Factory outlet

In Malaysia, some tourists do come here to find pirated stuff either in the form of DVDs, software programs and various other products which looks like, but not quite, the brands famous around the world. Do not say this to the government who actually close one eye on this lucrative trade and deny that it is a serious problem. They do try to eradicate this problem but as one article I read somewhere correctly pointed, the survival of these intellectual property infringer could be a good how-to manual in surviving the bad times. They keep on persevering although the arm of the law try to shuts their avenues.

Anyway, when I went to this one town in the island of Java, I now realised that our IP infringement business is just so very small in comparison with that town. They copied most of the luxury items ever sold in any part of the world from the well known brand such as Gucci to the exclusive one like Ted Hardy et al. They are so good that you will be hitting your head for buying the original as the price is just 30% of the real things. Workmanship? Check. Latest design? Check. Limited edition. Check.

I have always believe in supporting the real tradename by buying their goods at the boutiques they have all around Kuala Lumpur. I rarely even buy the one they sold in the department store though they are on sale. Then, I heard the explanation of the sales assistant in this small town in Indonesia. They were hired once to produce these products in factories all around town and when they found out these factories have quality control which made them chugged off those which did not pass their stringent test, they sold it in shops all over town. When the factories close, they produced it with the intention of selling these brands themselves. And people comes. Most from Indonesia itself but some do come from neighbouring countries. Guess what, Malaysians are some of their regular customer.

And I could say, at the end of the trip, I had to stop myself from going into any one of their factory outlets as I just seem to have one item each time I came out from it.

The outlets...