CREED experts, what are your thoughts?

I don't know what you are asking when you ask whether the SA was "blowing smoke," but to address some of your specific points:

1. Walgreen's does not sell fakes. Your Creed is genuine if purchased from Walgreen's.
2. I have no doubt that a Creed SA in a Creed Boutique is probably trained in what differentiates genuine product from fakes.
3. I would expect a Creed rep to downplay batch variations.
4. Some here on basenotes don't believe there are significant variations, either, and I respect their noses. All I can say is this: the only two Creed fragrances I buy with regularity are GIT and MI. I absolutely know there can be (not "always are") distinct differences in these two scents from one batch to the other. And other basenoters I trust have the same opinion about other scents. I am not an alarmist, and have not experienced variability with any other fragrance house. It is simply something you have to put up with if you love Creed's scents.
5. I have no idea how many people "actually make" Creeds, nor do I know what this means. If the SA meant that there are only 35 people on the production floor combining ingredients or operating the production line, I would have no reason to disbelieve that. Creed isn't the size of Chanel, and I suppose (again, I don't know) it produces its scents in one single factory.

The Creed SA's get uniformly high marks here on basenotes, and I'd probably put a lot of stock in what they say. Just remember they work for Creed and therefore should be expected to downplay its blemishes.

Oh, and I am absolutely NOT a Creed expert! These are just my thoughts.

I would imagine that they are capable of distinguishing fakes, simply to weed out return scams. And that is probably the party line on batch variations, although the "Millesime" defense was much used in the past.

I would just say enjoy your GIT and don't worry about it.

Sounds like that Creed Rep is a bit full of himself and as long as your happy with what you have then no worries.

Absolutely.

Did he push you to buy Aventus?

If the Creed Boutique is in your neighborhood, just buy from there, and develop a good relationship with the delightful SAs. I've always had very good experiences with the boutique. And of course you know you'll be getting legit merchandise. As my friend Mike says, "Buy quality, and you'll only cry once."

Agreed, enjoy your GIT

The guys that i have dealt with at that boutique are among the nicest and most professional sales people that i have ever had the please of doing business with.
However.... you did go in there talking about internet conspiracy theories AND you told them that you bought your GIT at a discount from walgreens.com, so i dont think his "get out" tone was uncalled for. Please dont take your bottle of GIT back in there so they can verify if it is real unless you are going to buy something also. Sound like you know its real which it is, so youre probably not planning on doing that anyway.

Perfect summing up I'd say...

I'd be amazed if somewhere like Walgreens sold a fake so enjoy it and if you have an inherent nervousness get the stuff from Creed if you buy it again. I am the same - found some Tabarome cheaper on the web but the nagging doubt meant I decided to get it from Creed in the end. I figured that was the best way to be 100% certain.

totally agree. just enjoy your GIT. its definitely sexy hahaha.

this ^^^^^^^^^^^^ ... however, you should be heedful of what heperd said ...

This happened before my time here, but some of the old-timers here will be able to flesh out this story, hopefully.

Basically, as I've heard it. Creed really is quite small, with just a few people making the scents. To try to protect the brand, they theoretically only sell to a few specific distributors, who are charged with making sure that the scents only end up in licensed retailers (Saks, Neimans, etc, as well as some small nicer perfume shops who sell the Creeds at full price, like Luckyscent).

The lady who now owns Bond No 9 used to be the American importer for Creed and she apparently made quite a stink that some of Creed's distributors in other countries were selling their old stock to crappy discount distributors who then sold Creeds at discounts to non-fancy stores in America that sold Creed cheaper. It was a mix of old stock, unsold goods, occasional actual new stock, and counterfeits (depending on how shady the discount distributors were). As the legend goes, she finally got so pissed off that she sold her entire US stock to these low-end distributors as a fuck you to Creed when she gave up to start Bond No 9, thus flooding the grey market with cheap Creeds, which has lasted to this day.

Creed's official line is that unless you bought it direct from Creed, Neimans, Saks, Bloomingdales, or a licensed luxury retailer, it's automatically fake, which is basically bullshit. You can never be 100% sure, but you're much more likely to get bottles left over from the "fuck you" sell-off or that have come to the US via multiple shady international distributors.

Walgreens.com is getting their cheap Creeds from the same low end distributors as the questionable mall stores. Really, there's no way to tell if your cheap Creed is fake. Unless it's a shoddy bottle or the packaging is obviously "off", it's probably real, a lasting result of the "fuck you" sell-off, but there are simply no guarantees. You can't just assume that Walgreens is immune to fakes just because they're a huge corporation - they're only as good as their distributors and discount perfume distributors are shady (have you ever gone into one of those terrifying midtown Manhattan perfume discount stores? Yes, those are the slimy distributors we're talking about here). But that doesn't change the fact that cheap Creeds are still most likely real.

The hundreds of threads here where people assume their cheap Creeds are fake are 99% caused by the way Creed scents are slightly reformulated every year, so the old ones never seem to smell that same as new bottles or samples.

On a personal note, I buy my Creeds from my local Neimans or the NYC boutique, not because I'm afraid of fakes, but because I enjoy the great service and the freebies they throw around.

where did you get all of this information. sources please.

where did you get all of this information. sources please.

I'm quite happy with it, even though I have a 2010 and I admit it slightly lacks sillage or longevity.

All of this is complete hearsay, just rumors that have gone around Basenotes over the years, repeated for the newbies... I certainly have no links to Creed or anyone.