花钱如流水，中国人把欧洲游变成跨国购物大狂欢

    在小镇里的工业区漫步时，戈登伯格告诉我：“我们想让奢侈品变得平易近人。注意到了吗？所有的门都是开着的。而在巴塞罗那的格拉西亚大道上（等同于曼哈顿的第五大道），奢侈品店的迎宾员会在拉开门之前仔细打量你一番。”

    Value Retail认为，大城市有着世故的当地人和大量游客，于是把购物中心建在离市区足够远的地方，以免与各品牌在市内的全价店抢生意。在巴塞罗那，购物中心距市区25英里；在伦敦，这个距离是75英里。

    拉•罗卡购物村开业时，许多人认为它会垮掉。它位于偏僻的地区，而名品折扣店还是个没有被证明过的概念。第一年的发展确实很慢，1998年开业后，半年内只有27万游客来到这里，还不及2013年的十分之一。

    但随着名品折扣店开始在欧洲流行，以及巴塞罗那的旅游业开始蓬勃发展——1993年只接纳了250万游客，而去年游客数量已经达到760万——购物中心也开始欣欣向荣。

    游客在拉•罗卡购物中心全部顾客中所占的比例从2007年的38%上升到如今的60%。2009年，这个购物中心开始提供往返于巴塞罗那市中心的巴士服务。如今，这辆巴士收费20欧元，每日往返10趟。Value Retail最近又向这里投资了3,000万欧元，购物中心因此增加了40家崭新的门店。在最近的招聘会上，这里提供了300个岗位，吸引了1,500名求职者。中国的游客也开始蜂拥而来。戈登伯格表示，去年巴塞罗那总共接纳了15万中国游客，其中有10万造访了拉•罗卡购物中心。

    戈登伯格不愿意透露西班牙购物中心的销售额，不过他表示，Value Retail的所有购物中心在2013年的总收入是19亿欧元。

    如今，母公司Value Retail把它的购物体验带到了供应大量顾客的发展中国家。今年5月，Value Retail在中国苏州建立了第一家购物中心。秉持着兼具本土化设计与欧洲风情的原则，购物中心的建筑融合了中国工艺与意大利风情。（财富中文网）

    译者：严匡正

    “We try to democratize luxury,” Goldenberg tells me as we walk through the industrial section of the town. “Notice all the doors are open? At a luxury store on Passeig de Gracia [Barcelona’s equivalent of Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue], the doorman sort of looks you over before he opens the door.”

    Value Retail identifies major cities with sophisticated locals and plenty of tourists, and then builds a mall far enough outside of town so as not to compete with the brands’ full-price city stores. In Barcelona, the mall is 25 miles outside the city; in London, it’s 75 miles.

    When it opened, many expected La Roca Village to fail. It was in the middle of nowhere and outlets were an unproven concept. The first years were indeed slow; 270,000 people came during the six months it was open in 1998, less than 10% of the number that visited in 2013.

    But as outlets caught on in Europe and tourism in Barcelona boomed—7.6 million visitors stayed in the city last year, up from 2.5 million in 1993—so did the mall.

    The portion of La Roca’s shoppers who are tourists increased from 38% in 2007 to 60% today, and in 2009, the mall launched a bus service from downtown Barcelona. It now offers ten 20-euro round trips a day. A just-opened 30 million euro expansion led to the addition of 40 new stores at the mall. A recent job fair offering 300 jobs at the center attracted 1,500 aspirants. And Chinese tourists are beginning to come en masse: Barcelona got about 150,000 Chinese visitors last year, Goldenberg says, and 100,000 of them came to La Roca Village.

    Goldenberg would not break out the Spanish mall’s sales, but he said the combined revenues in all Value Retail malls was 1.9 billion euros in 2013.

    The parent company is now taking its shopping experience to the developing nations that supply so many of its customers. In May, Value Retail opened its first mall in China, in Suzhou. In keeping with its tenets of local design and European aspirations, the architecture blends Chinese artisanship with a touch of Italian style.