Quote Originally Posted by Scotus View Post
I hope I didn't give the impression that a lot of these small kilt places are closing. I wouldn't say this is necessarily the case.
Actually I would say that was the case. When I was growing up in Edinburgh there were wonderful kiltmakers and other artisan shops on the Royal Mile. Also plenty of little shops selling gifts to the tourists...but not selling the cr*p that is being sold now. Most of those have been killed off or sold because of pressure from the Tartan Tat crowd.

The ones who are able to survive are the ones like GT/TFCK, the ones with an international reputation. In other words they are a destination. The smaller shops that still need the impulse tourist sales are suffering. In part because of misleading labels on the part of the sellers and also I part because of the fact that the buyers don't care.

I refuse to do business with any of the Tartan Tat set. I have two kilts that are not tanks but they came from small sellers like Jerry at SWK who in no way are trying to mislead their customers.