The right mix of Scottish shortbread, French wine and pristine new suits just might have won over China’s hard-to-please consumers to the delights of shopping at Marks & Spencer.
Yesterday shoppers queued for three hours for the unveiling of Shanghai’s fifth M&S store, a vast, gleaming, two-storey ode to Britishness on Huaihai Road, the city’s equivalent to Oxford Street — despite the existence of another huge store only a few minutes away.
The new shop is one of three that the company plans to open this month, part of a plan to double its China outlets to 16 in a year — all of them in or around Shanghai. Others are in nearby towns on the prosperous eastern seaboard, a strategy of blanket targeting one big city that M&S says has worked in Turkey and Russia.
Import costs mean that some food products can cost vastly more than in the home market, with a box of 160 “Everyday” teabags costing 89 yuan (£9) and a jar of Genovese pesto 99 yuan (£10) — although others are more comparable with products in the UK.
The group has also brought in suit-measurers to help male customers to buy from its Savile Row collection, while trained wine advisers are on hand to help unfamiliar drinkers tell a Chardonnay from a Sauvignon. The Chinese stores also focus more heavily on fashion, with its Autograph and Indigo ranges refreshed weekly.
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Shopping with a friend in the new Shanghai store yesterday was 21-year-old student Ye Luyao. “We like the cookies, the different packaging — they’re not the same as the Chinese brands. Today we actually came to buy clothes. I think they are very colourful and suitable for our age. It’s like H&M or Zara, but a little more expensive.”