La Cantera got a visit from over one thousand fashionistas today. While I showed up at 11:20am, many of these eager shoppers showed up as early as 5:00am to stand in line to get their hands on some of these high trending fashion pieces. H&M received quite a bit of business from the grand opening of their store in one of the fastest growing cities in the U.S.
As I arrived, I got to experience the passing out of black umbrellas with a red band around the base and H&M's logo in white on the crimson band. This line of umbrellas stretched over half a mile around the mall. As I watched the line stretch out, I decided to go talk to some of the shoppers.
Melanie and Christopher Alva arrived at La Cantera at 4:45am. They luckily were some of the few three hundred visitors to receive a scratch off gift card possibly possessing up to three hundred dollars of store credit.
"We got these Swag Bags. They come with a catalog, and a T-shirt, and a cool bag. She even got a water bottle", expressed Melanie Alva.
As the doors opened at noon, the workers joyously greeted us. According to one of the workers, she did not know she was going to come to San Antonio to support the opening of this store until two and half weeks ago. "I'm not from here. I'm actually from New Jersey. So they flew me all the way out here to support", she stated. She continued to say majority of the staff at the store were brought in from different H&Ms to support the grand opening of the La Cantera storefront.
The store began to fill up with eager shoppers attempting to get their hands on merchandise. A visitor began to express how she heard of this H&M coming because of the other stores in the U.S. Many shoppers swarmed the racks grabbing what they could get their hands on.
As I continued to shop around the crowded store, I bumped into Meagan who is in charge of Regional Visuals for H&M. She stated, "We have over three hundred stores in the U.S. Our corporate office is based in Sweden, but to open this store, we brought people in from all over the United States." A lot of work was put into opening this storefront in San Antonio. According to Meagan, this store has been under construction for quite a while and people have been setting up the inside of the store for over two weeks.
After a well spent couple of hours in the trending store, I left the building content with my purchases and my day. H&M has style for everyone. The workers at the store truly cared about the shopping experience of visitors. Today was such a blast and it was great getting to talk to some of the people who worked so hard to kick off this store. If you have never visited an H&M, I suggest you do. You would not be disappointed.
If you have visited an H&M, what city was it in?
I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day.
XOXO
Kenzie Rae
The line shown by Oscar Hurtado, designer and owner of Shangri La, was in the style of formal dresses such as for a prom. This year, lace is making quite the appearance. As the models walked down the runway, their poised looks matched the style of the dresses.
