HuaiHai Rd Dreams

 Catwalk Living on HuaiHai Rd

 

WALKING down Shanghai’s HuaiHai Lu is an adventure in spotting the largest designer logo. From Swiss watch brands I have never heard of to the unmistakeably bold gold-painted PRADA logo, your head spins around so fast it’s like a space ship floating through a black hole. How many Prada signs and watch stores do you need to see to feel special? It’s super-unique to walk into one of these stores and see that there are no potential customers - except for you. Chances are your Chinese bank account has never had enough money in it to even come close to purchasing one of these “famous”, “boutique”, “cool” brands. 

As a foreigner in China, your wages are higher than locals. Finding a job could not be easier – there is a never-ending supply of English teaching jobs. If you are happy to eat street food day in day out, there’s a chance you can really save some big bucks. Even at that point, say after six months of street food, when you realize every time you go to the bathroom something abnormal happens because of all that recycled oil, you wouldn’t have saved enough money to buy one watch on Huaihai Lu. My point, life here is easier for a foreigner than a local, especially money-wise.

So who is buying these products? Paris is the number 1 tourist destination for Chinese people. They flock to that city. Priority: buy Cartier, buy Gucci…. The list goes on. What’s the point of having those stores here in China at every mall if the locals are more than happy to buy that ticket to Paris to do all the shopping? 

It’s the same with buying a car. Shanghai has strict car ownership policies. You have to apply to a Government lottery to buy number plates. That usually takes six months. It costs upwards Y70, 000 or about AU$13,000. That deters nobody. If you can justify paying that amount into a lottery and waiting for number plates, you are still winning. Those new drivers go on to buy the most luxurious of brands. Forget Ford, forget GM. It’s all about Porsche and Mercedes. Some people even get their car specially made in Europe. I apply the same math to buying watches on HuaiHai Lu. The tax on most foreign products here is through the roof. Yet these “boutique” stores exist here in abundance - unmatched by any other country. How much of one thing can you have before it becomes the new normal? 

Many of these upmarket store customers may be buying gifts for VIP clients. This style of "let me wooo you with a gift" is institutional. Some pen brands even advertize it. "The perfect gift for your employee of client." Some students' I teach actually own gift-making companies, catering solely for companies who wish to purchase gifts for clients. No matter what the concept is here in China, it's always big business. 

Cartier and Mercedes dominate brand names here. Most Chinese people who can afford such products can definitely justify travelling abroad to pay for it. That means less tax and perhaps better quality. There are stories that foreign brands sell products made from poor-quality materials here in China. A given sales boost down the track,  this formula guarantees a future market. While you drive a Ford in Australia for decades, that same make and model in China might not last 10 years.  

The wealth gap is so extreme that prices and quality issues don’t detract from consumption. It doesn’t make the news. This is the aspiration of many modern-day Chinese people. Make so much money that you can beat Government bureaucracy and regulation. Make so much money that Prada is your go-to brand. That you own more than one handmade Swiss watch. For those at the bottom, their children’s children may one day get there. Although wearing these up-market brand names must became so exhaustive that people need to move onto the next big thing in luxury. We will have to wait on that one - these brands haven’t been defined yet.