Author Topic: Rich person asks for $275 straw and $550 cake plate on wedding registry  (Read 10086 times)

snuggler

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Wow. Sophia Amaruso, the owner of Nasty Gal (a women's clothing company) who is worth $250 million, is asking for some crazy expensive s*%t on her wedding registry.

http://itheedread.jezebel.com/nasty-gals-crazy-rich-founder-asks-for-crazy-expensive-1710210931#

My favorites: a $275 sterling silver straw from Tiffany & Co. and a $550 cake plate made with hand-blown Venetian glass.

Talk about hedonistic adaptation at its finest. I can't believe anyone would think a $550 cake plate would bring them more happiness than a $10 cake plate + a $540 charitable donation.

MgoSam

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Interesting, I saw that this company is being sued for allegedly firing women after they got pregnant. I wonder if Sophia would fire herself if she gets pregnant? I highly doubt it.

Pooperman

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Wedding registries are just ways of giving money without giving money because of social norms. Rather the registry because then it's returnable.

TheGrimSqueaker

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Interesting, I saw that this company is being sued for allegedly firing women after they got pregnant. I wonder if Sophia would fire herself if she gets pregnant? I highly doubt it.

Indeed not: she can afford to quit.

As to the registry, if any of the guests are as wealthy as she is, or even if they're the kind of people who pay full fare for a first-class airline ticket, those gifts might not seem overly expensive.

snuggler

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As to the registry, if any of the guests are as wealthy as she is, or even if they're the kind of people who pay full fare for a first-class airline ticket, those gifts might not seem overly expensive.

Definitely true. However, as someone who has made a really high salary in the past (admittedly not nearly as much as she must make), I just can't imagine ever thinking these items are providing a good value for the price, or that people should buy you really expensive gifts when you are incredibly fortunate to have everything you could ever need.

While I understand some people will want to give you gifts even if you tell them not to, she didn't even attempt to do that.

And no matter how much people want to give you, I will never agree that it is acceptable to ask for a $275 straw. A straw! If you have to ask for materialistic stuff to appease some of your guests, at least get a nice set of pots and pans or silverware out of the $275 spent. Think how useful that could be for families in need.


TheAnonOne

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Are we really bashing someone worth 250+Million for wanting or buying something expensive? If I was worth 250mil I might even own a pair of 200-500 dollar jeans.

OurFirstFire

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Are we really bashing someone worth 250+Million for wanting or buying something expensive? If I was worth 250mil I might even own a pair of 200-500 dollar jeans.

I see no connection between net worth and whether or not a $275 straw is worthy of ridicule. 

partgypsy

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Can we all agree that a $275 silver straw is ridiculous, no matter how much money you have?
If you really can't live without a metal straw I'm sure you can find something very similar at a auto or home improvement store in stainless steel.

TheAnonOne

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Are we really bashing someone worth 250+Million for wanting or buying something expensive? If I was worth 250mil I might even own a pair of 200-500 dollar jeans.

I see no connection between net worth and whether or not a $275 straw is worthy of ridicule.

Why though? Sure, its pretty useless. However, in 100 years when money is inflated to the point where minimum wage is over 1MM a year a $250 straw might be common.

The person with 250MM is already at that point.

cripzychiken

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Are we really bashing someone worth 250+Million for wanting or buying something expensive? If I was worth 250mil I might even own a pair of 200-500 dollar jeans.

Let's see, normal straw is probably less than $0.01.  This silver straw is $250, so 25,000x the cost.  Normal jeans are $25-50 brand new.  so $25 x 25,000 = $125,000 for a pair of jeans.

Yeah, even if I had 250M, no way I'd buy (or tell someone else to buy me) a $125,000 pair of jeans.  I'd be more likely to hang them on the wall as art rather than wear them.

gimp

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Why does she have a wedding registry?

Aren't they usually either for buying simple necessities when starting a household, or super fancy versions of the same that are out of the couple's budget?

She's clearly not in the first category, and the second category would probably lean more towards $X million supercars rather than $500 pocket change for her...

Weird.

snuggler

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Are we really bashing someone worth 250+Million for wanting or buying something expensive? If I was worth 250mil I might even own a pair of 200-500 dollar jeans.

