Greece is a tourist hotspot and is loved for its islands, ancient ruins and beaches, but one visitor got a surprise when she travelled to the country and came across something very unusual
There are a number of well-visited countries in Europe, including Greece, Spain, France, Germany and Italy. Brits enjoy travelling to Europe because of its proximity to the UK making flight times shorter and it offers both city breaks and beach trips with some destinations that are quite affordable.
When Crystal Pincott went on holiday to the island of Crete in Greece, she was likely expecting to see stunning beaches with turquoise waters, the traditional Greek whitewashed buildings and historical sites. What she didn’t think she would stumble across was a physical Shein store while wandering the streets of Rethymno, a city on the north coast of Crete.
Shein is a global online shopping platform that offers a vast quantity of on-trend clothing at very low prices making it a leader in the fast fashion industry.
Many customers will be used to browsing on Shein on their phones but the company occasionally has physical pop-up stores in various locations.
Crystal, from Somerset, turned to TikTok to share her surprising discovery while visiting Crete.
She took a video of the Shein store with a sign on the shop front stating that products, like clothes and shoes, were being sold for €6 (£5.24).
The British tourist filmed inside the shop and showed that there were many bags, heels, sandals and rails of clothing, including summer dresses and skirts, being sold.
In Crete you can expect to find local markets selling fresh produce and traditional goods, specialty shops selling crafts and handmade jewellery and larger department stores and modern shopping centres in the bigger cities but a Shein store is something that would take visitors and locals by surprise.
Crystal’s TikTok video has racked up a staggering 5.9 million views, 587,500 likes and more than 3,600 comments, at the time of writing.
One shocked viewer asked: “Omg there’s a Shein store in person in Greece? Since when?!”
Another user said: “This is exactly how I imagined the shop to look.” A third joked: “Ask if my Shein order is there.”
A different viewer remarked: “That’s cool tbh (to be honest).” Others who have seen the store left comments, such as “I went in there, loved it” and “I saw this today, I was so excited!”
However, someone else had another opinion as they stated: “The fun with Shein is scrolling on the website for hours though.”
Shein has had pop-up stores throughout the UK and across the world, for example in the US, Spain, Italy, South Africa and Dubai.
However, it has never had a permanent physical presence anywhere. After three stores bearing Shein’s name appeared in Athens, Patra and Agrinio last year the Greek newspaper eKathimerini spoke to Martin Reidy, a representative from the company, who said: “We are an exclusively online platform.”
He added that these stores are not related to the retailer: “They are not associated with Shein. We have no physical stores in Greece and are not planning on opening any.”