Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to Outspoken. It's your dose of the
Speaker 1: hottest influencer and pop culture news twice a week. I'm
Speaker 1: Amy Torber and coming up on today's show, Britney Saunders
Speaker 1: has been praised for her refreshing marketing move and Nadia
Speaker 1: bar tells Henny's storeflop. But first, Sophie Kasha has revealed
Speaker 1: she's found the one in a surprising interview with Stella magazine.
Speaker 1: She told the publication, it's a big call to make,
Speaker 1: but I truly believe I've found my person, and she
Speaker 1: believes she's found hers too. Now the new woman in
Speaker 1: question is a twenty four year old AFLW player called
Speaker 1: Madison Presspackers, who Sophie has been close friends with for years.
Speaker 1: Funnily enough, she's also teammates with Sophie's ex girlfriend, Sophie Vanderhovel. Wow,
Speaker 1: that's pretty scandalous. I love that she's also another Maddie
Speaker 1: because Sophie was engaged in Maddie Garrick a couple of
Speaker 1: years ago. She definitely has a type. Rumors did start
Speaker 1: swirling when Madison was at the gender reveal, but they
Speaker 1: have been friends for a long time, so if they
Speaker 1: were actually together at the time. Sophie did say that
Speaker 1: they've only been together for a couple of months, but
Speaker 1: she was dropping that they're in love and that she's
Speaker 1: found the one. It seems very serious, very quickly. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and she seemed quite surprised that they've fallen in love
Speaker 1: while she's been pregnant. Here's what she said about the
Speaker 1: blossoming romance.
Speaker 2: I've prayed for so many years to be loved in
Speaker 2: the way that this person loves me, and I tried
Speaker 2: to push it away so hard. I was so committed
Speaker 2: to having this baby, getting pregnant, and you don't ever
Speaker 2: consider dating in that time. You don't ever consider meeting
Speaker 2: people in that time. And I wasn't prepared to let
Speaker 2: someone in. I wasn't prepared to let someone into my
Speaker 2: inner circle, to let someone into my journey, into my family.
Speaker 2: I'd let too many people in, too many times, and
Speaker 2: too easily. And this was a time that I had
Speaker 2: really committed to myself for the first time, for the
Speaker 2: first time, I think since I left my mate, this
Speaker 2: is the first time that i'd gotten no, it's your turn,
Speaker 2: this is finally your moment. And I did that, and
Speaker 2: to still have someone there going I love you, and
Speaker 2: I love everything that's going to come with you, and
Speaker 2: I am prepared to front up and love you and
Speaker 2: however you need me to love you.
Speaker 1: How could I push that away?
Speaker 2: So I do sit here now, single mum, having this
Speaker 2: child on my own. Yes, it is a very unique
Speaker 2: situation to be in. Like I said, I didn't picture it,
Speaker 2: but I have a supportive person and she's been amazing
Speaker 2: at accepting not just me and everything I already come with.
Speaker 2: But takes a very special person, I believe, to sign
Speaker 2: up for a baby that they didn't plan. But in
Speaker 2: saying that this is my child, it's not our child,
Speaker 2: just like Bobby and Florence and my children, they are
Speaker 2: not her children. I am their mother and my support person,
Speaker 2: and I am so grateful to have someone that has
Speaker 2: been able to accept all of this and still love me.
Speaker 1: I like that she's saying that this baby is hers
Speaker 1: and not theirs, because I think that there would have
Speaker 1: been a lot of assumptions. Now she's come out in
Speaker 1: stellar and said that she's found the love of her life.
Speaker 1: Because a lot of people may have assumed that Madison
Speaker 1: is now going to have this parenting role. Yeah, Well
Speaker 1: she did confirm that Madison isn't going to be living
Speaker 1: with her. They live in separate houses. And we've got
Speaker 1: to remember she's only twenty four. Sophie is thirty four.
Speaker 1: She does seem to go for younger women at the moment.
Speaker 1: The last couple of girlfriends have been considerably younger than her.