Yes. That's kind of the point of this section of the forums.

And TBH, I think most people would find this morally reprehensible. If you are worth $250 million, you shouldn't be asking for gifts, period. You should be thanking your lucky stars that your hard work paid off so well, and trying to do some good with that money and whatever gifts you receive while you are here on Earth. You certainly shouldn't be asking for $250 Tiffany & Co. straws which you will probably never use.

But, you are welcome to justify her behavior. In the meantime, I'll be praising the folks who have signed up for The Giving Pledge for their wise and honorable commitments.

MgoSam

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Mo money mo problems.

KingCoin

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And TBH, I think most people would find this morally reprehensible. If you are worth $250 million, you shouldn't be asking for gifts, period. You should be thanking your lucky stars that your hard work paid off so well, and trying to do some good with that money and whatever gifts you receive while you are here on Earth. You certainly shouldn't be asking for $250 Tiffany & Co. straws which you will probably never use.

But, you are welcome to justify her behavior. In the meantime, I'll be praising the folks who have signed up for The Giving Pledge for their wise and honorable commitments.

This is of course true, but many people will more or less insist on getting you a gift (I know this as a person who asked for no gifts). That means either setting up a registry or accepting whatever random household goods come your way. Your suggestion for registering for charitable gifts is a good one, and might channel some gift dollars in a productive direction, but most people would much rather do something for the couple than give a charitable gift in their name.

These people no doubt have all the necessities of life, so their registry will naturally lean extravagant. A couple of the items of the registry are clearly ridiculous, but overall, I'd say it's just an inflated version of a generally wasteful practice rather than a reflection of their particular horridness as human beings.

MgoSam

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If you are worth $250 million, you shouldn't be asking for gifts, period.

What's the limit? You say when you have 250 mil, you shouldn't be asking for any wedding gifts, if she had 249, would it be permissible?

Chris22

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When we got married, our registry had a wide variety of things on it, from the ridiculously cheap to the very expensive (several hundred dollar crystal vases and bowls and crap) because we wanted to accomodate a wide variety of budgets.  Lots of older relatives don't like to give cash (or like to give cash + gift) so they like to have a lot to chose from.  I don't think there's any reason to judge someone for getting a little click-happy with the scanner gun when registering.  If she throws a fit upon NOT receiving these things, sure, but just saying "here's some stuff I like if you want to buy me something" isn't ridiculous. 

Bob W

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Obviously the straw and cake plate are for snorting coke.     I predict this marriage will last about 3 weeks.

EricL

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This is indeed sad.  Amaruso built her fortune flogging vintage clothing on EBay.  Prior to that she job hopped through retail and food wage slavery including a few firings, consumer silliness and a  mustachian recovery.  Investors were surprised to find she built her business with no debt.  In her autobiography she bragged she used investor money for office furniture used off Craigslist. She has definitely fallen into hedonic adaptation. 

forummm

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I hate it that all my friends with decent jobs ask for money or stuff when they get married or have a kid or a 2nd kid of the same sex, etc. Why do I need to give them crap just because they don't want to stop spending $2k/mo eating out or whatever, and they just need more expensive crap? I can see for two young people who live with their parents and are just graduating that it would be nice to help them buy some stuff to start a new life in their first time living together. But almost everyone is cohabitating anyway. They already have what they need to live.

Cpa Cat

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I'm with the others who say they don't understand why there's even a registry.

When you're down to putting metal straws and weird paperweights on your wedding registry, then what do you really care what people get you?

The purpose behind a registry is that you actually want/need some stuff and you don't want your guests to buy you a bunch of crap and waste their money. If you're going to put together a registry dedicated entirely to money-wasting crap, then what's the point?

If people ask about gifts, why not say something like, "Well, DH loves camping and I love gardening. And you can never go wrong with Williams-Sonoma. But we are thrilled to have you attend, gifts are truly unnecessary."

And where's the cutoff for asking for gifts? Uhh.. if you have so much money that you think a silver straw sounds awesome, then that's the cutoff.

MgoSam

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And where's the cutoff for asking for gifts? Uhh.. if you have so much money that you think a silver straw sounds awesome, then that's the cutoff.

