- Some middle-tier restaurants are now stocking stools for diners to place their luxury handbags on.
- This is as young adults living at home spend their hard-earned money on designer goods over rent.
- One restaurant in Paris even stocks Hermés stools that cost almost $10,000 a piece.
Casual restaurants across the US and Europe are catching up to a high-end custom of adding purse tools so that diners have somewhere besides the floor or table to place their expensive luxury handbags.
Handbag stools are a familiar sight at fine-dining restaurants but middle-tier establishments are also accommodating for customers, as young adults with extra cash from living at home with their parents spend their hard-earned money on designer goods over rent and bills.
Restaurant Le Dalíin Le Meurice in Paris is one example of this trend, with caramel-colored Hermés Pippa Stools on display, according to Bloomberg. Priced at $9,150, the stools are more expensive than many luxury handbags.
Rare Steakhouse, a restaurant at luxury hotel Encore Boston Harbor in Massachusetts, also stocks small white padded chairs matching the decor, for bags, per Bloomberg.
Other restaurants are being a little more creative. Shingo, a Japanese restaurant in Coral Gables, has hand-woven baskets for bags.
“I’m happy to see these points of service becoming more of a trend,” the chef-owner Shingo Akikuni said to Bloomberg. “Fine-dining-only service points have made their way into more mainstream restaurants as service, generally, has become elevated across the industry.”
However, this trend may not be here to stay, as large bulky handbags take a backseat to tiny purses like the Jacquemus clutch which has gained in popularity in recent years.
The younger generation of Gen Z and Millennials are also swapping out their handbags for practical bags like fanny packs and totes, according to data from Circana in June.
But handbag sales were still up amongst shoppers over the age of 35, according to Circana. Such shoppers are generally more likely to be the target market for expensive restaurants touting their handbag stools.