Speaker 1: I died when I looked up a date of birth
Speaker 1: and it said two thousand, I was like, oh my god,
Speaker 1: like someone who is a very similar age to Sophie Kaisher.
Speaker 1: I was like, I couldn't imagine dating someone who was
Speaker 1: born in the two thousands, and I'm known for going young. Well,
Speaker 1: I think people are going to be dubious about this
Speaker 1: relationship because it's another AFLW player. Maddie is only twenty four,
Speaker 1: They're not living together. I mean, Sophie's made it clear
Speaker 1: that she is the sole parent in this situation. I
Speaker 1: don't know if people are going to take this relationship
Speaker 1: that seriously or as seriously as Sophie wants people to. Well,
Speaker 1: she said that she likes the fact that Madison is
Speaker 1: really independent and has her own life. In this interview,
Speaker 1: she said she doesn't need anything from me. I don't
Speaker 1: need anything from her. We don't live together, we have
Speaker 1: no plans to live together. She's just bought her own house.
Speaker 1: She has a wonderful career, a wonderful job, wonderful family,
Speaker 1: so are simply there to compliment each other. I do
Speaker 1: wonder if Madison knows what she's getting herself into, because
Speaker 1: it would be a really difficult situation to navigate your
Speaker 1: partner having a newborn baby. You're not living there with her.
Speaker 1: She's also got two older kids. I think there must
Speaker 1: be genuine love between this pair, because it's not an
Speaker 1: easy situation for either of them. Sophie's spoke in depth
Speaker 1: about how she wasn't looking for anyone, she was really
Speaker 1: trying to focus on herself, and she kept trying to
Speaker 1: push away Madison. It kind of reminded me of how
Speaker 1: she was pushing away Maddie Garrick when she was with
Speaker 1: Alana as well. I also think Sophie doesn't want to
Speaker 1: put a lot of pressure on Madison, her being so young,
Speaker 1: so she's saying, look, I don't need you to move in.
Speaker 1: I don't want this very fresh relationship to turn stale
Speaker 1: pretty quickly, because when you've only been together for a
Speaker 1: few months and suddenly there's a newborn baby involved. You're
Speaker 1: not going out on these exciting dates anymore. I've got
Speaker 1: a different take on her. I think Sophi Kasia must
Speaker 1: be a bit of a gay icon in the afl
Speaker 1: W because she's dated so many different players. I think
Speaker 1: it's a bit of a status thing to have Sophi
Speaker 1: Kaisha on your arm at one of these football events.
Speaker 1: And I think this twenty four year old is a
Speaker 1: bit in awe at the power of Sophi Kasha. She's
Speaker 1: a huge influence, So like this is good for this
Speaker 1: Maddie's brad. I'd never heard of her before. It'd be
Speaker 1: pretty awkward being in the Essendon Foota Club chage rooms
Speaker 1: at the moment now that this articles dropped, because maybe
Speaker 1: Sophie vander Hoovell knew that they were dating, but she
Speaker 1: might not have known that they were each other's loves
Speaker 1: of their life. Like this is a pretty huge statement
Speaker 1: to make in a national publication. It would be so
Speaker 1: awkward now. There were a few other insting nuggets dropped
Speaker 1: during this podcast. I really enjoyed hearing Sophie talk about
Speaker 1: the sperm donor process because there have been a lot
Speaker 1: of question marks when she first announced this news, because
Speaker 1: a lot of people at the start actually asked if
Speaker 1: it was her ex husband, Jared who was the sperm donor.
