Salesgirl Refuses To Sell Oprah Winfrey A Bag 'Cos Oprah Can't Afford It

Oprah Winfrey and best friend Gayle King ahead of Tina Turner and Erwin Bach's wedding celebrations in Zurich, Switzerland
A top store in Switzerland has apologised to Oprah Winfrey - one of the richest women in the world - for refusing to sell her a bag because the shop assistant thought she probably couldn't afford them.

Oprah Winfrey was in Zurich to attend Tina Turner's wedding when the incident happened. 
And it occurred in the chic 'Trois Pommes' store whose owner, Trudie Götz, was also  a guest at  the Turner nuptials.
Winfrey was able to embarrass the store which refused her service on U.S. TV. 
She told Entertainment Tonight:
'I was in Zurich the other day, in a store whose name I will not mention. I didn't have my eyelashes on, but I was in full Oprah Winfrey gear. I had my little Donna Karan skirt and my little sandals. But obviously 'The Oprah Winfrey Show' is not shown in Zurich. 
'I go into a store and I say to the woman, 'Excuse me, could I see the bag right above your head?' and she says to me, 'No. It's too expensive.'' 


The bag was on sale for £24,460 and was locked in  a cabinet to prevent shoplifting.
The saleswoman went on to suggest Oprah looks at cheaper bags.

'I left the store but it proves that racism is still an issue,' Oprah added. 

The incident comes as the Alpine state is engulfed in a wider row over racism.

The owner of the store apologized for her assistant’s behaviour, saying there had been 'a misunderstanding caused by the assistant’s failure to recognise Oprah, who is worth about two billion pounds.

Oprah Winfrey said she was sorry for the uproar and media response caused by her comments about an incident in a Swiss luxury store last month when an assistant refused to show her a $38,100 handbag.

At the premiere of her new film, "Lee Daniels' The Butler," in Los Angles on Monday evening, the U.S. actress and talk show host, recently named by Forbes as the world's most powerful celebrity, said she regretted saying it took place in Switzerland.

"I'm really sorry that it got blown up. I purposefully did not mention the name of the store. I'm sorry that I said it was Switzerland," she told reporters on the red carpet.

"I was just referencing it as an example of being in a place where people don't expect that you would be able to be there," she added.

Winfrey, 59, said in television interviews last week that while she was in Switzerland for the wedding of singer Tina Turner last month a sales assistant in a Zurich shop had refused to show her a luxury handbag by designer Tom Ford, saying it was "too expensive" and instead suggested cheaper bags.

Swiss tourism officials said it regretted the incident and the owner of the Tom Ford boutique, luxury shop operator Trois Pommes, denied racism, saying it was a misunderstanding.

"This has nothing to do with racism. I am here for everyone and the customer is king," shop owner Trudie Goetz said last week.

Goetz added that the sales assistant had wanted to show Winfrey, who earned an estimated $77 million in the year to June 2013, that the bag was available in other materials, which may have given the impression that the shop did not want to sell it to her.

"It's not an indictment against the country or even that store," Winfrey explained. "It was just one person who didn't want to offer me the opportunity to see the bag, so no apologies necessary from the country of Switzerland." - cbcnews