TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin If it seems too good to be true...

Daily Herald story

Be careful buying any purported name brand goods in this area..

Not sure if they still do, but many of the shops on front street used to also sell the counterfeit or "knock off" products.

It isn't right but this isn't just in St Maarten. Lots of places have similar merchandise but people do know at the price they are paying it is a knockoff, right?

But purchasing counterfeit goods is also a crime and knowing importation of the item into the US (and Canada, as far as I know) is also a crime.

Good discussion on TripAdvisor.
https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTop...supreme_brands-St_Martin_St_Maarten.html

It's against the law and it supports child labor!!

Terrorism as well.

Most designer brands NEVER discount their goods. If you see a cheap version abide by Carol's thread title. It is probably fake.

My wife sells designer wear at one of Toronto's high end department stores. e.g. an $800 Gucci t-shirt to a starlette recently in town for TIFF, a $5000 Valentino gown to a lady who arrived from the southern states for an awards banquet, opened her suitcase only to find that she had forgotten her gown.

There is a whole stratosphere of rich folks who (1) just think the designer brands are for regular folks like them (2) will never be inviting me over to a BBQ and (3) spend a $1000 like we spent $100 except we still probably wince a bit more when we spend our $100.

She sells a lot $1100+ Canada Goose or Mackage parkas, mainly to the Chinese who are THE most brand obsessive humans in the world. One of their favourite brands is Canada Goose. Last week when it was +10C, which is not really cold, just brisk, there were Chinese wearing their -30C Canada Goose parkas while I was wearing my shell. I wanted to ask them what they will wear when we hit -30C in January but I know that they wear them for the prestige of showing the world that they can afford to wear $1100. Similarly in Toronto's springtime we will be wearing windbreakers while the Canada Goose folks still hang around.

It is not uncommon for a Chinese customer to buy multiple full price Canada Goose to ship back to China....even after shipping they apparently still make a profit due to their popularity. When the store first carried Canada Goose parkas my wife and fellow employees could get their employee discount applied. Canada Goose has a no discount policy and they put a stop to even those employee discounts. If a store did not toe the CG policy then they found their supply of CG drying up.

Real designer goods are not cheap. If you see a Canada Goose at an unbelievably cheap prices buy it but with the understanding that it is fake. Please don't brag about what a great deal you got; you will just be outing yourself as a foolish purchaser of counterfeit goods and branding yourself as a supporter of child labour, the Mob, drug smugglers whitewashing their money and probably ISIS.

You lost me at that point!! Speaking as a person who has lived in Florida since 2006 and has not seen a snowflake since then, there is something seriously WRONG with your body temperature setting!!! Otherwise, a great post!

Oh Carol, you have plenty of “snowflakes” in Florida, lol! As for the fake goods - there are plenty of those on the island. A few years ago (10 to be exact) my back then 16 years old daughter ended up buying a few fake goodies there cause she couldn’t afford the real ones with her hard earned money. She was happy like a clam, lol!
Yeah it is a brand obsessed world where Chinese and Russians are going crazy about premium brand names. I have seen a line up in Prague 6 years ago at the Hermes Store. All Russians. I have seen a line up at the Chanel store in Brussels where they had Russian speaking salespeople to cater to the Russians. To each their own.
As for the Canada Goose parkas- you can catch it on sale at the end of the season at Cabela’s stores. Sizes are usually limited but you may get lucky.

KGB--Yes, you're probably right about the snowflakes in Florida, but I only worry about the kind that melt! Thanks for the post.

I only worry about the kind that DON'T MELT Carol!

Yes those non=melting snowflakes are the ones I worry about too. Unfortunately they are being pumped full of "I' will give it you free" and they believe it's free. There's no such thing as free lunch!

St Barths has an authorized Louis store. that's where I get mine...just saying....take a day trip and pick up the Original...

This has turned into a political post. Please close it.

Let's keep political ideologies out of it.

OK, well I am out of it, as usual. Learned something today. Closing this one now..