The Numbers Don't Add Up

I really love visiting Lebanon. But, as much as I understand it, and for the infinitely many things that I still don't understand, it stills sit well with me. I have, however, begun thinking about what it will be like living here if I get a job. The numbers simply don't add up.

I have probably mentioned before, and maybe too many times, that Lebanese people like to dress nicely. I think in fact, there are exactly two primary concerns in Lebanon.
1) Appearance
2) Food

So I walk around in the cities and check out their markets and shops looking for the signs of everyday living. What do I see? Of course, lots of food vendors, fruit markets, convenience stores, but also shoe shops and clothing stores. What else? Well, to be quite frank, only the barest necessities are otherwise represented. I'm not sure I can understand the obsession with clothing here. I understand wanting to be fashionable, but geez people.
A quick observation: Lebanon has its own fashion tv. I know fashion tv exists in other parts of the world, in fact USA and India have fashion tv. The difference is that fashion is nearly 24 hrs of Lebanese fashion designers. I didn't know all these designers existed! Of course the clothing looks like it was designed by some high end french or italian or american or spanish or japanese or taiwanese designer or wherever they all come from these days, but no. These are all Lebanese designers and most of them split their time between Beirut and Paris.

So, back to the news: There are a lot of clothing stores around here. But I can't possibly see how they all stay in business. Lebanese salaries are not that much, and clothing isn't that cheap. But somehow everyone is well dressed and there are more clothing stores than I can understand. In fact just this afternoon I was walking around town named Aley and just stopped at one random spot. In fact this spot happened to be in front of a technical school and a tire shop and decided to walk a block in each direction and count the clothing and shoe stores. Here are the results.
One block to the left on the north side of the street...
4 clothing stores and 2 shoe stores.

One block to the right 5 clothing stores and one shoe store. The other side of the street is a restaurant and hotel. However, this scene is a fairly good sample. Of course some of the hotels have clothing stores in them.

So, how do these number work? I have no idea. I can't possibly imagine one commodity being so immensely popular as to have such a huge share of the market. How do they do it?