The Royal Mile

[bricelythgoe]

Never mind

[BEEDEE]

Several of the recent posts are close to violation rules 4 & 5:

Rule #4
- Intolerance for our fellow human beings, of any kind, is inexcusable behavior in today’s world.

Rule #5
- Discussions espousing one particular religious belief or political system over another or comparison of one belief or system to another will not be allowed.

Please confine your comments to the topic to avoid closure of the thread.

Brian

[bricelythgoe]

Never mind.

[auld argonian]

As far as the practice of "tiering" by a merchant, consider that The Gap, Banana Republic and Old Navy are owned by the same corporate entity. Thus they provide the high end, mid-level and low end of very similar product lines all at the same time...oh, Lord, how the money rolls in!

But the concerns, as I have seen it, are an almost predatory saturation of the marketplace and possible misrepresentation of the "genuine-ness" of articles. Like buying Kentucky Bourbon made in Bolivia or the classic "Schmolex" watch from the episode of Seinfeld.

If your competitor has the capital to buy out all of the retail space that opens up around you, what can you do? If his signs are bigger and yours recedes in the background what options do you have? Try to get some kind of zoning ordinances limiting such things...not easy.

I do think that everything should be very prominently labeled as to place of origin and materials.

Best

AA

[The Guy in the Kilt at UC]

As far as the practice of "tiering" by a merchant, consider that The Gap, Banana Republic and Old Navy are owned by the same corporate entity. Thus they provide the high end, mid-level and low end of very similar product lines all at the same time...oh, Lord, how the money rolls in!...

Which one produces the high end clothing?

[ForresterModern]

"Tiering", "niching" and "market saturation" are common corporate tools in businesses and locations where there is high potential for high profit and high volume sales.

Tiering examples----well look at the US car market up until the last year or so. GM corporate put out Hummer and Cadillac at the top end, Buick and Oldsmobile in the upper bracket, Pontiac as the "niche" performance market, and Chevy and Saturn as the everyday working man's cars. Ford: Lincoln high, Mercury still upscale but not Lincoln, and Ford as the everyday man's cars. Even the Japanese 20 years ago got into tiering by introducing their upscale brands---Lexus= upscale Toyota, Infiniti = upscale Nissan, Acura = upscale Honda----all to compete with the high price portion of the market.

Market saturation can be seen everyday at professional sports events or in places like tourist traps and ski resorts where one company will park t-shirt and other tat vendors only a few feet away from each other on the same sidewalk corner to increase exposure to the fast moving crowd going by, or one resortwear company will place outlets(possibly with the same or different names) every couple hundred feet along the business district of a ski resort to maximize thier products' exposure so it is seen as being the standard of products available by drowning out its competition who may have different and possibly even better quality goods for sale, but likely at a higher price so they cannot afford to stock as much or offer as many outlets. There was one corner in Madison Wisconsin where two identical gas station/minimarts were diagonally directly across from one another at a very prominent and busy intersection, owned by the same owner, selling the same products for the same price, for the simple logic that they saturated that particular physical location while maximizing convenience for the customer, because nobody had to ever make a cross traffic(left in the US) turn to get into one of their two stores---it was always an easy right turn in as well as out, so not cross traffic to fight.

These are simple business principles and unfortunately are commonly seen in tourist areas becasue of the high traffic of relatively ignorant transient consumers with money to spend and wanting some keepsake of their trip, but not necessarily wanting to drop 300gbp on a custom fitted kilt that they have to wait 4-8 weeks for. So tat is what they buy, and because of that tat is what gets put out there, unless the local business and political groups band together to make an area a historic or restricted business zone, something not easy to do considering the tax income these shops bring into the locale and the other money brought into the local economy.

[Woot22]

This is a bit off topic, but since the Parliament building was mentioned earlier I wanted to give my own opinion on it. The first time I laid eyes on it, I absolutely hated the look. It just seemed so awkward and out of place. But since visiting Edinburgh a few more times since then it has sort of grown on me. Now I see the building as less awkward and just really unique and it even sort of "feels" right. Not sure what has changed my perspective but it really has just grown on me over time. I am wondering if our fellow XMTS who live in Edinburgh feel the same way.

[The Kilted Reverend]

I have to weigh in on this by saying that I think we are comparing apples and oranges. Someone has already said that most tourist will not shell out a ton off money for a "souvenir". When I was in the UK in '07 I did not try to buy anything expensive as a momento. In fact the one thing that I brought back was a guide book from anywhere I went that sold them.

The casual tourist is not looking for a hand-sewn tank. They are looking for something that they will never wear but be able to say that they bought a kilt in Edinburgh. These shops are selling "kilts" as a souvenir just like here in Kentucky we sell anything with a horse on it.

It is capitalism, plain and simple.

Rev.

[Woot22]

These shops are selling "kilts" as a souvenir just like here in Kentucky we sell anything with a horse on it.
Rev.

Problem is these are not "kilts" at all and should not be allowed to be sold as such. It only serves to debase the Scottish culture further peoples misunderstanding of Scottish heritage.

[Edinburghkiltie]

Earlier in this thread a member commented that he did not see many kilts in Edinburgh. Kilt wearing - this depends on where one goes on any particular day/evening and also the time of the year/week. People generally wear kilts for events ranging from rugby, football internationals, parties, formal dinners, burns nights, ceilidhs, pubbing sometimes, highland games, festival events, indeed any event where one can be bothered to dress up or get 'party-ed up' so to speak. So midweek in winter will not see many kilts about save the odd piper but Friday nights and weekends it is quiet common to see a few kilties or thousands if it is a rugby day. Here are a few examples:



Kilties in the Grassmarket



Kilted Bar Staff at new Ghillie Dhu pub - many patrons kilted and on Friday nights there is a ceilidh too.




Royal Mile during Festival




Royal Museum Party (Rainbow Kilts)



Royal Mile



Deacon Brodies Tavern - Royal Mile




Charlotte Square



Princes Street Gardens



Assembly Rooms - George Street



Murrayfield

I realise the list is endless so rather than over dominate the postings I'll simply refer you to my Kilted Life Album http://richardfindlay.zenfolio.com/kiltedlife