Speaker 1: She said she actually found it quite funny. Yeah, she
Speaker 1: said that it was really funny and she laughed it off,
Speaker 1: but she felt bad for him and that's why she
Speaker 1: felt it was necessary to come out and explain. I'm
Speaker 1: sure Jared Kaisha is very pleased that this was cleared
Speaker 1: up because he and his wife actually welcomed a new
Speaker 1: baby this week, talk about timing. Something else that surprised
Speaker 1: listeners was finding out that Sophie didn't go through IVF,
Speaker 1: so she confirmed that she was artificially inseminated and she
Speaker 1: felt pregnant the first time there. That was really interesting
Speaker 1: because I think a lot of people just assumed that
Speaker 1: she had had IVF. One thing that excited me is
Speaker 1: that Sophie said she's bringing her blog back, so she
Speaker 1: actually found fame from her blog The Young Mummy. Well,
Speaker 1: she said it will be a slightly altered version, so
Speaker 1: it's not exactly clear what capacity it'll be in because
Speaker 1: I mean, when she started that, what like ten years ago,
Speaker 1: blogs were all the rage, But I don't think that
Speaker 1: people really log onto individual's blogs like I wonder if
Speaker 1: she'll more be writing for Mamma Mia or another publication. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I thought maybe she would go down the Indy Clinton
Speaker 1: route and just start sharing her life on TikTok, because
Speaker 1: that's how she progressed. So she went from the blog
Speaker 1: and then she went on to Instagram. I think it
Speaker 1: would be a lot easier for her to just share
Speaker 1: it as she goes.
Speaker 3: Well.
Speaker 1: I think it will be in a smaller capacity though,
Speaker 1: because she said she had a lot of regret when
Speaker 1: Florence was born because she was so quick to get
Speaker 1: back into work. Yeah, she went back after four weeks.
Speaker 1: I think, yeah, would be very interesting. We'll have to
Speaker 1: watch this space. When is the baby jew Well. At
Speaker 1: the time of the interview, she said she was twenty
Speaker 1: two weeks pregnant. I don't know if it was pre recorded,
Speaker 1: so she's got a little bit to go.
Speaker 4: I'm just going to come right out and say it,
Speaker 4: brands need to stop taking influences on extravagant trips.
Speaker 1: Britney Saunders has been praised for her refreshing marketing move.
Speaker 1: The og Ossie influencer turned successful entrepreneur, You did an
Speaker 1: unorthodox brand trip last week for her label Fate. Instead
Speaker 1: of whining and dining influences, Britt chose seven lucky customers
Speaker 1: to join her on the trip. Kate, can you tell
Speaker 1: us more?
Speaker 5: Well?
Speaker 1: Back in September, Britt launched a competition offering customers a
Speaker 1: chance to attend her brand trip.
Speaker 4: Now.
Speaker 1: The trip was to celebrate Fate's seventh year in business.
Speaker 1: To enter, you had to simply place an order with
Speaker 1: the brand and use the code ten percent off, as
Speaker 1: well as be a part of Fate's Facebook community. Let's
Speaker 1: throw to a snippet of the promo video.
Speaker 6: Have you ever seen those brands that do influencer trips? Well,
Speaker 6: Fate is hosting an influencer brand trip, but the catches
Speaker 6: that there are no influences invited instead, you are.
Speaker 1: I love how much fun the team had with this one,
Speaker 1: because they mocked up a staff meeting where they were
Speaker 1: throwing suggestions around for the location of the trip and
Speaker 1: people are like Bora, Bora, New York, and BRIT's like,
Speaker 1: how about Newcastle because that is, of course her hometown.
Speaker 1: I was a bit surprised that element, though, because you
Speaker 1: want to treat the customers as though they are influencers,
Speaker 1: and it seems less glamorous to send them to a
Speaker 1: location like Newcastle as opposed to Bora Bora. But that's
Speaker 1: because the location is very on brand for Fate. Yeah.
Speaker 1: But would it have been more revolutionary or created more
Speaker 1: headlines to send a bunch of nobodies who have no
Speaker 1: following to some luxurious location. No, because I don't think
Speaker 1: that's the point of it. Because these seven competition winners
Speaker 1: were treated like influencers. They got completely spoilt. They stayed
Speaker 1: in a five star hotel, they had a private shopping experience,
Speaker 1: they went to fancy dinners, and they actually attended the
Speaker 1: event that was in Newcastle. So two hundred customers were
Speaker 1: in attendance and they were glammed and pampered before the event.
Speaker 1: The only influencer in attendance was britain A podcast co
Speaker 1: host Matt Hay and he was the MC at the event.
