Malandrino vs. Burch

Catherine Malandrino:

• The line for the coat check was way too long. It took me 15 minutes to get my coat back. Shouldn't professional coat-checkers have a better method for checking or returning more than one coat every 2 minutes? Seriously.
• Prices were lower: short dress were $109, long dresses $222, blouses $22, skirts $42 and coats $184. But not low enough. I would have bought another dress if it had been $80.
• Despite this being the last day of the sale, there was still a good selection of clothing. There's nothing worse than returning to a sample sale to discover that all the good stuff is gone. Even on a return trip I found four new dresses to try on. I managed to restrain myself though. I don't need another dress to wear to a wedding I might get invited to someday... But seriously, I love Catherine's stuff.
• There were more people in the dressing room, so the line for the tiny mirrors was also longer. If I'm going to make a hundred dollar purchase, I'd like to gaze at myself in the mirror for more than 30 seconds before being knocked out of the way by the pushy woman next to me (I was lying when I told you that dress looked good on you!). Shouldn't a sample sale company be able to spare a couple bucks to invest in a few sturdy mirrors?

Tory Burch:

• The folks that run the Tory Burch sample sale (Clothingline - they host a lot of great and not so great sales) have the coat check down pat. Even at the busiest of times, I've never had more than a few minutes wait to check or retrieve my coat.
  
• Compared to previous Tory Burch sales, the merchandise was pretty terrible. Sparse and not cute. Usually the Tory Burch sales are pretty reliable, but this one had only three or four different types of dresses, a dozen or so types of blouses, and I think only one type of skirt.

• If you're into TB shoes (I think I might be the only woman in Manhattan who's not) your luck was a little better, but not much. A few types of flats and a surprising number of heeled sandles.
  
• Prices for clothing wasn't too bad: dresses $99, skirts $75, blouses 85. Flats ranged from $90-125. With Tory Burch, the prices are just about guaranteed to be reduced by Friday - probably to around $60 for a dress, if I remember correctly from previous sales (though sample sales are a fickle beast, and it's dangerous to make assumptions based on previous seasons).
• The dressing rooms at Clothingline are really nice. Spacious and full of mirrors (one for every two or three people, even at the busiest of moments) which is all one can really hope for when it comes to a dressing room at a sample sale.

The verdict: Malandrino takes it, 5-3. Despite long wait times and shared mirrors, sample sales really are about the clothes, at the end of the day, right? The variety and quality of Catherine's goods deserved the return trip to the sale, but a demotion in points from yesterday for all the waiting I had to do, and for not lowering the prices quite low enough for my taste. Tory's clothes just plain... sucked this time. The only reason the sale earned more than one point is the vastly superior customer experience. I won't return when the prices drop, but I will be back next season!