First, they came for the shoes

I've mentioned in the past year or so the seemingly ridiculous limits upscale department stores place on the number of pairs of identical shoes one customer can buy, but clearly (and unusually) I didn't over think it, because now it's happening to designer handbags, and the smarty pants people in Thursday Styles have figured it out. Note: as you'll gather from the first sentence, the author is a man, bless his heart.

For products that are truly in demand, like Wii game consoles, tickets to the Super Bowl or cans of corn Niblets on double-coupon day, it may seem reasonable to limit the number a customer can buy at one time.

But readers of the fine print on the Web sites of luxury retailers like Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman may be surprised to discover that such a policy also now applies to designer handbags.

“Due to popular demand,” potential shoppers are warned, “a customer may order no more than three units of these items every 30 days.”

On its face, the policy sounds odd; that is because it really doesn’t have anything to do with popular demand. Rather, it is the fear that foreign buyers, taking advantage of the severely weakened United States dollar, will hoard the bags, then resell them in Europe or Asia, where the same items in Prada and Gucci stores typically cost 20 to 40 percent more.

Foreign tourists who are treating American department stores as if they were a nationwide outlet sale have largely been viewed as beneficial to retailers, and by some estimates those shoppers were the only bright spot in what was otherwise a feeble holiday sales season. But that spending power has not been so welcome to luxury companies like Gucci and Prada, which have spent the last decade trying to reach those customers in their home countries by opening expensive new shops throughout Europe and Asia.

Clearly I'm not spending enough (read: any) time bargain-hunting. Oh, to be paid to think and write about such things all day ...

BS, any thoughts?