Giant Robot Store and GR2 News

In China, a country unfortunately famous for producing cheap wares and pirated or knock-off products, there is currently a huge furor directed at one high-end furniture store chain which has recently been accused of selling counterfeit copies of pricey European designer furnishings. The chain is called DaVinci, and it was founded inSingapore even though most of its shops are in China. DaVinci caters to wealthy people, the kind who can afford, say, $100 thousand for a bedroom set sporting names like Versace or Fendi Casa. And as the designer names suggest, much of the extravagance DaVinci sells is supposed to be made in Italy. But it recently turned out that some of it is not. It’s a huge scandal which uncovered, amongst other things: that designer cattle-hide sofas were actually made in a factory in Zhejiang Province; and that Chinese-made products were being routed through Shanghai’s Waigaoqiao Free Trade Zone in order to legally change their status to foreign imported products. The wealthy Chinese folks who make up the bulk of DaVinci’s China customers are not happy about this, and have already started demanding refunds for the costly purchases they have had evaluated and found to be fake. The situation is ironic, to be sure. But keep in mind that wherever one goes in the world somebody is always trying to rip off the wealthy. (New York Times — Chinese Fake Furniture)
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