Quote Originally Posted by highlander_Daz View Post
Imagine if I travelled to the united States, an area with a high population of Native Americans, Imagine if I visited a garish gift shop selling Native American "souveniers" many of which could be considered "tacky" or cheap versions copies of more authentic souvineers made by native Americans . Imagine that the store is owned and staffed by, for example chinese people, some of whom had adopted native American sounding names, would our American xmarkers not ask Why ? would any xmarkers think that a Native American might be forgiven for being offended that symbols of his culture were being used to sell tacky souveniers? . and that possibly the people selling them were not 100% respectful of Native american culture.
Having just spent nearly two years in the American Southwest and done a lot of tourist and other touring of the area your description above unfortunately describes probably 90% of the retail establishments in the major tourist areas---Scottsdale, Sedona, Grand Canyon, Santa Fe, and the areas surrounding many of our national parks. Are the natives unhappy with it? Yes, certainly, but business is indeed business, and just becasue something looks like it is Native American does not make it so, but people will still buy it because they want it whether or not it says it is made by native americans. The only way to be sure is to buy it yourself from the source, and many native americans have roadside stalls or tribal area markets where they personally sell their goods. But even there sometimes some of those goods are not really authentic either, as I have seen items sold under these circumstances that were clearly marked as not being of native american origin.

In a market economy there are three major factors that play into any purchase: cost, quality, and time (in the retail business this equates to "off the peg" vs "custom built" but also to how accessible the items are to the buyer, i.e., how easy is it to find a store selling what you want at the price you want. This last aspect explains why one company may flood a tourist area with multiple outlets all selling the same or similar items for the same prices----it sets an apparent standard base price if you see it in multiple stores at that price. Cost is always an issue, and most folks want to get things as cheaply as possible, although some are willing to pay more if they know that the quality is significantly better. Quality is one place where things become most polarized-----some want it cheap regardless of quality simply because they don't know any better or don't care/it doesn't matter in their particular circumstances (read typical tourists). Others who are more knowledgeable in the area will require quality above all else, paying top prices and waiting many months for a custom high quality piece of artisan workmanship (check Matt or Barb's waiting lists). But as the old saying goes, in the retail game of cost, quality and time, choose any two becasue you will pay in the way of the third. Tourists want it cheap and available (cost and time) and therefore sacrifice quality. Some of us want quality first at a reasonable cost and are willing to wait in the queues for months on end for our custom kilts. Others may need quality in a timely fashion (gotta have a kilt in this tartan in this size in 6 weeks for my wedding) and are going to pay extra for the rush order to meet those desires.

Folks like the Gold Bros are meeting the needs of those tourists with their products at that end of the spectrum, and that is where most of their business success comes from. They also have the ability to meet some of our more discerning tastes with higher quality items that either cost more to keep in stock (for availability---the time part) or are less expensive but still good quality (some of the custom kilts they make or fabrics they can get woven), whereupon you must wait until they can get those items made up custom. The tourists and others who buy the low end stuff could care less where it comes from, so the labelling issue is really moot.

An example of the labelling issue being moot: A kilt is a piece of historically handsewn traditional scottish highlandwear. How often is the fabric woven by a mill actually located in the Highlands? How often is a kilt handsewn by a real native highlander who still lives and works in the highlands (certainly not Barb or Matt)? Even in Scotland? Although many of us do own handsewns from various talented kiltmakers, honestly what percentage of all kilts, even if we restict this to traditional 8yd wool kilts, are handsewn vs machine sewn? So when you get down to it we are all "poseurs" to a different degree, since we can probably count on two hands those active in this forum who have and wear kilts made of wool raised in the highlands, woven into tartan in a highlands mill, handsewn by a native highlander who still lives and works in the highlands. But nobody worries about labelling those facts in each and every kilt sold in the world. Should a handsewn kilt from Scotland made of "english" Marton Mills tartan not be considered "scottish" and therefor require full disclosure of the origin of each and every part and stitch? Is it not "made in Scotland" if say the lining fabric or buckles or thread used to sew it are not made in Scotland? It can get a bit ridiculous.

Designed in Scotland means just that---the basic design is scottish---and nothing else. I think it is reasonable to assume nothing else about a product unless the labelling specifically specifies content, manufacture, care, or site of origin.

There endeth the rant.