Today's Tangential Blog Reading: Luxury In China from Department Stores to Cars to Hotels

If you are like me, you start reading down your list of daily blog/rss feeds, and quickly one link leads to another, or leads to and idea or question, and before I know it, I have lost hours to reading about fascinating topics that I really didn't have time to focus on. 


However, I've still learned cool stuff, and I inevitably incorporate my newfound knowledge into something I'm working on whether it is a trend presentation, brand strategy, a retail competitive merchandising analysis, or even new designs. 


I think Douglas Adams said it best "I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be."


With that said, here is my blog reading journey from this evening...i hope you enjoy :-)

Lane Crawford Trend Board

Galleries LaFayette Coming to Beijing
November 19,2010 by Stylites

The legendary Paris department store [Gallery LaFayette], already a favorite of Chinese tourists,  will be arriving in Beijing by 2014.  They are teaming up with HK retailer I.T.  It seems they’ve been thinking about this since 2007.  I wonder if the major American department stores like Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus, Bergdorf Goodman, Barney’s, etc. would do well here....


...Currently, the only department stores of their type are the Swank and Lane Crawford, both from Hong Kong...



...Most of them should be planning their market entry since this is the moment to be chasing the RMB of the bling Beijingers [北京人] described here....  >>Continue Reading



New Members Flock to China's Bling-Bling Club
November 19, 2010 by Michael Jones for Mail & Guardian Online

Sheraton Beijing Dongcheng Hotel

When I first arrived a decade ago in the world's factory capital, Beijing, the lack of consumer comforts ...was apparent. ... But, the constant hustle and bustle coupled with the constant smell of concrete from construction everywhere you looked also produced the striking realisation that this was a country on the move....Many an observer refers to Beijing in pre- and post-Olympic terms. If the pre-Olympic city was defined by the growth of consumerism, the post-Olympic city is being defined by exorbitance....Foreign luxury brands can barely contain their predatory excitement, ...


The Beijing Auto Exhibition...turned into an orgy of opulence with at least 40 luxury cars being sold for an estimated R150-million. 


Starwood Hotels & Resorts [NYSE: HOT] , the owners of five-star brands Sheraton and Westin, recently held its biannual top 100 global leadership conference in Beijing, the first time outside of the United States in its corporate history....Why? Because China is already its second largest market after the US. Its existing portfolio of 62 four- and five-star hotels in China will expand to a whopping 148 in the next five years. 
With local property prices having exploded over the past five years -- high-end apartments are going for $10 000 a square metre -- and new government regulation in place to curb speculation,....>>Continue Reading






China Now Starwood's Second Largest Hotel Market

Le Royal Meridian, Shanghai
I love this hotel, I spent 3
weeks just in January 2010 here! 

November 16, 2010 by Mick Tan for Hospitality, Architecture, Design Online
"...Van Paasschen ... “demand continues to outpace supply in China, ...consider that China has 171 cities with populations of more than one million, most of which do not yet have a major international branded hotel. 


..in 1985, Starwood opened The Great Wall Sheraton Hotel in Beijing, which was the first international branded hotel in the People’s Republic of China. 


....Starwood’s growth in China is illustrative of growth opportunities in other markets throughout Asia Pacific, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America. “Many predict that more than 70% of the world’s growth over the next decade will come from emerging markets, which is consistent with Starwood’s skew towards development in these markets.... >>Continue Reading