An interesting thing happened to me a couple of weeks ago. When I went to the Cole Haan store in Century City to exchange a pair of madras flip flops, a very nice motorcycle jacket caught my attention. At $795, the jacket was not inexpensive and I had told myself that I was only going to exchange my flip flops and not buy a thing. But, that didn’t mean I couldn’t try the jacket on. And, when I did, it was obvious that with its amazing fit, it was only a matter of time before I was going cave!

And, it was plenty obvious to the sales person too. I kept looking at myself in the mirror with the coat on while convincing myself that this would be one of those timeless purchases, one for the ages. It would be something I’d hand down to my twin boys when they were old enough to wear it.

As I was handling the exchange for my flip flops, the sales person whispered to me that every item in the store was going to be marked-down 20% between noon and 3pm that coming Sunday. And, if I wanted the jacket, that was time to pull the trigger!

The guy obviously knew he had me hooked. So, of course, I returned that Sunday, with my twin boys (much to their regret) and our dog Sadie. I approached the sales person that had mentioned the sale, who confirmed in a hushed tone that the mark-downs were available for special customers and, of course, I was one of them. I quickly asked myself, “how could I be a special customer?” The only thing I’ve ever purchased from this store was were the madras flip flops, which too were on mark-down. However, I wasn’t about to argue with the man.

I made my way over to the leather coats and found the motorcyle jacket, which Cole Haan describes as a “motorcycle-inspired lambskin vintage jacket in [the] finest distressed leather crafted with chunky exposed zipper details, fine seaming and artisan topstitch tailoring.”

After deliberating over a size medium or large (and settling on the medium), I decided to make it happen. What surprised me even more: when I got to the counter, the sales person informed me that the retail price was no longer $795, but was now $695 and that I was getting 20% off of that! Again, no complaints here.

I thought a little bit about this mysterious mark-down; it occured to me that perhaps it’s an approach that more-upscale, branded retailers are testing in this difficult retail market. I imagine that the perputual SALE starts to lose some of its punch in driving shoppers to the check-out counter; and, I suppose those never-ending SALE can run-down the image of brand-conscious retailers. Plus, suggesting to shoppers that they might have access to a deal that is not universally available conveys a sense of priviledge that at least this shopaholic was not able to turn down.

Does this mark the onset of the “private, public sale”? Has something similar happened to any of you recently?