Speaker 1: The overall reaction to this brand trip has been really positive,
Speaker 1: so one of the outspoken Facebook community members wrote, as
Speaker 1: a consumer, this is what I'd rather see than trips
Speaker 1: and free stuff given to influencers. Your average girls slash
Speaker 1: guys take on a brand trip and spoiled definitely makes
Speaker 1: me want to buy and support her empire. Hats off
Speaker 1: to you, brit absolutely killing it. Do you guys think
Speaker 1: the same? Do you think this is a good move?
Speaker 1: I think it's really refreshing to see a brand treat
Speaker 1: their customers so well. And I love that Britt Saunders
Speaker 1: is leading this fight against influencer marketing. It's quite ironic because,
Speaker 1: as she has said herself, she used to be an influencer.
Speaker 1: She was one of the people that was taken on
Speaker 1: these brand trips, and after the trip she actually went
Speaker 1: on Instagram to explain more about her decision. Let's throw
Speaker 1: to some of what she said.
Speaker 5: I think what brands need to think about is how
Speaker 5: switched on consumers are in twenty twenty four. When an
Speaker 5: influencer is tagging you on an extravagant trip in whatever
Speaker 5: country or whatever city. What does the consumer actually think
Speaker 5: when they see that.
Speaker 4: Do they think, Wow, that's amazing that that influencer who
Speaker 4: already gets everything for free gets to go on another
Speaker 4: trip where they get everything for free. What does that
Speaker 4: say about your brand to the consumer, Because I think
Speaker 4: in twenty twenty four, it doesn't really send the most
Speaker 4: positive message. Sure, you're going to get a lot of
Speaker 4: eyes on your brand because the influencers have a lot
Speaker 4: of followers, but are they.
Speaker 5: The right eyes.
Speaker 1: Britt went on to say that she could be getting
Speaker 1: it completely wrong, but wanted to share with other brands
Speaker 1: that she had received nothing but positive feedback. She also
Speaker 1: reiterated in the comment section of her post that she
Speaker 1: still thinks influencer marketing is a good tool, but says
Speaker 1: brands need to start thinking outside of the square. This
Speaker 1: is why Brit is so successful and this is why
Speaker 1: everybody likes her because she's able to read the room.
Speaker 1: I mean, she's even part of our Facebook community. She
Speaker 1: knows what people like and she knows that people are
Speaker 1: getting sick of seeing the same influence as spoiled. I mean,
Speaker 1: someone points it out in our Facebook group that there
Speaker 1: was a recent Pepper Mayo trip and this person said
Speaker 1: it was the same rich Melbourne influencers going to the
Speaker 1: concerts getting spoiled and leaves such a bad taste in
Speaker 1: your mouth. And I think it is really good to
Speaker 1: see brands like Fate putting more money and attention into
Speaker 1: rewarding their customers because it does make you want to
Speaker 1: be loyal as a customer and get involved in their promotions.
Speaker 1: And even though these customers would not have a huge
Speaker 1: follower base, they are probably sharing and tagging so much
Speaker 1: more than any influencer. Equally they might not have followers.
Speaker 1: We see with TikTok that you actually don't need a
Speaker 1: huge following for your content to go viral. So actually
Speaker 1: might be part of BRIT's strategy because there is a
Speaker 1: lot of talk around this trip. Some of these videos
Speaker 1: might be getting more views because of the fact they
Speaker 1: are normies as opposed to influencers sharing about them. I mean,
Speaker 1: we recently saw Matt Sakowski on that private jet influencer trip,
Speaker 1: and I say that because I actually don't even remember
Speaker 1: the name of the brand because he tagged flight Center
Speaker 1: in the post, like he couldn't even get it right.
