“Do you think this is a real store selling real Italian clothing? Of course, not,” said Nino, a Tbilisi resident, as she was passing the Giordano store on Rustavelli Avenue. “They sell the same things you find in the markets, only at a high price.”
Persistent myths surround the shopping culture in Georgia: brand-name items are fake, prices are too high, quality is poor. While these suppositions hold true in certain aspects, many such myths fail the test of reality. In fact official brand-name stores in Tbilisi offer a shopping experience in which quality is proportional to price according to European standards.
Novo Group, a Tbilisi company which has purchased the franchising rights for European brands Mexx, Mango, United Colours of Benetton and Sisley, is one of the giants in Tbilisi’s brand-name clothing retail sector. It owns six shops: three Benetton, two Mexx and one Mango, the last of which opened in August 2008. They can be found through the store locators on the brands’ official websites and feature items that are also featured online.
Tbilisi's streets, however, also overflow with retail locations which combine a conglomeration of clothing and accessories of dubious quality but comparably high prices. Such stores tend to muddy the waters of the retail business, allowing customers to lump different shopping experiences under the same myths.
Myth #1: Items Sold in Expensive Stores Are Fake Anyway
Georgia’s market is saturated with counterfeit items ranging from high-end designer purses to socks. “Nike” underwear and “Dolce&Gabbana” handbags are available at numerous stores, street corners and markets. The price of such items varies by location and largely depends on the rent for the retail space. While cheap compared to authentic products, many of these creations are still comparatively pricey. A “Prada” bag retails for 140 Lari (56 Euro) at a location on Pekini Street. Same bag can cost as little as 25 Lari (1 Euro) at the Bazroba, a well-known local market.
However, authentic brand-name products have also established a niche in Tbilisi’s market, dispelling the overarching disbelief in the authenticity of anything. Thus, for example, Novo Group purchases real products through official distribution channels. “We work with Italy through Turkey with regards to Benetton, Mango comes directly from Spain, and we work through Hungary with Mexx,” Burduli said. Any discrepancy between the collections available online and those presented in Tbilisi stores depends on the country’s market share and the local shopping culture. “These brands have a lot to offer, the collections are very large, we cannot afford to order all of them,” Burduli said. “Also there is some clothing that won’t sell in Tbilisi, because of our mentality, our character and taste.”
Tbilisi also houses a third type of store: those selling authentic items purchased outside the official distribution channels. “They [such stores] somehow buy the clothing on the black market, they do not have an entire collection and they purchase models that might have certain defects,” Burduli said. The Malsi store on Pekini Street appears to belong in this third category.
Myth #2: Clothing Made in Asia is Inevitably of Low Quality
Nike, located on Rustaveli Avenue, is the only store in Tbilisi that officially purchases merchandise at Delta Sport, a company headquartered in Kiev and overseeing Nike distribution in the Caucasus region, said one of the store’s salesmen. However, the products featured in the store are manufactured in China, Malaysia and Indonesia, sometimes creating a suspicion about their authenticity. But even Nike sold in the United States is manufactured in Asia, said the salesman.
“Some customers do not know that even Armani, for example, has factories in the countries where labour is cheap,” Burduli said. “If something is made in Indonesia it does not mean that it is of bad quality. We still have to mature to such an understanding. For us, such countries as China and Indonesia are still associated with bad quality.”
Benetton factories situated in the Asian countries have to subscribe to the standards issued by the company’s headquarters in Italy. Most of the Benetton clothing in Tbilisi stores is made in Turkey, but this does not negatively impact on the quality. Since the Caucasus is closer to Turkey than to any other Benetton factory site, many of the products sold in Georgia are inevitably manufactured in Turkey.
Tbilisi stores also sell Benetton clothing made in Italy. “The signature things in the collection, the ones with special design and features, come from Italy,” Burduli said. Benetton’s salesperson in the store on Pekini Street admitted that most of the clothing sold in the store was manufactured in Turkey and only some pieces came from Italy.
At the same time, some retailers might feel pressurised to accommodate their customers’ perceptions. A store attendant at Guess on Chavchavadze Avenue said that all the store’s products were manufactured in Italy. A tag on a denim miniskirt, however, stubbornly stated: made in Mexico. The store consultant also said that Guess was an American brand manufactured in Italy. However, the great majority of Guess merchandise sold in the United States is actually made in China. Guess by Marchiano, a separate higher-end line within the brand, however, indeed manufactures clothing in Italy.
Tbilisi’s Guess is not listed on a roster of Guess stores listed at www.guess.com. The store's counterparts in Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Ukraine, however, receive due notice on the company’s website.
Myth #3: Brand-name Clothing is Much More Expensive in Tbilisi Than in Europe
“We work really hard to get our prices as close to the European prices as possible,” Burduli said. In fact, the tag prices in Mexx stores list a price equivalent in Lari, Euro and other European currencies. “Of course, it is more expensive because the prices include transportation,” Burduli said. “But still, we cannot have a big difference because we must adhere to the standards.” For example, Mango markets itself as a popular brand offering many products at an affordable price. Burduli said that under its franchising agreement Novo Group cannot deviate its prices from Mango’s standards.
Visits to several stores reveal that to a large degree Tbilisi prices are comparable to their European counterparts. For example, a pair of black women’s slacks retails in Mexx for 163 lari (65 euro). Similar pants cost between 69 and 79 euro on the official mexx.com website. Casual tops from the Mango Basics collection average between 45 and 49 lari (around 18 and 19 euro). Comparable shirts respectively cost about 17 and 19 euro online.
However, at some other retailers the pricing situation is different. For example, a denim mini-skirt in Guess retails for 250 lari (149 dollars) and a pair of women’s leather boots for 700 lari (416 dollars). These prices are significantly higher than those habitual to the United States, the brand’s home: stores there sell denim skirts for an average of 40 dollars and a pair of leather boots for 250 dollars.
The same is the case with Nike. Nike Dri-Fit pants for women sold in the official Nike store on Rustaveli retail for between 179 lari (71 euro) and 199 lari (79 euro). Similar work-out pants retail at www.nike.com for between 43 and 60 euro.
Thus, while some suppositions revolving around shopping choices in Tbilisi remain partially true, such overarching myths as poor quality, lack of authentic items, and unreasonably high prices do not withstand scrutiny. Authentic quality clothing priced according to the European standards has indeed acquired a niche in the local market.
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