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Q: Why are malls in China so empty?
I've lived in Shenzhen and now Beijing, and it's striking how many of these huge fancy malls are completely empty here.
How do they make any money? It just seems like there's no one around who can dish out that kind of cash. The people with that kind of buying power just buy foreign products.
The malls are there to make money. Many of the stores are solely supported by the government. The malls exist for show. Having fancy malls and stores are important facts for all the big cities of the world, so China pays to put in such malls so they can also look as important.
How do you think the Chinese government can boast all over the world with an anual 9% GDP? By granting credits to local administration to build up infrastructures. The problem is that since the purchasing power of Chinese people is very low compared to other developed countries, then the malls remain empty. Even if, in the worst case, one makes bankruptcy, the local government will be there for back up.
People, and I am among them too, often go to a mall just to look around and see what's new. If really, I want to buy something, I buy it online which will be far cheaper.....
Yeah, the malls and shopping centers are all about face. Nothing more. Developed countries have them, so China must.
Even the reason to go and buy things at such stores is about face. It's not quality or even fashion sense (which doesn't seem to exist here), it's about showing other Chinese people that you can afford these things and therefore are more important.
Traveler:
I like the Chinese fashion sense and creativity. They wear colours that can't be reproduced in nature.
i've been wondering about this for a while. sooooo many malls, no one shopping. so strange to me. i'm becoming more and more impressed with the things government CAN and WILL do...
TedDBayer:
Sooner or later China has to have a resession. After the 80s resession at home, stores were closed for years in cities and small towns. It took 20 years for things to come back. All that time stores sat empty.
I have noticed this at Shanghai's Hong Qiao Airport. It's sole purpose seems seems to be to become the biggest transport hub in the world, and the largest airport shopping mall in the world. Regardless of whether it is needed or not.
The shops that are there always seem so empty. Yet they are building whole new levels of shops, that do not even attract passing pedestrian traffic. Just building for the sake of saying "We have bigger and better than everybody else." Without the better.
