WINE: They drink the blue-chip burgundies like BRC or Roumier. If they order white, it’s Montrachet. One guy preordered Montrachet Domaine Ramonet 1978, the first year of the greatest vineyard from one of the great winemakers in the world. That’s $4,850.
—Robert Bohr, wine director and sommelier, CRU
JEWELRY: They don’t have so much time to shop. To keep these clients, we have to make their lives as easy as possible. Sales associates have to work with them via e-mail. They are very nice. I don’t think you can compare them to children, but they are a little like children. They’re so excited, and they buy like it’s a new toy.
—Nicolas Luchsinger, director, Van Cleef and Arpels
TRAVEL: There’s a lot of hand-holding. We had one customer who was interested in playing squash in London. Not only did we have to find a private squash club but a player who was ranked on this side of the Atlantic so that he could have a competitive game. And we had to do it between meetings. Our concierge service jumped through hoops to get it done, but his meeting ended up running late and he had to cancel.
—Paul Metselaar, CEO, Ovation Travel
... But yes, Virginia, there are tightwads who work for hedge funds.
Justin Evans walks to work every day from his home near Central Park. He never takes a taxi, because he wants to save the $8. For lunch, he eats $6 sandwiches from the deli. “I’m a value investor, even to the point of how I live my life,” he says. “I consistently try to convince my wife that we are poor.” The top 1 percent of any industry makes “obscene amounts of money,” Evans says. But most of the guys he knows are the “cheapest guys you’ll ever meet. It’s the ones who’ve drunk the Kool-Aid and think this will last forever, who spend money on watches and cars and other things to impress the girl who wouldn’t date him in high school. It’s a giant poker game, and they’re all passing around the same pile of chips. When the music stops, there won’t be enough chips for everyone.”
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