One of the many revelations from the last episode of Real Housewives of Salt Lake City is that Jen Shah is rumored to be “red-flagged” by Louis Vuitton for paying in cash.
Meredith brings up this rumor right after she accuses one of Jen’s employees of stealing from her. She says the employee stole a clutch after Jen came in and spent a few hundred dollars. You can see someone grab a clutch on security cameras. Meredith says her shop employees informed her of this theft, and Jen later returned the bag. What Meredith is upset with Jen over is the fact that Jen did not fire the employee who allegedly stole a bag.
The women seem far more shocked about the Louis V. tea, however. Lisa Barlow, who said on an After Show that she sometimes pays in cash at Louis Vuitton, has quipped that “being red-flagged by Louis Vuitton would be far worse than the feds knocking at my door.”
Jen has denied that she has been black-listed or red-flagged by Louis Vuitton via Twitter.
Oh please…this is not about me. https://t.co/nxmcEIVQGi
— Jen Shah (@TheRealJenShah) November 15, 2021
Jen said, “Oh please…this is not about me” in reply to a now-deleted tweet about a blind item claiming that a Real Housewife had been put on the Louis Vuitton “no buy” list for buying too many items. It should be noted that this rumor is different from the claim Meredith made that the “red-flag” was because of cash transactions. Louis Vuitton does restrict buying for people who purchase a certain amount of items.
How do you get red-flagged at Louis Vuitton?
Apparently, you can be “red-flagged” at Louis Vuitton. The company has a strict purchase limitation list. They say it is to “ensure better service and better availability of our products.”
They enforce this by monitoring your purchase history, so if you pay in cash you’ll probably have to give them detailed information so they can track your transactions. If you don’t comply with their rules, you can be refused any further transactions for a period of 2 years since your last purchase. In a world where new Louis Vuittons are status symbols and signs of thriving, this limitation can be devastating.
“Louis Vuitton limits the quantity of products that can be purchased as follows : no more than 3 leather goods (including small leather goods) per transaction, with no more than 2 identical products per such transaction. Also, customers cannot, within 4 consecutive weeks, (i) buy more than 6 leather goods products (including small leather goods products), or (ii) buy in more than 3 different LV stores in the worldwide network, or (iii) conduct more than 8 transactions of all kind of products.
In any case, the total number of purchased leather goods (including small leather goods products) will not exceed 12 products within 12 consecutive months.”
Why would paying for cash be a problem for Louis Vuitton?
One reason why paying in cash would be a problem at Louis Vuitton is that most of their items are thousands of dollars. When someone is paying in cash with that amount of money, for any product, it can be a sign of trying to hide something. Sometimes it may be a spouse trying to hide a large purchase, but other times is maybe someone trying to avoid depositing a large sum of money in their own bank account, where it can be easily tracked by the government.
As Meredith Marks points out in an After Show clip, even if you put a purchase on a credit card, the balance still has to be paid by money deposited into an account. Sometimes large items can be purchased with cash and then the item can be returned for cash. This is a way to “wash” or “launder” money gotten illegally because it changes up the serial numbers.
Because of this, and laws in place to prevent this, luxury stores often have complicated processes for dealing with cash payments. Personal information and serial numbers may be logged, and multiple forms may be filled out in order to complete the sale. In their buying limits, Louis Vuitton doesn’t make mention of cash purchases, however.