Fair point. I think weddings have become so overblown and excessive.

snuggler

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If you are worth $250 million, you shouldn't be asking for gifts, period.

What's the limit? You say when you have 250 mil, you shouldn't be asking for any wedding gifts, if she had 249, would it be permissible?

Definitely not at $249 million. She could have, for starters, said "no gifts please", and made it clear that those who insisted and needed ideas could use the registry. We did exactly that and have a combined income of less than $150k.

Wouldn't you be ashamed if your child was worth $250 million and was asking for $250 straws in his wedding registry? Wouldn't you feel icky about doing that yourself if you were in her shoes? If so, then why should we rationalize her behavior as acceptable?

Chris22

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If you are worth $250 million, you shouldn't be asking for gifts, period.

What's the limit? You say when you have 250 mil, you shouldn't be asking for any wedding gifts, if she had 249, would it be permissible?

Definitely not at $249 million. She could have, for starters, said "no gifts please", and made it clear that those who insisted and needed ideas could use the registry. We did exactly that and have a combined income of less than $150k.

Wouldn't you be ashamed if your child was worth $250 million and was asking for $250 straws in his wedding registry? Wouldn't you feel icky about doing that yourself if you were in her shoes? If so, then why should we rationalize her behavior as acceptable?

I'm sure people invited to her wedding aren't paupers.  Who cares if rich people want to buy other rich people expensive crap?  How does that affect your life?  And thus, why get wrapped up in it?

snuggler

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For the answer to this question, see the purpose of this section of the forums :).

Your argument could literally apply to every thread here.

Chris22

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For the answer to this question, see the purpose of this section of the forums :).

Your argument could literally apply to every thread here.

No, my understanding is that this forum is to make fun of people who are doing themselves financial damage ("so and so owes $100k on a credit card but leased a new Lexus and eats out every day").  Not to make fun of rich people for doing rich people things. 

snuggler

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For the answer to this question, see the purpose of this section of the forums :).

Your argument could literally apply to every thread here.

No, my understanding is that this forum is to make fun of people who are doing themselves financial damage ("so and so owes $100k on a credit card but leased a new Lexus and eats out every day").  Not to make fun of rich people for doing rich people things.

We will have to just agree to disagree. My understanding is quite different. The 'about me' section of MMM says this site is about everyone living a frugal yet badass lifestyle. The site is filled with articles and posts about hedonistic adaptation and overconsumption and its harmful effects both on our character and the environment.

We frequently facepunch people for ridiculous expenses, even when they are living below their means. And we quite frequently make fun of people's ridiculously wasteful purchases in this section without knowing anything about their finances.

I mean, why is $100k of credit card debt and a Lexus lease any more worthy of shame than a $275 straw, if the person can afford it? Why do we regularly mock people who drive clown trucks to work? Those who buy gold Starbucks cards? Many can afford these items without going in the red, and yet we mock them every day.

Chris22

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For the answer to this question, see the purpose of this section of the forums :).

Your argument could literally apply to every thread here.

No, my understanding is that this forum is to make fun of people who are doing themselves financial damage ("so and so owes $100k on a credit card but leased a new Lexus and eats out every day").  Not to make fun of rich people for doing rich people things.

We will have to just agree to disagree. My understanding is quite different. The 'about me' section of MMM says this site is about everyone living a frugal yet badass lifestyle. The site is filled with articles and posts about hedonistic adaptation and overconsumption and its harmful effects both on our character and the environment.

We frequently facepunch people for ridiculous expenses, even when they are living below their means. And we quite frequently make fun of people's ridiculously wasteful purchases in this section without knowing anything about their finances.

I mean, why is $100k of credit card debt and a Lexus lease any more worthy of shame than a $275 straw, if the person can afford it? Why do we regularly mock people who drive clown trucks to work? Those who buy gold Starbucks cards? Many can afford these items without going in the red, and yet we mock them every day.

