Hermès bags available in China without mandatory add-on purchases? Once-aloof sales associates now actively courting customers? Has luxury royalty finally bowed?On October 22, Hermès reported its slowest quarterly sales growth since early 2020. Its CFO described China, its largest single market, as “very difficult,” while reaffirming plans to invest there. Meanwhile, BrandAI finds that secondhand prices for the Birkin and Kelly have plummeted, with premium markups shrinking sharply. The entire luxury industry is facing massive headwinds, and its previous logic has broken down: the belief that you could raise prices indefinitely and customers would always eagerly fawn over you, even if you catered to a top-tier client base, no longer holds true.