A Sydney retailer has accused another store of copying several elements of its business including the colours, fitout and even the brands it sells.
In an Instagram post last week, gift store Hands, located on Newtown’s Australia Street in the inner west, publicly called out new shop, Sharing, for copying its entire concept.
“This has been a nightmare for us,” the post starts. “From first hearing from our friends and customers that there was a shop on King St (less than 500m away) that copy-pasted us, to learning how far the copying really went.
“We could not believe that someone would do this and the more we learned, the more disbelief we felt. Sharing shop has copied our brand colours, fitout, furniture, website design and the brands we sell—our entire concept.”
While imitation can be the highest form of flattery, bluntly copying everything is probably not what the popular gift store had in mind as the post continues with more accusations.
“Some brands we work with have already refused to work with them outright. However, Sharing has also created multiple accounts under different names to trick our suppliers into getting orders through,” the Instagram post reads.
“They sell fake copies and rip-off versions of our brands and also brands they’re unauthorised to sell in Australia.”
Trial by social media is a tricky thing and Sharing responded with a post on its Instagram page asking Hands what gives them the right to say others steal as the store has been on the receiving end of bullying and insults since the store accused them of copying, the owners claim.
While Hands says it is not territorial and supports its artists and makers selling to other stores, that doesn’t mean you can go through a website and rip off the entire list of brands they’ve built up. The retailer also asked its customers to not support the new store.
