$20,000 Purses That Smell Like Cannabis

As someone who loves to browse thrift and consignment shops for a sweet deal, paying $20,000 for a purse, the yearly salary of many, seems obscene. However, there are those who can afford it and do it, as astronomical as it may appear to hourly and salaried peons. Recently, a purse of this price and caliber made by the designer Hermès is being returned all over the U.S., due to customer claims that it smells too much like cannabis.

Apparently, according to the company, the leather was tanner poorly, and now when it gets hot it emits an odd, skunky odor similar to that of the cannabis plant. The company issued a statement that “Owners are returning the Hermès bags back to boutiques across the US, including the Madison Avenue store, saying they smell of skunk. The bags are being sent back to Paris as nobody knows quite how to deal with this embarrassing situation.”

Although the issue is happening with this particular line of bags in all colors, it is not apparent in other lines, and none of the crocodile skin bags they make have been reported to have this smell. Although no false arrests or accusations have been made due to the smell, it has raised quite a stink on message boards. One woman on PurseBlog.com wrote, “After riding in the car with her for about 30 minutes, I smelled what I thought was a dead skunk. Another 30 minutes later I could still smell the dead skunk, and I thought it was odd, but never imagined it could be my bag. I keep (it) in an armoire… When I opened the cabinet door this morning, the smell hit me, and I immediately knew it was the bag.”

Clearly this is offensive to the type of customer who chooses to use the word “armoire,” and this is obviously an issue that should be rectified, as no hand bag that costs $20,000 should have any flaws. However, if one of these women had been unlawfully detained, that would have made a heck of a story.