Personal Shoppers Spill Tea On The Lives Of The Rich And Famous

Imagine being so wealthy that you don’t even do your own shopping. Going into stores? Logging into Amazon? Walking around IKEA for hours in search of a wedding gift for an acquaintance? What on earth does that mean? Millionaires have created a separate job market for personal shopping. The job of a personal shopper is, you guessed it, to shop for other people. They take note of what to buy, what color and size, how many items to get, and even how to wrap the items and what to write on the greeting card. Some of these specific requests might sound odd, but they probably have their rhyme and reason. We’re here to expose some of the most bizarre personal shopping requests, as told by professional personal shoppers.

Spoiled bulldog

The relationship that rich people have with their pets is on a different level. Normal people already go above and beyond to ensure their pets have access to food, grooming, and the occasional visit to the vet, as they should.

People like to make sure that their pets enjoy the same quality of life they do. Judging by the items listed, you would think they’re for a person. But nope. They’re for a bulldog! Well, this pupper must have fabulous taste.

High maintenance

If there’s one thing you will learn about some people in this world, it is they can be high maintenance. Maybe they have to drink a certain brand of water, they’re on a strict diet, or maybe they like their snacks to be high quality and frequent.

This personal shopper’s client has a specific list of snacks that she eats when she fits in any boutique. And the coffee temperature bit, well, don’t we all need our coffee to be perfect? We’re always on board with some snacks too!

Doggy’s day trip

When a puppy gets special treatment, you know that it probably belongs to someone who loves them to the moon. The pets of rich people travel first class as their humans do. They live the best life, and hopefully, they bask in it.

This dog flew alone on a private jet just to attend his human’s destination wedding. While this is a nice surprise for the groom, we think it was more fun for the dog, who got to watch the world go by and then saw their favorite human at the end of the adventure.

Unused items

If you thought that celebrities wore everything displayed in their walk-in closet, then this personal shopper has news for you. Surprised? We’re not. We all have those unworn clothes stashed away somewhere. People with more money just might have a few extra items than we do lying about.

These things are worth $150,000 and are just sitting around in the closet unworn, so it makes sense to us to get rid of them. They likely went back to the stores, or maybe even donated. Now, that would be pretty awesome.

Connections matter

Personal shopping doesn’t just mean that you go around buying for people. You also need to make good-quality connections. This is especially important when your client needs to make an emergency purchase. You’ll need stores to open out of hours or items to be delivered overnight.

And you can’t do that without connections. Maintaining a relationship with retail partners is a key aspect of being a personal shopper. This person, in particular, has such a good relationship with the boutiques on Rodeo Drive that they get the hookup.

Superheroes

While it may seem like a pretty superficial job, personal shoppers are actually real-life superheroes for their clients. They come through with the exact item needed at the exact time. Just look at what this personal shopper managed to pull off.

A nude clutch is a pretty general request, but you would be surprised how difficult it is to come by on such short notice. Nevertheless, this personal shopper succeeded in getting their client a nude clutch so they could walk the Grammys red carpet in style.

The tinier, the pricier

Don’t be fooled by an item’s size. Smaller things don’t necessarily cost less. If anything, they often cost a lot more. For example, an earring could easily cost more than a car. See what this personal shopper has to say.

If you have the money for it, it’s completely fine to drop $15,000 on a pair of old earrings that you love. In fact, celebrity cars would definitely cost a lot more than that, so no biggie from their perspective. We get the shopper’s reaction, though.

Rolling in branded goods

Imagine a Chanel bag with crayon stains on it. That’s what one personal shopper said will happen to at least one of these luxury bags. It’s good to know celebrity parents are like other parents, just with some extra cash.

It’s no surprise that the children of superstars and billionaires grow up in luxury. Even from a young age, they’re dressed in branded goods. They don’t realize any of that, but they’ll grow up being able to have everything in their favorite color and covered in their favorite animal.

Trying to fit in

Hollywood’s skewed beauty standards have had women around the globe striving to look a certain unattainable way. The sad fact is that some women would do whatever it takes to fit a made-up standard. We’re happy the industry is slowly shifting.

Instead of purchasing a dress that was her actual size, this personal shopper’s client wore two pairs of Spanx. It’s already suffocating enough to wear Spanx, let alone two pairs! The idea makes us want to get on our comfiest pajamas.

Too many gifts

We wonder what it feels like to receive so many gifts that you need to have a person dedicated to writing your thank you notes for you. Also, what a pleasant job to have! You’d spend all day expressing gratitude.

When you have someone working for you whose job is to catalog your expensive gifts and send out thank you notes, you know you’ve made it. There must be an entire storage space just for these gifts. We’d like to try it for a day, just to see.