Agree to disagree.  To me, MMM's idea about hedonistic adaptation is because eventually your lifestyle creep will consumer your ability to pay for things and you'll be back to being a slave to your money.  Quite frankly, I can't think of too many REALISTIC scenarios where someone with $250M runs out of money because they spent it on $275 baubles.  Could it happen?  Maybe, I dunno.  But it's just silly to waste time thinking about, and doesn't add any value to your life.  Frankly, I think that applies to MOST things posted in this section, but whatever, people here seem to get off on judging others so let them.

snuggler

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I can't speak for others, but I can say that for myself, mocking others helps me reinforce and practice my own frugality, and is free entertainment that I can share with those who share my disdain for overconsumption, hedonistic adaptation, and environmentally harmful waste. Because I came from a family that is financially responsible but still has a lot of wasteful spending and hedonistic adaptation, and am surrounded by coworkers and others who are spendthrifts and sometimes mock or challenge my choices, I find it to be a healthy break from their world.

It has also helped me develop the habit of judging all purchases, even my own. Back when I used to think like you (she can afford it, so what's the harm?), I was also justifying a lot of my own dumb purchases based on the same rationale.

So, it does add value to my life. In fact, it probably adds a lot more value than one of my other favorite forms of entertainment, which is literally watching talented people chase after a ball. Most forms of entertainment, after all, are rather silly.

If this kind of thing doesn't add value to your life, it is a pretty easy section to avoid. I can assure you that we know better than you about what adds value to our own lives, and don't need your help with that :).

On a somewhat related note, have you ever watched the movies "Broke" or "Queen of Versailles"? Or read about the history of royal families in Europe? It is quite common for very wealthy people to go broke spending money on dumb stuff. In fact, it is one of the most common ways very wealthy people go broke.

Tabaxus

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If you are worth $250 million, you shouldn't be asking for gifts, period.

What's the limit? You say when you have 250 mil, you shouldn't be asking for any wedding gifts, if she had 249, would it be permissible?

Definitely not at $249 million. She could have, for starters, said "no gifts please", and made it clear that those who insisted and needed ideas could use the registry. We did exactly that and have a combined income of less than $150k.

Wouldn't you be ashamed if your child was worth $250 million and was asking for $250 straws in his wedding registry? Wouldn't you feel icky about doing that yourself if you were in her shoes? If so, then why should we rationalize her behavior as acceptable?

I'm sure people invited to her wedding aren't paupers.  Who cares if rich people want to buy other rich people expensive crap?  How does that affect your life?  And thus, why get wrapped up in it?

It's a factoid in support of higher taxes on rich people;)

Chris22

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I can't speak for others, but I can say that for myself, mocking others helps me reinforce and practice my own frugality

I find that sad.

KingCoin

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I actually find the ~$2,000 china set that's basically a wedding registry institution (on upwards of 75% of wedding registries that I've come across) more offensive than a $250 straw. You can go get yourself a 8 person service of Wedgwood on eBay for under $150, while these Tiffany straws seem to have good resale value. Maybe we should admire her restraint in not registering for the $650 monkey straw:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Tiffany-Co-RARE-Silver-Monkey-Straw-/151110967999?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item232eea62bf

forummm

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Who even uses straws anyway?

BlueHouse

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Maybe these thing are for the husband. Maybe he doesn't have have 250 Mil and yet he still wants to have his share of presents. Does he not get to have wedding presents just because he is marrying a rich person?  They are probably keeping finances separate, so it might be more reasonable if he has to upgrade his stuff to fit into her idea do worthy home goods. Now that straw might make a little more sense, eh? 

Metta

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Obviously the straw and cake plate are for snorting coke.     I predict this marriage will last about 3 weeks.

Ah! That makes so much more sense now and when combined with the $245 incense box, it does have a certainly wealthy drug chic to it.

yrhyrh

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I actually find the ~$2,000 china set that's basically a wedding registry institution (on upwards of 75% of wedding registries that I've come across) more offensive than a $250 straw. You can go get yourself a 8 person service of Wedgwood on eBay for under $150, while these Tiffany straws seem to have good resale value. Maybe we should admire her restraint in not registering for the $650 monkey straw:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Tiffany-Co-RARE-Silver-Monkey-Straw-/151110967999?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item232eea62bf

What I can't believe is that 22 people are watching this item. And that the owner seriously wants to charge another $11.99 for shipping. Geez.