‘Cartier, Louis Vuitton… Saint Laurent’: Arizona woman goes to the mall. Then an older man offers to buy her any bag that the mall sells
Some people truly have all the luck.
No, really. Imagine minding your business at a random mall, and a stranger unexpectedly approaches you with a bizarre offer. Specifically, they approach asking whether they could buy you the designer item of your dreams—no strings attached.
Well, apparently, this actually happened for one lucky lady. She’s currently going viral on TikTok for sharing her experience.
What happened at the mall?
In a TikTok first posted on Mar. 26 that has racked up over 820,000 views, Amee (@restandroam) broke down an encounter she had with an older man at the Scottsdale Fashion Mall in Arizona.
“Scottsdale is, like, very rich, old, retired guys who love just spoiling young girls,” Amee explained in her video. “… I wanted to go to Aritzia and was looking at a shirt there. This guy comes up to me. He’s like,
I don’t know, 55 or 60, and he’s like, ‘Hey, do you want a new bag? … I’ll buy you any bag you want in here … like, in the mall.'”
Amee initially turns him down, but he insists—it’s a nice mall (with “Cartier, Louis Vuitton, Chanel, everything”). He emphasizes she can pick any designer bag she wants in the entire mall, with no strings attached. So Amee plays along by heading to Coach, but he dismisses the options there as “only $900 bags.” Clearly, he was up for a steeper price tag.
So, she beelines for Yves Saint Laurent. And picks out a $4,200 bag.
He buys it.
Then, they make a pit stop at Tiffany’s, and he also pays for a $3,200 gold ring.
Thankfully, the saga ended there. However, Amee says her friend Gina, upon hearing about this, was convinced Amee was going to be “trafficked.”
“Chance I was willing to take,” Amee finishes, jokingly. “Don’t value my life that much.”
‘What is the catch?’: Commenters react
Viewers reacted strongly to Amee’s video, with most of them seeming torn between incredulity and straight-up envy. In response to one commenter wondering what “the catch” was, Amee wrote, “He said it makes him feel good spoiling women.”
“It’s probably a kink,” another commenter replied to her comment.
“I failed my twenties miserably,” bemoaned one viewer. “I think I’m too ugly to have this happen to me,” said another.
One viewer even confirmed this is a bit of a norm with the older men in Scottsdale, Arizona, saying, “It’s true.”
“I’m not from there, but I went last year and it was the first thing I noticed,” the commenter wrote. “It’s like they’re all lonely and bored, and dont even care if you pay attention to them.”
Other commenters also seemed unsurprised, but more so because of their attitudes toward men, or because of the experiences of those close to them.
“My sister is 56 and the s-t men have offered her is insane,” one viewer commented. “These men are in their 70’s-80’s but it’s trips, purses, she got a car once.”
“You never know until you try,” another advised. “Men are so stupid that if you just flatter them a little bit, they will do anything.”
Why do older men buy things for women they don’t know?
In the wake of Amee’s story, you might understandably find yourself wondering what the deal was with this guy. Why on earth would he drop thousands of dollars for a woman he doesn’t know, and for absolutely nothing in return? Does this sort of thing happen often?
Well, while there isn’t solid data quantifying the frequency of this phenomenon, social media users have definitely reported this type of thing happening anecdotally. One female Redditor asked if it was “ethical” for her, as a young woman, to be receiving “expensive” gifts from men at her work—because apparently, they were just showering her with gifts. Commenters largely advised her to steer clear of such gifts, warning that “men like this do that to lure you in and to make you a sugarbaby.”
Another Redditor noted, “friends who have men that just buy them stuff, sometimes expensive things like a whole Xbox and games for it, and get nothing in return for it.” When asked whether to accept similar material generosity from an older man, commenters again emphasized that “there’s absolutely romantic/sexual motivation behind it.”
Many of these men who offer money, luxury items, or other material gifts—supposedly in exchange for nothing—are most likely catering to a fetish, in fact. According to Metro, “financial domination” (or “findom” for short) is “a BDSM sub-fetish that revolves around control or humiliation in conjunction with money.” Kinks like findom may result in experiences akin to Amee’s.
Ultimately, it’s always best to stay alert for scams or predation, even if someone stays harmless. Never give your personal details to someone offering you any kind of gift, and if something seems too good to be true, it probably is!
The Mary Sue has reached out to Amee via TikTok DM and comment.
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