Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Surprise! J.Crew Sends their Love {& peaches again!}

"Thanks!" to so many of you, including stefanie, Michele, as well as ShopWithM (in this post), who shared the following delightful surprise.

J.Crew has delivered an end-of-Summer present this year to some very lucky JCAs. In the mailbox, they found a box of organic peaches from Frog Hollow Farm (click here) with a note that ShopWithM shares "I personally want to thank you for your continued loyalty to J.Crew and hope you'll enjoy this small token of my appreciation. [bit about the peaches] signed, DL"

An absolutely tasty gift to find at the end of the day! J.Crew has been known to shower certain customers with gifts in the past. It is lovely for those who receive it.

So check your mailbox in the next few days to see if you got something extra special from J.Crew. :)

24 comments:

  1. How much do you actually have to spend to get a box of peaches in the mail from j.crew? Geesh.

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  2. Sorry, I can get peaches at the grocery store. I'd rather have a gift card.

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  3. ADH — Frog Hollow peaches are AWESOME though.

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  4. What a busy, news-filled day it's been here on the mothership!

    I feel like Dorothy at the end of The Wizard of Oz when she says sadly, "I don't think there's anything in that black bag for me."

    Historically I've received zilch, so I'm not very hopeful. Congrats to all who receive them!

    As an aside, I'd be interested to try these peaches. I have some Harry & David peaches due to arrive any day now...

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  5. The peaches may be good, but J.Crew is a clothing retailer, and I'd rather receive something clothing-related instead of a food item. Just sayin'. :)

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  6. AJ Candrian, I was wondering the exact same thing. Maybe a couple of thousand of year, I would assume. I wonder...

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  7. I've received yearly planners and earrings- but never fruit! I personally think it is fantastic. As I preach to my kids- it is the thought that counts. And maybe their thought is they want us to spend more money, but as a large retailer it's just not expected, so I find it a pleasant and nice surprise.

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  8. This marks yet another disgustingly annoying period for me. I am appaled at the J crew's selectivity. I spend tons with them, try like 10-15k a year; I haven't seen a gift from them since 2008. Loyalty, oh my, please stop irritatting me with this perks games and make it fair and square "tiers of spending rewards/recognition".

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  9. My first thought was does "DL" stand for "Dear Leader"??? Lol.

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  11. I don't know if it is a threshold spending amount, but if it is, I doubt that a couple thousand a year would get you the peaches. I have a suspicion some of the JCAs spend close to that a quarter.

    I wonder how selectivity works. I love how I receive all the great promos, always, everything from monogramming to free shipping to gift boxes, but do I get the peaches? Nah. And remember, you all, I am the crazy one who pre-ordered the floral long swing skirt at near full price. LOL. ;)

    I wonder with some of the promos if it is a random thing, like they run a program that selects 100 recipients from a list of the top 10,000 purchasers and then send the peaches/luggage/randomness to that group. Hmm.

    And even though I pre-order some crazy items, I think I would be below their threshold of top purchasers. I consistently buy, but per quarter it is still pretty tame. So I will take the free ship on my account, I guess. LOL.

    And for those of you that got the peaches, yum, ENJOY!

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  12. I think it's weird and agree with anastasia...it would be great if they would stop playing favorites and create a rewards program similar to Aveda's...Maybe it's sour peaches- er, grapes- but this type of thing is really irritating.

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  13. I am sure I don't spend enough for Jcrew to justify peaches for me nor do I expect them to. It does sound delicious though. Maybe I will just send myself some? I hear ladies do with with flowers all the time...lol.

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  14. I have received a special gift every year for the past several years- a cashmere crewneck sweater, cashmere scarf, earrings, planners, bag, peaches. It makes me feel that the company really cares about customer loyalty. I love it. It does encourage me (for better or worse) to keep spending...

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  15. anastasia - Yes, DL is dear leader. Well Fed Fred anointed him with it with awhile back and it has stuck. Perhaps she was inspired during one of these special gifts or Mickey card was last sent around, both of which cause a bit of sourness in the group.

    I don't blame people for feeling upset. I am currently weaned away from the crewlade at the moment so I won't feel bad if I don't receive. I didn't get the last ones or the planner. I used to get really perturbed, esp because of the language of the notes. They like to say "to our most loyal" and many of us feel we are very loyal. Also, cardholders have gotten the shaft until recently, many of them not receiving special gifts over the years no matter how much they spend. It really turned me off, so I've gotten much more picky about what I buy. It's even easier to pause because of the return time limit. Hope I'm making sense tonite.

