Haunted Hermes
Hermès International S.A., at 240 Worth Avenue or simply Hermès is a French high fashion house established in 1837, today specializing in leather, lifestyle accessories, perfumery, luxury goods, and ready-to-wear. Its logo, since the 1950s, is of a Duc carriage with horse. Originally, it was a horse saddle shop.
Most retail stores spend up to two hours straightening for their next day of work as a store on the Island has to have the aura of the highest class of establishments to meet it’s clientele’s needs. Hermes is no exception. Well, except for boxes. Take a look at the store, the clothing items are equally spaced apart, the scarves hung just so. The boxes, in contrast are a mess. They also are in the window so the guests can see them.
There is a reason. The boxes don’t seem to want to stay on the shelves. They are often scattered about the floor. Sometimes in unique formations. Sometimes in a row. They are never in the same place, but nevertheless, they don’t end up the shelves either the next morning. This caused quite a stir in Hermes. The employees accused each other of sabotage. They refused to work the night shift so they wouldn’t get blamed for not doing the work they spent up to an hour completing. The manager actually took over that responsibility to keep the peace but found the next day, that it made no difference. The staff wasn’t lying. The boxes would end up on the floor. Clearly no one earthly was doing this.
It wasn’t until the manager’s granddaughter came to work with her grandmother one early Sunday morning that the story started to become clear. The young girl stated, “Grandma, who made a train out of the boxes? You never let me play with them.” Upon consultation with a psychic, it was revealed that a young child who lived above what is now Hermes in the 1930s died of rheumatic fever. He was no older than 6.
When the store was remodeled several years ago, the boy’s energy must have been released into Hermes, and now he plays every night. He makes buildings, trains, cars, and other toys. He never touches the clothing or accessories in the store. He just plays with the boxes. He is not a malevolent spirit, just one who didn’t learn to clean his room before he passed.
The staff at Hermes has the responsibility of cleaning up after him when he plays so there solution is to leave the boxes a mess before they leave. They won’t be there in the morning any way.
Merchandise also falls off the shelves for no reason and there is a cold spot in the dressing room. Apparently, the Duchess of Windsor shopped here whenever she was in town, and always requested the same change room.
But that might be a bit of a legend, because in those days they didn’t use change rooms; wealthy customers had models parade around in front of them as they selected their merchandise. One of the models apparently died during a botched abortion. The child was said to have been the bastard of one of Palm Beach’s most wealthy and prominent citizens. There’s no telling who the citizen was, but apparently the abortionist was not even a licensed physician. He disappeared after the girl died — to the Cayman Islands, it is rumored — where it is said he lived in luxury, well paid-off by the one who hired him: very likely the father of the unborn child. Sometimes the shop-girl ghost can be heard rummaging through the storage room after hours …. but whenever anybody opens the door the store-room is empty. This room is often found unlocked in the mornings, even though it is always locked before the employees leave for the night. It seems the poor girl is still trying to work overtime to get enough money for her “extra expenses.”