Some folks have a passion for golf. Some folks have a passion for cars. Others have a passion for jewelry, bikes, shoes, dolls, coins or electronics. Rebecca Rushing has a passion for designer handbags, and her Queen Bee of Beverly Hills designer handbag boutique located on Whitesburg Drive in Huntsville makes her the most exclusive bag-lady out there.
Representing 34% of the global luxury goods industry, designer handbag brands like Chanel, Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Fendi, Prada and Michael Kors are leaders in the handbag market in the United States. While it’s true luxury is subjective, these high-quality brands not only last a long time, but they increase in value.
That means if you were thinking designer handbags were just a chick-thing, it may serve the gentlemen to know that a designer handbag for your wife’s anniversary, birthday or special occasion is a respectable financial investment!
According to Statista, designer handbags are part of the larger global luxury goods industry that also includes cosmetics, fragrances, jewelry and luggage. In the accessories category, designer handbags and purses generate over $30 billion in annual revenue.
Rushing was living in Huntsville when the former CPA had an opportunity to open a designer handbag showroom in Beverly Hills, California, in 2001. Indeed, the original Queen Bee of Beverly Hills was located a block off Rodeo Drive and Wilshire Boulevard, a major wholesaler of exclusive, hard-to-find handbags with a focus on highly coveted limited editions in Los Angeles. Rushing sold handbags to Nicole Richey, Paris Hilton and Cameron Diaz, to name a few.
Rushing said it was a heavy lift back then, flying back and forth across the country every week with a small child, but it was pre-internet days and she had to physically be on the showroom floor when celebrities and big celebrity management companies flocked to the Queen Bee for wholesale-only showings.
“For six years, it was a lot of fun, but after I had my second son, the traveling back and forth became almost impossible to manage,” said Rushing. “But by then the internet made it possible to continue the business and not have to be physically in Beverly Hills. I turned to online international sales, but I really missed having the boutique.”
Chatting with customers about designer handbags is no different from Cars and Coffee events for car lovers or the 19th Hole for golfers. She opened her Queen Bee of Beverly Hills boutique on Whitesburg Drive in Huntsville in 2010 to fill the loss of personal interaction with clients.
“It makes me happier to be able to talk to people about the products,” Rushing said. “I missed the interaction with customers and people, I love talking to them about my passion.”
Queen Bee of Beverly Hills in Huntsville buys almost every exclusive designer brand, directly from designer houses in the United States and Europe.
“We don’t really go to market like most retail stores. We get offers from Europe and we buy what is available to us at a slight discount and pass along the savings to our retail lines as well,” Rushing explained. “People ask us how we can sell certain brands less than say a Saks Fifth Avenue. The answer is because we are mainly business-to-business, but we have the retail component as well.”
It all started for Rushing when her mother gave her what was her first Gucci handbag at 13 years old.
“I blame my mother for this obsession, but I really do see them as collector’s items, as investments that maintain their value, even when they have been pre-owned,” Rushing advised.
She still has her first Gucci, and although it is worn out, it still has tremendous value.
In fact, previously owned designer handbags are so popular, Rushing started a separate luxury finders division where they buy designer handbags from celebrities they worked with in Beverly Hills, as well as local clients. Those bags occupy a special section of the Whitesburg store and offer significant savings to local clientele.
“I was comfortable getting into the pre-owned market because of a new technology device called Entrupy that certifies the product and guarantees 100% authenticity,” she explained. “We are the only company in the region that has invested in this new technology, and we also offer authenticating services to local clients for $25.”
Entrupy uses a scientifically proven scan approach that better protects buyers and sellers of frequently counterfeited, high-value items.
“Our luxury finder’s division is not consignment,” she explained. “We buy handbags outright once authenticated and we pay cash on the spot. If the customer wants a new bag from the luxury finder’s department, they get an additional 20% store credit towards the purchase price.”
There is really nothing like Queen Bee of Beverly Hills in Huntsville or Madison, and in addition to being a local boutique, they are the largest distributor and wholesaler of designer luxury goods with distribution outlets to casinos around the country, duty free shops around the world, and they have many wholesale clients represented by small intimate boutiques as well as vast luxury shopping malls in the Middle East.
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