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  16. Yum! I, alas, did not receive any peaches, but I don't think I would qualify...maybe DL would send me prunes instead with returns and rebuys I do hahaha! Congrats to the lucky JCAs who did receive them -- it is a very nice thought. Personally, I think it's cool that JCrew does that. It's a very nice gesture.

    I wonder if personal shoppers have a say in who gets certain gifts. Perhaps a PS would think that their client is more inclined to get jewelry vs. fruit vs. planners?

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  17. Congrats to those who get the perks! In the past I used to get really irritated about missing out, because I considered myself an extremely loyal customer, both in terms of what % of my clothing came from J.Crew (99.5%) and in terms of $ spent there (way too much!).

    I made my first large JC purchase this month after purchasing much less in 2009-10 than in my peak Crewlade years. The difference is that like Gigi I'm off the Crewlade. In other words I've lost that emotional component of the relationship--that aspect that made me really WANT to be recognized as a loyal customer. This month I was happy simply to find some great items and to receive the cardholder 20% off (after they'd skimped for years on the promised cardholder benefits).

    So now that I'm off the J.Crack I'm genuinely happy for those whose loyalty was rewarded.

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  18. Gigi and Hexicon: I must be off the J.Crack since I didn't get so upset this time. Same here, 99% of my clothing purchases for myself is from JCrew...Someone at work asked me what I was wearing and I was literally head to toe JCrew...

    With the quality decline these days and the shorter return period I really examine and ponder if I really need this before taking those tags off.

    Congrats to those who received them, but this doesn't make me want to spend more with JCrew.

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  19. Thanks for the shout-out Alexis. A few thoughts...

    First, I'm feeling a little, well, defensive at some of the comments regarding how much you must have to spend, etc., as if I must be spending $20k at JC to get peaches. I assure you, that's not the case! :) I don't think you have to be in the stratospheric purchasing range to get the gifts. I also do loads of returns and re-buys.

    But...I do have a wonderful relationship with my fab personal shopper, and as audbal mentioned, I think that plays into some of the treats they send. I'm guessing that top-producing PS likely get to make some recommendations. I also think some of it is pulling a name out the hat.

    I do totally understand the upset though, and that you all feel very loyal, so I think the big mistake here is for the note to say that they're honoring loyal customers, b/c it implied that those that didn't get them aren't loyal.

    All that said, I still think it's a nice gesture, and something I really appreciate!

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  20. Thanks for the link love, Gigi!

    Ole Millard himself inspired the nickname: the surprise visits to stores, the constant public address announcements when in the office, the PR statements so disconnected from the reality of life as a JCA trying to deal with irrational policies... I could only think of a retail version of a certain famine-ridden country ruled by the iron hand of an inscrutable dictator. And at the time many of the JCA community strongly held the opinion that the JC leadership could do no wrong. I really wanted to write an anthem, but went for the short version.

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  21. Didn't see this post yesterday, and this morning found a box of peaches on the front porch. (We don't use the door - always come in thru garage.) Just to throw this in to the mix of emotions, I did not get the peaches last year. But for what it's worth - I think it has a LOT to do with the online and/or store personal shoppers. I never buy anything "new" with less than a 20% off promo, and usually shop from the sale section online, for what it's worth. No cashmere or suitcases here, lol.

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  22. shopwithm - Eh, no need to feel defensive. I think the focus is on another round of peaches and not assuming anything specific about you. The discussion has been going on at least since the first Mickey card, which I think was fall 09. Maybe before that as earrings and planners have gone out before last year's luggage. The ruffled feathers are about the loyalty language used. And a big issue is that cardholders were/are being excluded. I don't know of another company that excludes upper tier cardholders (silver for jc) from gifts & promo codes. Though that seems to be changing w/the recent 20% one-time use code. Good point about having a ps. I do think they sometimes have an influence on who is included.

    WFF - Yes! It was the bike article. ring ring! That was a bike horn, btw. Funny mention of the word dictator. I can totally see him reading this blog and wishing he could silence a good number of the comments.

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  23. Oh gosh. I usually get gifts from J Crew....via my US mail forwarding company! I dread to think what state a box of organic peaches will be by the time they arrive via Fedex in England.

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