Speaker 1: There are so many customers that would be so ecstatic
Speaker 1: to be sent on something like this that they're going
Speaker 1: to put the effort into creating content amy as you
Speaker 1: say that has the potential to go viral on TikTok, Well,
Speaker 1: that's the thing. I think some influencers are just lazy
Speaker 1: and they've gotten used to getting to go on these
Speaker 1: extravagant trips and they don't really put any effort into
Speaker 1: the content, and I think if influencers want to continue
Speaker 1: going on these sorts of trips, then they're going to
Speaker 1: have to start putting in a lot more effort. I
Speaker 1: also think the brands need to start thinking outside of
Speaker 1: the square, as Brit said, but also manage the influencers better,
Speaker 1: because I think there needs to be a list of
Speaker 1: deliverables that these influencers have to actually produce while they're
Speaker 1: on the trip, because there's so many that are like, oh,
Speaker 1: I forgot to bring my camera out. Yeah, it's so true.
Speaker 1: I think a lot of people thought that the pandemic
Speaker 1: was going to be the death of influencer brand trips,
Speaker 1: but I was really surprised to see them popping up again,
Speaker 1: particularly because at that time everyone had had a gut
Speaker 1: full of influencers basically being spoiled and receiving free items,
Speaker 1: and I think that they still have left a bad
Speaker 1: taste in people's mouths. And this is why it's really
Speaker 1: interesting to see brit doing something revolutionary. You I just
Speaker 1: feel like there's no value exchange anymore, Like the influencers
Speaker 1: will go they literally use all of this brand's marketing
Speaker 1: spend up hardly give anything back. I would like to
Speaker 1: know the return on investment. And at the end of
Speaker 1: the day, these sorts of trips aren't new. Yes, it's
Speaker 1: knew that influencers get to go on them, but the
Speaker 1: media used to always be the ones invited on these trips.
Speaker 1: There used to be junkets and companies would pay big
Speaker 1: dollars to get a good write up in a magazine.
Speaker 1: Now we probably need to pivot a little bit. Because
Speaker 1: the influencer trip has been around for ten years. I
Speaker 1: thought we would see a shift where maybe we saw
Speaker 1: more relatable influencers being invited on these trips, but I
Speaker 1: think that that's at the detriment of those people's brands too.
Speaker 1: They want to be relatable, so they know they're not
Speaker 1: going to be relatable if they're getting this free trip.
Speaker 1: It just pisces their audience off. Okay, you touched on
Speaker 1: brands needing to pivot. There's been a lot of discussion
Speaker 1: online about makeup brand long Com because they recently did
Speaker 1: a collaboration with UK influencers Saffron Barker on her YouTube
Speaker 1: channel and it was this really bizarre AI ad that
Speaker 1: popped up in the corner of her video. So she
Speaker 1: was talking about something completely different and this little ads
Speaker 1: banner popped up with the makeup. They like a TV
Speaker 1: in the background, and a lot of people were confused
Speaker 1: because with YouTube often people put it on in the
Speaker 1: background and they'll clean or they'll do other things. So
Speaker 1: there was a discussion around was that money well spent.
Speaker 1: I think in terms of her video, there were a
Speaker 1: lot of people talking about it because it was so unusual.
Speaker 1: But when that becomes run of the meal, I think
Speaker 1: that people are going to switch off from that type
Speaker 1: of advertising. I was waiting for her to start talking
Speaker 1: about the product. It was distracting. If anything, I don't
Speaker 1: understand why a brand would actually pay to be included
Speaker 1: like that, because surely you would just have a dynamic
Speaker 1: ad that was inserted in a YouTube ad place because
Speaker 1: it gaybe they know that everyone just clicks through and
Speaker 1: skips through it, so they thought, well, if it's in
Speaker 1: the background while she's talking, people might take notice of it.
Speaker 1: I just think that this is just another example of
Speaker 1: what an amazing business woman brit is. So she has
Speaker 1: managed to grow fit into an eight figure empires. They
Speaker 1: almost have sixty employees for retail shops. It is super successful,
Speaker 1: and I think that a big part of her success
Speaker 1: is always trying to pivot and also understanding both sides
Speaker 1: of influencer marketing. Wonder how many brands are going to
Speaker 1: jump on the bandwagon now and start doing a customer
Speaker 1: trip like this as well. I wonder if all brands
Speaker 1: start doing this though, if it's going to lose any novelty,
Speaker 1: because I think people have tuned in, particularly to this
Speaker 1: trip because it was something that was novel.