Branded babies

Gift baskets for kids usually consist of candy, snacks, and some fun brightly colored, fizzy drinks. Maybe throw in a pencil case or crayons, maybe a backpack. But celebrity kids have it differently. Their gift baskets aren’t just any ordinary basket.

It wouldn’t be a gift basket for a Kardashian if it didn’t include the top-tier branded items. Imagine being this personal shopper. You’re putting together hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of gifts, which sounds fun, to begin with. It must be extra satisfying to shop for kids.

The rack is whack

A big thing in the celebrity and fashion world is wearing clothes that are off the rack. This just means that the clothes are made to order and cannot be found in stores. Wearing off the rack ensures these stars don’t wear the same thing as another celebrity that shops there.

While there is a level of prestige in dressing in clothes off the rack, we find it hard to believe that some people insist on solely dressing in custom-made items. But then again, it probably saves a lot of disappointment and time for someone with eclectic taste.

For the brand

The story from this next personal shopper is just proof that as long as you have a big name brand on the tag, people will think it’s stylish. Although, we also wonder if the client genuinely liked it. If she felt pretty, then it’s good she went for it!

See-through dresses aren’t all that uncommon. Sheer material has been used in clothing for centuries. It all depends on how see-through this dress actually is. And one thing is certain, this dress was good quality and will last for years.

Personal shopper or personal assistant?

Sometimes, personal assistants can double as personal shoppers. But we’ve never heard of it being the other way around. That is until we read this one story from a personal shopper who found themselves becoming their client’s chauffeur for plastic surgery appointments.

If this person’s client took their recommendation for a plastic surgeon this seriously, there must be a lot of trust between client and personal shopper. To drive the client was going above and beyond. Maybe they were nervous about the appointment.

Assistant perks

You may think that being an assistant is pretty boring work, but it does come with its perks, especially when you’re an assistant to someone with money. As this personal shopper shares, rich people don’t hold back when they give gifts to their assistants.

We’ve heard of assistants who receive their boss’s hand-me-downs. This isn’t even a bad thing because they’re all branded stuff. But bosses will also go above and beyond to show their assistants appreciation by giving them brand new lavish items.

Daily high-end takeout

While we usually have boxed mac and cheese for dinner, we do like to occasionally treat ourselves. And who doesn’t love some pampering when they’re not feeling well? Anyone who has had hospital food would likely frequent UberEats the next time they were in such a situation.

Fred’s Madison is a restaurant in Barney’s in New York for those of you who don’t know. It is rated 4.5 stars online, and menu prices range from $31 to $50 per dish. That’s beyond worth it – when you’re stuck in bed, at least you can get some decent food.

Personal shopper perks

Assistants to the rich aren’t the only ones who have job perks. While the job description for personal shoppers entails them buying stuff for people, they also receive luxury goods from time to time. Best of all, those are just tips.

Imagine getting a $100 tip. You might not even make $100 in tips working one shift in the restaurant service industry. As a personal shopper, you could make that in one purchase. Is this making you want to switch career paths?

It’s the price tag that counts

Do you know how people say that it’s the thought that counts? That it doesn’t matter how much the gift costs; it’s about how much thought the giver put into the gift to make sure the receiver would be happy with it.

Apparently, for the rich and famous, gift-giving works a little bit differently. The more the gift costs, the more the receiver will appreciate it. This is definitely part of an etiquette code, but it’s clearly still important to let people know you thought of them.

A good relationship

Remember how earlier we said that being a personal shopper requires you to make and maintain good connections? Well, that works with the connection between you and your client too. You’ll never know what they can do for you in return someday.

How lucky is this personal shopper’s father? If his kid hadn’t been working for this particular well-respected oncologist, they would be in so much debt trying to pay all the medical bills. Thankfully, the oncologist was incredibly kind and generous.

Retail therapy

Who hasn’t heard of shopping therapy? And those moments of finding the perfect dress, or even that spectacular pair of heels you know you will never wear out of the house, are priceless. In this case, though, there was a lot of sadness involved.

Finding out that a partner is cheating on you is rough. We totally get the impulse to blow every credit card you have on meaningless things. We hope this woman shopped to her heart’s delight and found lots of beautiful things.

Suspicious purchase

Sometimes the quantity of items these people want their personal shoppers to buy is enough to make the staff of the store suspicious of the shopper. It’s difficult to pick up 40 bottles of branded perfume and not be conspicuous. 

It’s a good thing the sales associate was helpful about it. This is what we mean by maintaining a good relationship with everyone! It makes purchases a lot easier when you have someone making sure that security doesn’t think you’re stealing.

Living in excess

Patek Philippe and Audemars Piguet are renowned world-class luxury watch brands. Only the richest of the rich could afford these watches. We may not have tied to buy a house in the suburbs of LA, but we imagine the cost is a bit beyond our budget.

