#Spain #EU #EuropeanUnion #Walmart #Europe
First, let me start by saying that quality is in the eye of the beholder and based on their experience. Meaning, that you only know what you know and therefore, what may be of high quality to me, may not to you, and vice versa.
With that in mind, as US expats living in Europe, we were surprised by the differences in quality and living standards in different countries within the Western Block of the EU, never mind the Eastern portion. I suppose, part of that “surprise” was due to our own ignorance in how these same aspects within these United States of America differed. Much like the living standards, and quality, differ between a richer state like California vs. a poorer state like Alaska.
Wearing our hat of ignorance ๐ we expected that good quality clothes and everyday items could be had on the cheap. We were wrong. For me, the starkest contrast was in clothes. Where in the US I was used to being able to go to Target, Ross, TJ Maxx, etc and get relatively inexpensive, high quality, clothes, the same was much more expensive in Spain. And the quality did not correlate with the price increase.
For me, there are a few aspect to quality and I realize we don’t all share them, but the one that I think we can all agree on is consistent cut and stitching across the same line of clothes. Take for example outlet shopping stores. There are two types, outlet stores that sell out of season items and outlet stores that sell slightly-defective items. The latter is what you find at the main stores in Spain. In a lot of 10 items you go and try out, you will find at least 1 item that would be considered defective. Either the stitching was not done right, or the cut was twisted, or a pant-leg too long/short, or an ill-fitting blouse. You name the defect and you would find it on the rack.
It got to the point that when we’d go shopping for clothes, I would do my own personal quality assurance exercise before we reached the counter. And more often than not, I’d have to send one of our kids to go and get a replacement item.
For me, I always felt that shopping in Spain (Desigual, Zara, H&M, etc was like going to Walmart in the US. And going to Walmart (Alcampo) in the Spain, was like going to the dollar store here.
That is probably the reason Spaniards prize Levi’s and other American brands so much. Once they experience good quality, they want it.
