Split – you've highlighted the retail cons that have been foisted on the consumer over the years. Clarks shoes when they were produced in this country were of top-quality (luckily I bought several pairs at knockdown prices when they were closing down the UK factories) – they are now produced abroad cheaply and at lower quality and are rubbish. But newcomers arrive e.g. Rieker, a German firm that produces really good quality shoes at sensible prices for the whole of Europe. There are other quality British retail names that are still with us but are now of decidedly indifferent quality e.g. Marks & Spencer, Sainsbury's, Russell-Hobbs. It seems very common in the retail/consumer trade to buy up old respected quality British names and put them on cheaply produced (sometimes decent/sometimes rubbish) products made elsewhere. I don't have a problem with that – it's reasonably easy to see what's worth paying for. It just irritates me that the retail trade is quite happy to con many of its customers that they are buying good old-fashioned British quality (and paying for it) and getting just run-of-the-mill stuff instead.
But it's the oldest retail trick in trade isn't it? – Do what Burberry have done: create a demand for something that's produced very cheaply and charge the earth for it. The makers/sellers of smartphones have done pretty well in that respect also!