It might be because of China and the Chinese market/customers. It's only anecdotal, but last October I got to visit Vienna for one day (I live in Europe) and I was surprised to see a a lengthy queue outside the Louis Vuitton store close to the St. Stephen's Cathedral. First, I was surprised because I couldn't understand why would anyone still wait in that sort of queue for something to purchase in this day and age (when everything it's at a few clicks distance), and second I was also a little surprised by the fact that about 75% of the people waiting in that queue were of Asian origin, most probably Chinese.

These people are probably wealthy enough not to care but if I were buying a $5000 purse I'd want to do it in person, like I'd test drive a car before I bought it.

Also if I were traveling on vacation, ordering online and shipping to my hotel would not be my first choice.

> couldn't understand why would anyone still wait in that sort of queue for something to purchase in this day and age

for the social media photo / story of buying it in $exotic_locale

bonus points if you are confusing things by buying french items in austria, obviously

Coronavirus accelerated the trend.

https://www.mckinsey.com/~/media/mckinsey/industries/retail/...

Just my anecdotal impression; it's possible I'm biased by the extents of my bubble

You probably are.

Go to Vegas and there are whole shopping malls where, to indulge in just a degree of hyperbole, I'd have to look hard to find something I could afford. Or at least would even consider affording.

> Go to Vegas and there are whole shopping malls where, to indulge in just a degree of hyperbole, I'd have to look hard to find something I could afford. Or at least would even consider affording.

IIRC, Americans don't really shop at those stores. Their costumers are mainly foreign nouveau rich people.

In fairness, conspicuous consumption is one of the primary draws of Vegas. Probably not a very representative example.

And it's also a one-off, in a national and international sense. It's like judging consumption levels in the Muslim world by Dubai.

NYC has more than one of these sort of malls.

And those malls are usually pretty empty, from my experience.