It has no significant position in Southern Europe. This leaves the typical fashion supplier with a Hobbesian choice. The company can either tailor its output to the physiology of each country, sacrificing a certain level of scale, or else work against a single set of specifications, recognizing that the outcome, while less expensive to produce, will not fit the majority of women in the majority of countries. Clothes were a large part of the former Galeries Lafayette offering in New York and Singapore. Given the dramatic differences across jurisdictions their failure is not surprising.
Analogous situations exist for retailers of other products.
Marks and Spencer had suffered many difficulties in their early years in Canada as they attempted to sell Scotch Eggs to a public that did not understand what they were. One of the best examples of a marketer that has protected its global branding, while adapting to local customer tastes is McDonalds. McDonalds was forced to add beer to its menu in Switzerland. This would never do in North America, but makes sense in the Swiss culture. McDonald s also sells Kim Chi in Korea, and Kiwi burgers in New Zealand.