Shop 'til you drop

Bridging Paris and Shanghai, there's a new spring to the retail step of the French capital

Precarious times can induce pleasurable measures. This spring in Paris, the Yellow Vest movement once again made headlines after damaging shops along the Champs ElysEes, yet only days later the magnificent avenue saw the opening of the Galeries Lafayette department store. While it may seem like just another retail expansion in a world overly maxed out by mega-stores, the move was something of a novelty for the French capital, which had seen nothing of this scale open for decades.

Indeed, Paris has always presented limitations in terms of its size, given its few available venues to host large stores. And since most of the city center is an inventory of heritage sites, it's challenging to nurture contemporary retail emporia while respecting the city's architectural code. There's also the significant factor of economics: Paris, along with Hong Kong, London and New York, is one of the most expensive cities for commercial real estate in the world.