Speaker 3: Okay, guys, Jomy for my absolute fail of an attempt
Speaker 3: to enter and review the new Henny boutique in Paddington.
Speaker 1: Fashion influencer Nadia Bartel's clothing brand Henny is back in
Speaker 1: the spotlight after a TikToker complained of long lines and
Speaker 1: lengthy wight times outside the new Paddington boutique. The video
Speaker 1: struck a chord with other disgruntled customers who labeled Henny's
Speaker 1: shop assistance as mean girls and slammed the boutique's unique
Speaker 1: showroom system. Soph How did this all unfold? If you'll
Speaker 1: believe it, This pr shit storm has been ignited by
Speaker 1: just one shopper's negative review, which inspired other unhappy customers
Speaker 1: to come out of the woodwork. Now, the story has
Speaker 1: hit mainstream publications like news dot com and The Daily Mail.
Speaker 1: The TikToker in question is Claudia Rose, now eight thousand followers.
Speaker 1: She's a lawyer and a young mum, and she posts
Speaker 1: a lot of get Ready with Me videos and general
Speaker 1: lifestyle content now. She entitled the video I'm sorry, but
Speaker 1: treating customers like this is not a vibe. What a flop.
Speaker 1: I won't be back, and in the TikTok video, which
Speaker 1: has now amassed over one hundred and forty five thousand views,
Speaker 1: she shared footage of women queuing on the steps of
Speaker 1: the Henny boutique waiting for their turn to be let in.
Speaker 1: Now she showed that there were around eleven women in
Speaker 1: front of her in the line, and told news dot
Speaker 1: com that she was very surprised to see a line
Speaker 1: because it didn't consist of that many people. Now, Claudia
Speaker 1: had traveled from the Central Coast to visit the store.
Speaker 1: Let's have a listen to what she said about her experience.
Speaker 3: We just waited one hour to try and get into
Speaker 3: the Henny fucking boutique, blazing sung, no refreshments no stools whatever,
Speaker 3: side notes not a problem. I first all, the store
Speaker 3: is like tiny, like you look through them and jocc
Speaker 3: the whole thing. Anyway, we wait for an hour, we're
Speaker 3: second from the front. This woman appears from the fucking
Speaker 3: door of the sales assistant. Oh, there's ten people waiting
Speaker 3: for the dressing room and there will be a further
Speaker 3: one hour wait to even get into the store. Me
Speaker 3: going two hour weight to step foot in Henny in Sydney, Australia.
Speaker 3: I'm sorry, so we've jumped it. We abandoned ship. I'm
Speaker 3: not staying there for another hour, but like everyone was
Speaker 3: going in s like we'd already.
Speaker 1: Been there for an hour, and then she goes to
Speaker 1: another hour.
Speaker 3: So that's my review of the Henny store as I
Speaker 3: stood on their stairs for literally an hour in the
Speaker 3: blazing sun and I left.
Speaker 1: Would you guys wait that long to get into any
Speaker 1: clothing store? I would like to say no, but I
Speaker 1: did wait probably for over an hour to get into
Speaker 1: LOUN when I was in Melbourne, so I'm not gonna
Speaker 1: say never. And it was so demeaning being in that
Speaker 1: line though, because I feel like people think that they
Speaker 1: can walk past and point out the bleeding obvious like wow,
Speaker 1: what a long line, or everyone looks at you like
Speaker 1: you're this basic bitch and then make comments like hm,
Speaker 1: I'd never wait in the line that long for food.
Speaker 1: I think what's annoying about waiting in line is that
Speaker 1: you're actually acting is like free marketing to the outside well,
Speaker 1: because it makes everything look so important that's going on inside.