It really is what you choose to spend your money on, and that comes down to personal preference. We all have things we would drop a pretty penny on. Those brands do make nice watches, and they probably never break!

Traveling in style

If you’re working for a really high-end client, you might be able to get a ride or two in a stretch limousine. If you’re fortunate, your son might be able to do the same. It’s just another one of the perks of working for the wealthy.

This story sounds like someone got so into their shopping that they totally lost track of time. We are wondering how they got locked in, though. Surely the shop attendant was there with them. But either way, we understand why the child wasn’t having an amazing time.

Branded babies, part 2

Welcoming a child into the world is serious business. Parents will make sure that their baby has everything before its arrival. They set up the nursery and purchase baby bottles, and baby-proof the house. And if they want to, they stock their baby’s wardrobe with branded goods.

Of course, the most important thing for a baby is not to own a Chanel onesie to go with the little Louis Vuitton baby booties, and the parents know that. That’s their standard of living, and it makes sense they would extend the same standard to their child.

Shopping trip

Do you know how on occasion, regular people would go on shopping trips to the local mall? They’d spend the entire day walking in and out of shops, and at the end of the day, they would probably have spent around $500 at most.

When you’re rich and famous, the destination of your shopping trips differs greatly. You go to Paris, and you drop $55,000 on branded sneakers and purses. Of course, you’re also paying for the flight, which is definitely first class. That sounds like fun to us!

Too busy

When you’re busy, you don’t have time to wait around in a queue or wait for tailors to set up for you. You want to quickly get in and out of the store and carry on with your long day full of business meetings.

It’s the personal shopper’s duty to make sure that everything in the store is set up. All the client has to do is stand there while the tailor takes his measurements, and he’s good to go. Time is of the essence!

Love yourself

Unfortunately, society’s beauty standards have made people feel like they have to be a certain size to be beautiful. One personal shopper recounts how a client refused to wear certain clothes because they can’t accept that they need a bigger size.

Everyone should remember that clothes are designed to fit you, not the other way around! We acknowledge that it is a journey to love yourself at whatever size, height, or weight you are. The more people learn to accept this, the more contentment they can find.

Miracle worker

If you think this heading is an exaggeration, check out what this personal shopper managed to pull off. New Year’s Eve is the busiest time of the year, and people usually have personal plans with their families. Or if you’re Justin Bieber, you’ve probably been booked to sing at Times Square or something.

This personal shopper managed to get his client a one-on-one with Justin Bieber amidst all the chaos. If that isn’t the work of a miracle worker, we don’t know what is! We’re not sure what strings they had to pull, but they made it happen.

The friends get perks too

Sometimes, you don’t need to be rich and powerful to be able to live with privilege. You just have to be a friend of one of the rich and powerful. You may not be as wealthy, but you can get Tony Bennett tickets within hours.

It’s not even your normal concert tickets either. It’s the best seat in the house. Maybe we’ve been going about our friendships wrong all along. Maybe we can do things like this on a smaller scale for those in our squad!

Stylish pooch

This reminds us of the time Paris Hilton was all over the news for building her dog a human-sized house and filling it with designer furniture. The pets of the rich and famous are treated as rich and famous too.

Does a teacup dog need a gold and diamond collar? Probably not. Is it going to be the happiest and most lovingly treated pup around? Probably. And that’s what matters. Maybe this shopper felt silly about buying it but they can definitely acknowledge the teacup pup has a happy life.

Hunting down watches

The only thing we’re taking away from this personal shopper’s story is that being a personal shopper could mean that you get to travel the world to do your job. Surely these flights are all accommodated for by the client, right?

We’ll take the job if it means we get to travel to Hong Kong and Dubai! And we said it earlier, shopping for a living sounds fun, and if you throw in travel and hanging out in luxury stores, count us in.

Over the purchase limit

This next story from another personal shopper is quite telling of just how wealthy these people are. This personal shopper was just handed $10,000 in cash. And no, it wasn’t the beginning of a shady adventure story. Just a simple phone purchase.

Some of these personal shoppers go to incredible lengths to please their clients, like this one. Clearly, their client wanted new phones for their whole family, which meant a workaround for Apple’s purchase limit was necessary. They got the job done!

Carbon footprint

People who own private jets are the kind of people who will hop on their plane whenever they please. Would you do the same thing? Be honest; probably, right? We can say shamelessly that we absolutely would take our private plane as often as we could.

While it must have been a once-in-a-lifetime experience for this personal shopper to fly on a private jet to another country, why couldn’t this conversation take place face-to-face? But it doesn’t matter – it’s better to just enjoy the experience!

