Stop by your local The Bay store this weekend and purchase your tickets for this year’s Holiday Gala. The event is Nov 12-15, 2009. Tickets are $10 and entitle you to a complimentary $8 coupon redeemable on cosmetics, fragrances and jewelry (with minimum purchase of $8). Also counters will be offering lots of great gift with purchase deluxe samples during this event.
This deal gets even better because $2 of your ticket will go benefit the Look Good Feel Better Foundation. I haven’t been to this event myself but apparently there are lots of freebies being given out and you can get free makeovers done too!
cool my husbands band is playing at this event in winnipeg, it’s today at 6 pm
If it’s anything like Sears’ recent Soiree of the Senses in Hamilton — pffft. I bought 3 tickets @ $10 each, $2 of which went towards charity (no problem). I thought, because the sales associate said so, that there’d be all sorts of give-aways and prizes and treats. Puleeze. Not a single sample was handed out. I had asked about 10 saleswomen if they were handing out samples (you know: perfumes, creams), and they all said, “Gosh, um, no…but here’s a scent card.” The food table was overrun by children who were double-dipping the fruit and veggies. People MUST spend their $8 coupon on something THAT DAY and get no extra goodies thrown in their bag. My advice? If you don’t buy a ticket, give $2 to charity, and come back to buy something the day after, THEN they’ll throw in a sample or two. Sorry, am feeling a tad bitter.
ohhh bummer, i told my husband to look out for samples and coupons 🙂
Sears event was AWESOME! When I went this past Tuesday I got a free goody bag that included: Sears reusable shopping tote, Estee Lauder cosmetic bag (probably left overs from EL’s GWP’s), 2 Christmas ornaments (one is made of red/gold ribbon folded into rose buds), 2 Swiss Delice mini-chocolate bars, 1 perfume vial sample of Covet and another vial of Juicy Couture’s Dirty English cologne for men, and a coupon for X amount off of hair services at Sears salon. I used my $8 coupon on Clinique’s GWP promo. I bought some foundation, got $8 off, plus the GWP. I also entered a draw at the counter and won a gift basket! Most of the products are discontinued Clinique items like Clinique Happy Heart body butter (not listed on Clinique’s website) but all the items are new and not testers. I scored so much free stuff. I love these Gala events at the Bay and Sears.
Lavender_Lux: I want to live where YOU live! This COULDN’T have been Hamilton’s Lime Ridge Mall event. Trust me: there was nothing given out. Wait, I’m lying: a tiny bag of cookies. What you describe is exactly the kind of thing I was hoping for. Sigh!
I went to Sears’ events at Lime Ridge Mall in Hamilton in 2004 and 2005. There was a limited quantity of generic gift bags (at the event, signs indicate this); 2005 event had separate contests/makeovers if you bought a set $ value of stuff, unlike the 2004 which allowed all event participants to take part, except for makeovers, which had a set limit of spaces per event.) The gift bag samples of discontinued items and sometimes things like coupons for other store products or services were inside. Of course, buying a full-price item then (the entire $10 was applicable towards your purchase that night), meant some sample size goodies were added to the sale. Maybe a limited selection of colours but it did not hurt to ask.
I have also gone to The Bay events in 2005 and 2007 (one of the 2007 ones was in London-which was on Sunday morning, but still had music!). They tend to have a better theme for the event, right down to the beverages. The coupon for purchase was good for a few departments (jewellery, accessories, etc). They also tended to have more gift baskets/draws-at certain counters, as well as at one spot near the emcee and draws happened through the night/morning, not just at the end. The Bay has their event outside store hours but Sears does its event during store hours. That alone should assist event planners in choosing finger foods that won’t mess up with little hands.
The Bay sometimes has vendors on site to promote their goods or service. Sometimes, the vendor has its own draw, coupons, or a gift given to The Bay for drawing at the event. It really depends on what the vendor can commit to. Three hours makes for a long night if people are not buying their products or indicating interest in booking their services.
We had the same terrible experience as Chris! Yes, we are bitter about The Bay Gala in Waterloo (Nov. 18, 2012). We bought 3 tickets @ $10 each, $2 each went towards charity and $8 each could be applied to purchase. The sales associate gave us the same line (as Chris) saying that “there’d be all sorts of give-aways and prizes and treats”. After spending ~$100 each (far less than what the pushy sales associates wanted us to spend), the only samples given were tiny perfume vials (but only when we asked). The food table looked overrun, so we didn’t go there. We tried to combined our 2 of our $8 coupon at MAC’s and we got a rude, “NO…”. We each got goodie bag, which were weighted down with a bottle of water and a few perfume samples and cheap eye glass bags. They originally missed giving us the goodie bags, and told us that it was our fault (how could they be?) and told to wait at the side for 10 minutes before they relunctly gave us ours. We were treated like dirt, but we did look great in our new outfits :):):) We are with Chris, donate your $2 and shop on another day when you are treated like a customer! And yes, like Chris, we are feeling a tad bitter.