Two sessions saw customer surge at capital's high-end stores As opposed to other cities whose luxury consumption spree usually comes b...

Two sessions saw customer surge at capital's high-end stores

As opposed to other cities whose luxury consumption spree usually comes between Christmas and Spring Festival, Beijing seems to enjoy a special one in March, thanks to the two sessions.

Ouyang Kun, head of the World Luxury Association's China office, said that several days ago, a friend asked him to buy several 280,000 yuan ($44,200) Hermes diamond-decorated belt buckles to celebrate a birthday. After visiting several stores in Beijing, he was told that all the goods had either been sold out or reserved for those who paid deposits.

Luxury lovers complained online about their unexpected experiences while shopping during a season when things should not have been "out of stock."

"I wanted to buy a belt for my husband from the Prada store, but when we went to pay the bill, we were told it was sold out," a Beijing-based Web user said on her Sina Weibo on March 8.

A Global Times reporter visited more than eight luxury stores in and around Shin Kong Place mall in Beijing, among which five stores said that they saw a clear increase in customers this month. Counter clerks in three of the five, including the Bottega store, said the increase was attributed to the two sessions.

A staff member at the reception desk in Shin Kong Place, who asked to remain anonymous, told the Global Times customer numbers usually peak on weekends. Since March, however, more customers do their shopping on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

"In March, 70 percent of luxury sales are because of the two sessions. Some delegates call to reserve goods before they arrive in Beijing," Ouyang told the Global Times.

The Economic Observer also quoted a former Italian luxury goods general agent in China as saying that every year in March luxury sales in Beijing are twice the monthly average.

Ways to buy

A male sales associate at the Armani store, who would not give his name, said that judging from the accents and dress style, he believes that more customers from other provinces generally came to the store this month.

"Some told me they are not buying for themselves, but ask me to recommend gifts for others," he told the Global Times.

"Sometimes two customers come together. One of them selects clothes and the other pays for them," a female sales associate at the Ermenegildo Zegna store told the Global Times yesterday, adding that she was not sure whether any of them were two session delegates.

According to the Economic Observer, luxury stores' sales staff are trained to cater to the special customers they receive March.

When buying watches, for example, the customers will consider different brands in accordance with their "friends'" ranks. Certain levels want Rolex or Omega, others may want Tissot or Citizen, the newspaper quoted an "experienced" sales person as saying.

Some are even saying the luxury stores also have special accounts for important people.

"The special accounts are a secret in luxury goods stores," the Ermenegildo Zegna sales associate said, under the condition of anonymity.

Zhu Lijia, a professor at the Chinese Academy of Governance, told the Global Times that the two sessions stimulates not only the luxury goods market but also high-end restaurants revenues.

"It is a good chance for lower-ranking officials or businessmen to meet upper-level government officials and deepen their relations, given that the former have very few opportunities to meet officials that could do favors for them," he said.

Sending gifts to officials provides the soil for officials to engage in corrupt conversation, and to take advantage of their power, said Zhu.

More than 2,900 NPC deputies and more than 2,200 CPPCC members from the country's provinces and regions gathered in Beijing this month for the annual two sessions.

Zhu said that most of the two session delegates are officials, but in China, government officials make middle-income wages, which makes it hard for them to purchase a 100,000-yuan watch or a more expensive belt themselves.

According to Ouyang, the favorite luxury goods of officials are inconspicuous yet expensive.

"There are even products specially designed for Chinese officials," he said. "The publicity strategy of Lotos glasses in China is to target the officials. The glasses, which are decorated with gold and diamonds and are worth at least 200,000 yuan, have no logo on them," he told the Global Times.

Meeting or shopping

According to a report released by global management consulting firm Bain and Company in December last year, Chinese people's luxury goods consumption amounted to about 212 billion yuan ($33.5 billion) in 2010. About 30 percent were mainly driven by gift-giving, the report shows.

An official with the CPC Beijing Municipal Commission for Discipline Inspection said that in recent years, they have begun to have some discipline inspection members learn more about luxury goods.

"There were cases in the past of officials who took bribes and made confessions to us, but many inspection members did not realize that a pair of glasses the official wore were worth millions of yuan," he told the China Economic Weekly.

Zhu said that those businessmen involved with the two-session delegates who wear luxury products are not to blame, considering their identity.

"But officials should always keep a clean and uncorrupted image as their duty is to serve the people," he said.

"They gather in Beijing shouldering a mission - to assess the progress of the country and do good for the people - not for shopping or entertainment," Zhu added.