Shopping the World
Top 10 lists are always fun – and can occasionally be useful. It’s more than just ten, but if your business deals at all with high-end retailers, make sure to take a look at Collier’s International rankings for the world’s top retail shopping strips (Global Retail Highlights Spring 2010). So, who are the Top 10 in high-end retailing?
- Paris – Champs Élysées
- New York – Fifth Avenue
- Hong Kong – Russell Street, Causeway Bay
- London – Bond Street
- Milan – Via Monte Napoleone
- Sydney – Pitt Street Mall
- Zurich – Bahnhofstrasse
- London – Oxford Street
- Rome – city center
- New York – Madison Avenue
Avenue des Champs-Élysées, still #1 (photo: Benh Lieu Song)
You’re going to have to look further down the list to find surprises. Honolulu’s Kalakaua Avenue came in shockingly well, to me anyway, at 31st on Collier’s worldwide rankings – and #5 for North America. I suspect Kalakaua may have already moved to #30 worldwide, because it was Athen’s Ermou that was just ahead – and Greece just doesn’t seem like a growing market right now.
Another surprise is the lack of Asian shopping corridors in the Top 10. Sure, we have Hong Kong’s Causeway Bay as #3 and Sydney’s Pitt Street Mall at #6, but where are Tokyo, Shanghai, Beijing or Singapore’s Orchard Road? Actually, Tokyo’s Ginza came close at #11. Brisbane’s Queen Street Mall was #24, and Orchard Road finally made it into 27th place. Shanghai’s Nanjing Road West was 41st and Beijing’s Mall at CWTC was 49th.
I have to caution that the Collier’s rankings are done by rent per square foot for prime retail space, not by any sort of retail sales figure. One assumes the two are related, that a landlord can’t keep the rent high if their tenants’ sales are plummeting. But rent numbers will be somewhat sticky since they represent past rent negotiations and retail conditions, not necessarily what’s happening now.
That also means that some of the cities that place further down the Collier’s list may be relative bargains if their retail sales are picking up while rent costs stay low relative to the Top 10.
Where are rents accelerating (perhaps indicating a retail boom – or bubble)? Collier’s says that rents on London’s Bond Street skyrocketed nearly 52% in the past year. At the other end of the scale, rents on Sheik Zayed Road in Dubai plummeted nearly 69%. Bargain hunting, anybody?