Speaker 1: It makes it look like a very exclusive store. A
Speaker 1: lot of brands almost seem to create these lines just
Speaker 1: to make the place look popular, because in the case
Speaker 1: of the Handy Store, this is a really tiny shop,
Speaker 1: so they have a system where they only allow a
Speaker 1: set number of customers in the store at one time,
Speaker 1: so there might have only been ten people in the shop.
Speaker 1: But you walk past and you're like, oh my god,
Speaker 1: look at this line outside. I want to point out though,
Speaker 1: because I was quite surprised when I saw this TikTok.
Speaker 1: I thought, oh, has the Henny store just opened in Paddington.
Speaker 1: But this store has been opened since June, so the
Speaker 1: line wasn't in response to the store opening, It was
Speaker 1: just this is just a run of the meal day
Speaker 1: for that. Do you think it makes people more likely
Speaker 1: to buy clothes because you're like, if I've been waiting
Speaker 1: for fucking two hours, boy, I need to buy something
Speaker 1: to actually justify the way. I definitely think so, because
Speaker 1: I saw people in the comment section saying, well, I
Speaker 1: waited for so long, I just had to buy the
Speaker 1: pair of jeans even though they didn't look that good.
Speaker 1: But also, you wouldn't want to be like I think
Speaker 1: I'll come back and maybe get it next time I'm
Speaker 1: here and then have to wait another two hours. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I was really keen to see what the response was
Speaker 1: like in the comment section, because, as we know from
Speaker 1: previous segments, Henny Stands can get very defensive. We saw
Speaker 1: TikToker Kate Forster inundated with prank calls when she called
Speaker 1: out the Henny Cardigan. But to my surprise, the majority
Speaker 1: of comments sided with Claudia, and they were going on
Speaker 1: to tell of their really bad experiences at not only
Speaker 1: the Paddington store but also the Melbourne boutique. So one
Speaker 1: woman who was also in line that day responded under
Speaker 1: the video saying totally agree. I was in that line.
Speaker 1: Our weight stuffed up my order, blamed me. Rude, arrogance staff.
Speaker 1: They need to chill. They are retail stuff, not design its.
Speaker 1: There's nothing that bonds people more than waiting in a
Speaker 1: line in the heage. Well, another commenter said pathetic since
Speaker 1: the day they opened, you're lucky you got through iqued
Speaker 1: with a lock door as if they were protecting the
Speaker 1: Prime Minister, and then the same hour long wait for
Speaker 1: a change room. I think this just shows brands that
Speaker 1: they need to be really careful about the staff that
Speaker 1: they pick, because I really relate to the Kokai thing
Speaker 1: because when I was younger, I was so intimidated to
Speaker 1: go in there. And you can tell that Kokai higher
Speaker 1: staff based on their appearance. They all look the same,
Speaker 1: they're all very beautiful girls. There's definitely a level of
Speaker 1: prestige if you were to get a job at Kokai,
Speaker 1: because it's basically like saying you're a model, we want
Speaker 1: you and our clothes. Yeah, because I've heard of so
Speaker 1: many I've heard so many stores say that if they
Speaker 1: dress the shop assistants in the clothes, those clothes sell
Speaker 1: out instantly of how good they look in them. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but also you've got to think, well, we also need
Speaker 1: to get people that are nice, because you don't want
Speaker 1: people scared to come into your store. You know people
Speaker 1: intimidated by the staff because that is not a good vibe.
Speaker 1: It actually does put me off to go into some
Speaker 1: stores because of how snooty some of the shop assistants act.
Speaker 1: But I think a lot of brands do this because
Speaker 1: they only want certain customers to come in and try
Speaker 1: their clothes. To be fair to the Henny staff, some
Speaker 1: people did defend them. So someone said surprised of the
Speaker 1: feedback of the staff at Henny. They've always been so
Speaker 1: friendly when I have gone, while another said it's weird.
Speaker 1: I went into the Melbourne one and they were nice
Speaker 1: to me. I'm not particularly hot, skinny, or young either.
