Counterfeit Fashion in the Mall!

Well not in Oakridge Mall. Today's Vancouver Sun article covered a police raid in West Vancouver mall Park Royal (north or south side, who knows?). The store had some balls to sell Abercrombie and Fitch products out of a store called "Expressions Style Wear" for half the regular price! I wonder how many people bought A&F stuff from the store. You'd think most people would be able to pick up on the fairly obvious clues... or one would hope! The fellow merchants that shared the wing of the mall were pretty much screwed for the day. The police had shut down the entire mall section from 11AM to 3PM.

I'm not down with counterfeiting at all. I'm proud to say that at all of my stores that I've never considered doing a fake anything. Doing retail is tough, I understand that the pressures are immense for some retailers. Once you go down the path of fake things then you've hurt any credibility you had or ever will have. Mind you, there will always be people who believe something is fake. I was in Coach and this lady was demanding her money back because she believed her bag was fake. Yes lady, the Coach store will sell you a fake bag. Not impossible but not likely.

You're all probably expecting me to talk about a store in the Oakridge Mall that everyone believes sells fake things. Yes, we've had queries about "that" store from their customers and even vendors about their product mix. However, I won't talk much about them as it's really their decision to do these things. It'll come around soon enough.