Payless recently opened a fake luxury store as a social experiment. The store, named “Palessi,” was opened for one night in Hollywood, California in an old Armani store. This was part of a test by Payless to see how much people would spend on shoes if they were told they were luxury shoes. The results were quite surprising.
The night of the store’s opening, it was filled with local fashionistas. They were all enthralled with the store and were going crazy for the shoes. Some of them were even talking about how well made the shoes were and how you could just tell they were made of high quality material. These fashionistas were spending $200-$600 on Payless shoes that would normally retail for around $20.
At the end of the night, Payless did come forward and tell everyone there the truth: this was not a new brand, they were all, in fact, just buying Payless shoes. This left the fashionistas shocked. As a show of good faith, Payless refunded everyone’s money and let them keep the shoes.
