From flooring tiles to electric chimneys to kitchen hobs to modular kitchens,these days its Italian all the way!! The reason the vendors give for quoting such an unearthly flabberghasting prices for commodities that are from never-before-heard-brands are that "They are Italian ma'am" (as though that gives any reason for you to pay more for something that a trusted indian brand can give for one fourth the price he said!)
Now whats it about this "Italian"-mania that has caught up with people like wild fire? How did this wave come up? And are they genuinely Italian?? How diferent is its quality when compared to the indian brands? Is it really worth all this hype??
As far as I understand (from the research that Sand and I have done in the past one year on building materials and furnishings) there is absolutely no difference at all. Moreover, Indian brands are much superior in quality and I doubt if their claims about the product being Italian is really genuine! And the supposedly "italian brands" all land up only in the city's huge showrooms located in posh areas where the sight of a customer buying their product is itself a remotely rare incident! And its only natural for vendors like this to brand their products as "italian" and place a smart price tag too , for how else are they intending to pay for the huge rents for having their showroom in posh areas!
While on our way back home after a drive in the city on a weekend, I was looking around for a shop that sells glass for doing a glass painting.. Passing through Indra Nagar, there was no shop that I could see which saw a potential. Finally I noticed a huge art gallery , obviously empty , and pondered aloud about giving it a try..and Sand exclaimed.. " Hey no, not there...that looks like the places we have seen where a mere Rs 25 glass-piece would cost like Rs 400 and they would put all the blame for the huge cost on the "Italian finish and processing" ... " That says it all I guess .. :-)
PS : Am not against anything genuinly Italian. No room for controversies here please !
4 comments:
I second the opinions mentioned here. Yes, indians have an affinity to anything which is labelled "Made in xxxxx " where xxxxx substitutes either 'India' or 'China' (To my best knowledge, there is no product in India labelled Pakistan. Hence this possibility ruled out).
The prefix 'Italian' is used at large by vendors. Italian marble, Italian dining table, Italian nail polish, Italian banana... and what not! I wonder, if Indian marble, Indian table, Indian blah blah are hot properties out there in Italy.. Any Italian reading ??
Recently mom told me she saw a board saying "Italian furniture at Chinese prices.." ... phew!!! a big blow at the chinese too !!!
Chinese will sue the Italians. (or is it the other way around?) :-s
stick to indian stuff gal.. i feel so proud to c most clothes that americans wear r made in india :)
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