I am checking out the Polo Ralph Lauren branded stores in Ubud, Bali. This is my annual pre-Christmas trip to Bali as I have earned an extra week of paid leave on top of normal entitlements.
I don’t know if they are really genuine or not but the quality of their merchandise is good. So I decided to wander in and check What I see is a bunch of retail outlets with similar shop fronts, styling and layouts. Even checking their social media links, they all run the same Facebook, Twitter and Instagram feeds. The cost of a Polo shirt in Bali is outrageous, $120 AUD, they have a 30% sale on bringing the price down to $84 AUD but I still think it is excessive.
There is some room to negotiate on price, there are list price and reduced sale prices. A further discount may be applied for cash but I tend to feel they are fixed and staff don’t have much latitude to discount further than standard rates. The quality is good, but let’s face it, production has been outsourced to Asia for a long time. That being said, what you get with a genuine Polo shirt is quality and I don’t mind handing over a certain premium to genuine retailers.
After all, it was Ralph who came up with the Polo shirt design, I prefer to reward the innovators and not the clones. Bali is going upmarket, name branded shops now dominate the smaller retailers. The Polo Ralph Lauren retail outlet is a brand well regarded, the number of outlets in Ubud in Bali is intriguing, there is no shortage of Polo retail shops in such a small area. They appear to be genuine retailers with similar shop fronts, merchandising and a standardised social media profile.
Observations in an undemocratic world 