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For all of you who are afraid of accidentally buying fake brand-name goods when all you really want is a pair of socks, this is your day. Having been to Xiangyang Market over the weekend, we heard from one of the “salesmen” that the yearly crackdown is going on as we speak and that it lasts until Wednesday.
What does this mean? It means that people selling Montblanc pens and Chanel keychains have to quickly turn over their boxes and close their drawers when the officials come around -- though we imagine they just start selling them again when the officials leave. It means that the shops that usually sell bags labeled Coach, Gucci, Fendi, Louis Vuitton and Chanel are now full of equally hideous bags that don't have designer names. There are no North Face jackets to be had. They were all replaced with similar-looking jackets from a brand called Spyder. For those of you doing Christmas shopping for the folks back home, all of the Chinesey goods like scrolls, silk jackets and bags with Chairman Mao on them can be easily had and it seemed they were really willing to bargain. Maybe they wanted to get more business and make their Chanel-touting neighbors jealous.
Related:
Shanghai Expat's ongoing list of fair prices at Xiangyang Market
Photo from Wang Jian Shuo.
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Spyder is a pretty big brand in North America, but I think that--unlike North Face--they mostly sell to the skiing/snowboarding crowd. I believe they also outfit the US Ski Team. Whether or not that makes you more or less likely to buy a "Spyder" jacket instead of a North Fake is up to you, of course.
So that's why there were no fakes -- blame Bush.