Speaker 1: I'm forty and a size ten to twelve. And then
Speaker 1: there was another person who was perplexed by the line,
Speaker 1: so they said, I live around the corner. There are
Speaker 1: never lines during the week, but the weekends it can
Speaker 1: go down the street. What's also come out since this
Speaker 1: criticism is that Henny has a really unique showroom system.
Speaker 1: So what do you mean by showroom system? It sounds
Speaker 1: like they're selling car Yeah, Well, is different to a
Speaker 1: regular clothing boutique. It's sort of like a shoe shop
Speaker 1: where they only have the sample sizes on display, so
Speaker 1: they'll have one pair of Valentina jeans in just the
Speaker 1: one size. So basically you go around the store, figure
Speaker 1: out what you want to try on, and then they
Speaker 1: have an iPad, so you have to enter into the
Speaker 1: iPad the items you want to try on and the size,
Speaker 1: and once the shop assistants then receive your order, they
Speaker 1: have to go upstairs fetch your sizes for you to
Speaker 1: try on, and then they finally bring it down to
Speaker 1: you for you to then weigh in another queue to
Speaker 1: try them on in the change room. So it's a
Speaker 1: very lengthy process. So why that these staff are pissed off?
Speaker 1: It sounds ridiculous. It sounds like a lot of work
Speaker 1: on them, running up and down the stairs finding the items.
Speaker 1: I just hate this system because it's like you have
Speaker 1: to be so honored to get into the surface and
Speaker 1: then it's like and here's my size, and oh my god,
Speaker 1: thank you so much. You've spent all this time, Like
Speaker 1: it's really weird. For a lot of women, they don't
Speaker 1: actually like having to tell people what their size is,
Speaker 1: particularly if these people are very intimidating, like if you're
Speaker 1: in a bigger body you feel uncomfortable, particularly if they
Speaker 1: might not even have your size. It's like they're unsure
Speaker 1: what their price point is. They're kind of acting like
Speaker 1: they're a luxury brand like Louisverton by making people wait
Speaker 1: around like this when an actual fact, they're selling garments
Speaker 1: for a couple hundred dollars well. Following the backlash, Nadia
Speaker 1: was forced to publicly apologize, and she also addressed the
Speaker 1: complaints so she told news dot com we absolutely knowledge
Speaker 1: the disappointment felt. This is not an experience we would
Speaker 1: ever choose for our community. The rapid rise in demand
Speaker 1: for Henny exceeds anything we could have possibly expected. It
Speaker 1: is incredible to have this support, but it also creates
Speaker 1: growing pains for us such as this. Right now, we
Speaker 1: are actively working to improve the instore experience on a
Speaker 1: short term and long term. She also added that the
Speaker 1: Henny team is working hard to find a resolution, stating
Speaker 1: it was increasing staff support and revising its fitting room protocols,
Speaker 1: as well as actively exploring new locations and also different
Speaker 1: sizes for their boutiques. It's a good responsor of Nadia.
Speaker 1: I mean, I always find it hard to be angry
Speaker 1: at Nadia Bartel for some reason, because she's just such
Speaker 1: a likable influen. Yeah, it's a tough one because it's
Speaker 1: pretty incredible that this business woman has grown this brand
Speaker 1: in a couple of years that they can't even reach
Speaker 1: the demands it is that popular this brand has exploded. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but also Nadia just has this ability for people not
Speaker 1: to be angry. I mean, remember the cocaine scandal with
Speaker 1: the came up plate. Well, I think it came out
Speaker 1: about really well, I know what it is. It is
Speaker 1: because she apologizes and she takes responsibility for it, like
Speaker 1: she doesn't try and shirk it and come up with
Speaker 1: all of these excuses as to why there was a
Speaker 1: line and why it was busy and why people were rude. Well,
Speaker 1: I think that's all we've got time for today. Thank
Speaker 1: you for listening to another episode of Outspoken. If you
Speaker 1: do enjoy the podcast, please leave us a five star review.
Speaker 1: This podcast was recorded on the traditional land of the
Speaker 1: Ghana people of the Adelaide Planes. We pay respect to
Speaker 1: Elder's past and present