her, waited from 12 am and were the honored recipients of the $300 passes. Oooh the jealousy!!


Inside H&M was a mad house to say the least! Yet, in true shopaholic fashion, I was persuaded by the ever clever sales tactic of "opening day prices" and ended up rummaging amongst the other fashion crazies to find my size. The dressing room was a hopeless case. The line extended almost as long as the checkout line, which by the way took 45 minutes. I, however, am ecstatic about my all LACE purchases, particularly a blazer which is now amongst the ranks of top 5 pieces in my closet.

Sans gift certificate and T-shirt I am a happy camper, well, observer since I was not a part of the overnight H&M camping party. My only question now is: How is Forever 21 taking this??

1. H&M T-shirt, 2. H&M Fashion Pass Grand Opening Certificate, 3. Me with other PBA students that made it out to the opening