“Shall we go in?” asks Ben Smith.
“Errrrr,” say I. I’m thinking about the possible catalogue of problems that could occur.
“It’s the Vertu Shop. We’re in Prague. Let’s go in and see if they’ll let us do some filming?” prompts Ben.
“Errrrrrrr,” I repeat, still processing the potential issues. The biggest issue in my mind is that we’re unannounced.
“Listen, why don’t I just pop in and ask them?” says Ben.
I look at Dan. We both do a virtual shoulder-shrug, but with eyebrows instead.
We’re standing on what appears to be Prague’s version of Bond Street. There are security guards standing outside every shop — like the Dior one, or the Cartier one. Each of them is eyeing us. We’re carrying an HD camera, tripod and we all have at least two handsets on-the-go at once. Definitely worth the time of these suspicious security guards.
Ben waltzes into the Vertu store whilst Dan and I stand outside with the equipment.
Ten seconds later, Ben reappears.
“It’s fine. They’re open until 6.30pm and they said we can film all we like.”
Come on! We’ve never been invited to any Vertu events or shops or anything like that before in London. Indeed in the Nokia store on Regent Street, they positively growl at you if you so much as head toward the Vertu stand without your 60,000 pounds on display.
So standby. I’ve had a look at the ‘digital rushes’ of the Vertu store and the footage looks good. We’ll bring the experience to you shortly.
We all went in skeptics. Find out just what Dan Lane and Ben Smith thought of the experience… soon.
By the way, the Vertu shop in Prague was buzzing. We interrupted filming a few times because of customers wanting to buy. One guy came into the store whilst we were pointing the camera at one of the shockingly expensive devices. I nodded to the chaps and we headed to the front of the store and stood in the corner respectfully — I thought this was the best thing to do — whilst this American chap took a browse around the devices aided by the expert Vertu salesman. In 2 minutes he’d made up his mind.
“Cash discount?” he asked.
The Vertu salesman nodded sagely and explained ‘3%’.
“Done,” said the chap, “Where’s the nearest bank?”
The Vertu salesman pointed it out.
I’d like to point out that I have never, ever popped into an HSBC in Prague and asked to withdraw 60,000 EURO (minus 3% cash discount) to buy a new phone. Not yet, anyway.
Recession?
What recession!
Standby for the videos.
