Shopping could be valuable.

 

In some cities retail space, located in the most popular pedestrian zones or the top ‘high street’ areas, cost up to 1.000 $ rent per month … per square meter. A medium-sized fashion shop there, for example, pays 200,000 $ every thirty days just for the four surrounding walls. Electricity, heating, salary for employees, advertising costs are not included - especially not the expenses to buy the merchandise. Where is the sense?  

There were always luxurious shopping streets, addresses and exclusive shops, which were reserved for rich people. There could be bought handcrafted products, rare specialties, manufactured products. The high price of these products originated from their natural rareness. Today, the product price is calculated „top down“: Marketing plus (overseas) logistics plus desired profit. Here it’s reversed back: The product price may not exceed an amount x (according to smart target-group-analysis) so the production itself (materials, employees, production, packaging) makes, let’s say, 10% of the selling price.
Strange? Normal.   

So, what do we pay for?
The stressed, obviously uninformed cashier associate? The friendly-static guiding manuals? Escalators in a flagship store? The marketing campaign? The calculated discount? Or the product?
However, we pay for crowds, unfriendly atmosphere, neonlight, tiny changing rooms, rising heat. We pay with stress, frustration, the feeling to having paid too much. One common kind of shopping experience.The side streets are empty, the shops there are boring or gone. Who looks around corners sees it everywhere, in the metropolis and in the county town. The eye-catchers while queuing for the parking garage are tatoo-shops, cheap hotels…    

But there - on the corner of the next street an enlightened shopwindow creates slightly violet shadows on the sidewalk. Looks different somehow. The suit has a sophisticated cut, great fabric. It’s still in the limits, the advice is respectfully and almost familiar. The suit in the bag is respectfully covered with silk paper. Thank you very much, I’ll be back soon. I must tell my colleague, this store he doesn’t know.     

Next door it smells like fresh french bakery, people talk. It is rumored that two new stores open across the street when the house was completed renovated. The tenants can jointly use the patio, to exhibit garden furniture, for a temporary tent with cosmetic advice, the summer festival, the Christmas market. A jewelry gallery rent space in the brick-wall -cellar.  Here one should now take over the old wooden optician shop in No. 12, the owner gave up last year
The rent is cheap, the time is right.

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