Special treatment

When you drop hundreds and thousands of dollars in a shop in one session, they are bound to remember you. The next time you come around, the staff members will try their best to get in your good graces, so you spend more.

Everybody is working to make sure you’re happy and comfortable everywhere you go. Special treatment follows you everywhere, along with fans, and probably assistants helping out. At least it can make mundane things like shopping a lot quicker and easier to handle.

All that effort for nothing

Personal shoppers go through great lengths to obtain whatever is on their client’s list. Whether it’s a designer bag, a rare book, or fancy cheese, personal shoppers get the job done. However, sometimes, the purchase just isn’t worth the effort.

It’s such a shame that this client paid for all that cheese and yet didn’t end up enjoying all of it. Shipping food is such a risky thing to do because you’ll never know how they will hold up on the journey.

Girls trip

It’s always fun to have a girls’ trip with your friends every once in a while. Whether it’s just a road trip across the state or to another country, time spent together is always needed. But with the rich, girls’ trips take on a whole different level. And wouldn’t we all?

This personal shopper is responsible for planning their client’s holidays. Imagine booking first-class flights, a room in a five-star hotel, and planning a travel itinerary for a trip. It does sound like tons of fun to plan these extravagant vacations!

Rarity

The rarer the item, the more expensive it is. But that isn’t going to stop celebrity clients from spending thousands of dollars on something they want. In 2012, luxury brand Louis Vuitton unveiled their collection in collaboration with artist Yayoi Kusama.

Kusama is a world-renowned and respected artist. Louis Vuitton has been a symbol of prestige for over a century. Put them together, and you get a $35,000 clutch that will surely be one of the coolest items in a celebrity colset.

Trying to stand out

It’s funny how everyone is trying to stand out in their style and trying to fit into societal beauty norms at the same time. It’s a fashion industry Catch-22, and we’re all just along for the ride, including the rich and famous.

To dress differently from those who also patronize the local boutiques, these clients want their personal shoppers to do their research. If the boutiques store lavender this season, the personal shopper will make sure their client is dressed in sage green.

Rarity, part 2

This personal shopper makes buying a bag sound like committing a crime. Do they wear a trenchcoat and glasses and act this shady in real life? Just kidding; we have already said connections are everything in the personal shopper business. The client wants what they want.

This is just a testament to how personal shoppers are really out here doing the most to get their clients the right item in the right color and the right price. These kinds of “missions” make it sound appealing to start this kind of career.

Fake dog mom

This is by far one of the weirder personal shopper stories we’ve seen. To maintain an image, this person’s client rents dogs to go on outings. Wouldn’t it be cheaper just to own a dog? It’s certainly easier to maintain said image that way.

On the other hand, we’re imagining how exciting it would be to play with a new dog all the time. We wouldn’t give up a family pet for anything, but what a joyful part of life, to have new puppers around and blessing us with their cuteness.

Excess indeed

This personal shopper might have been frustrated. They went through all that trouble to get all 15 of the dresses when their client didn’t want them all, but based on what we’ve learned above, there is a good chance they were given one of them.

Imagine it. The client probably spent half the day trying on the dresses. Then, she decides she’s only going to keep three. The shopper is mildly annoyed, but hey that’s the job, right? Then, BAM. The client hands her one of these special dresses for her efforts. Worth it!

Cop the latest drip

Celebrities need to be wearing the most current, trendiest clothes out there. And it’s their personal shopper’s job to make sure that happens, even if they have to track shoes down from Sweden. Here we go again with the traveling perks!

It is an important thing for the clients, so what else is there to do? Ya gotta do everything you can to catch the latest trend, even if that means you must make the sacrifice of traveling in a private jet to Sweden.

007

When we said that clients often ask for oddly specific items, we weren’t lying. This next story might not be from a personal shopper, but a hotel concierge would often have to do the same thing a personal shopper does.

This client probably could have done with a normal S.T. Dupont kit. It didn’t really have to be the James Bond kit. But it’s just cooler when you’ve got 007 cufflinks on, you know? You can feel like you’re Daniel Craig.

Kind of sus

We can understand how personal shoppers can be very wary about how their clients spend their money. Where is all this coming from? How can they afford all these goods? Is this purchase even legal? What if I get caught up in a mess?

We understand if this client needed to be in New York for a day trip. Maybe there was an important meeting or event to attend. But arriving ill with only the clothes on her back does make things a lot more concerning.

Don’t taint the air I breathe

We can’t decide if this particular request is real or not. Does this personal shopper call into the store beforehand and say, “Hi, we’ll be there in an hour. Can you make sure all your staff brush their teeth before we arrive?” Yikes, man.

Hey, we all have our hills to die on, right? If we had been raised with the confidence to ask for what we want, what seemingly ridiculous things would we request? We can think of a few of our own, so we’re sure you can too.