then and now

Russian Shoppers Pulling Back Too

I've written about the troubles befalling American malls but it's tough in Russia too. The AP reports that the economic crisis and low oil prices are starting to make Moscow's popular GUM shopping center on Red Square look a bit like a ghost town. Some boutiques are closing while others are doing the same thing that their U.S counterparts are doing, offering deep discounts to lure anyone who might still be shopping. Russia has been a tremendous growth area for many international brands over the past few years as Russians became accustomed to increased spending power. Now it seems that they've followed the rest of the world into shopping retreat.

Back in October I mentioned that the managing director of Mercury, the country's biggest luxury goods group has said that sales have fallen at the popular TsUM shopping center. Mercury's stores sell many of the world's top luxury brands, everything from Gucci to Maserati cars and Chopard jewelry through the TsUM department store and other luxury shops.

Also it was recently announced that this year's Moscow World Fine Art Fair, set to take place at the end of May, has been canceled. The cancellation was mainly due to troubles getting sufficient sponsorship to cover the costs of the fair. ArtInfo reports that only a few dealers had pulled out of the fair but cancellations from Bulgari and Harry Winston prompted the organizers to cancel now rather than months from now when the economic crisis could be even worse. They hope to bring the fair back next year.

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Tags: moscow, recession, shopping, spending, then and now, ThenAndNow

Then And Now: Mall Deathwatch

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

It looks like all those door-busting sales didn't do much good this holiday season and it could mean that some malls may be permanently out of business. The slowest retail holiday season in 38 years could end up dooming 2,000 to 3,000 malls by the middle of the year with an estimated 200,000 more businesses shutting down. Even those that are still around will be cutting back on store locations, shutting down stores that aren't making good sales numbers. An ABC News article quotes Howard Davidowitz, the chairman of retail consulting firm Davidowitz & Associates who says that: "The American standard of living is changing forever."

At the beginning of 2008 we mentioned the dying out of the traditional indoor shopping mall which was being replaced by outdoor shopping areas. But the recent economic fallout is affecting both the indoor and outdoor kinds of shopping malls as what is now changing isn't how people shop but whether or not they shop at all.

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Tags: malls, shopping, spending, then and now, ThenAndNow

Then and Now: Light Business Airplane Conference

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Wings

Originally The National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) was planning a three-day conference to bring together the entrepreneurs and pilots who own and operate light business airplanes. But the climate for small aviation is in a much different state than it was when the conference was originally conceived. The NBAA announced at the end of last week that the first Light Business Airplane Conference will be cut down to two days instead of three in San Diego on Friday, March 13, and Saturday, March 14, 2009. The size of the indoor exhibits has been limited to a maximum of 20 ft.-by-20 ft. Attendance fees will also be reduced by 50 percent, and indoor exhibit fees will be reduced by 20 percent. As Aero-News reports the Opening General Session will feature presentations from pilot and Forbes magazine publisher Rich Karlgaard and pilot/surgeon and Flying magazine contributor Dr. Dick Karl. The future of light business airplanes will likely eventually bounce back but for now the scaled back conference reflect the current industry which is experiencing doldrums as air taxi services close up shop and makers of the aircraft cut back production.

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Tags: conference, light business airplanes, LightBusinessAirplanes, planes, then and now, ThenAndNow

Chanel Pulls the Plug on Mobile Art Exhibition

by Jared Paul Stern (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Art

Chanel has decided to pull the plug on its avant-garde and attention-getting but extremely costly Mobile Art Pavilion exhibition due to the economic crisis. In October my colleague Tracy Chait reported on the Pavilion's installation in New York's Central Park. Designed by starchitect Zaha Hadid in collaboration with Chanel kingpin Karl Lagerfeld, the high-tech Pavilion (above) is full of self-serving if stylish art inspired by Chanel's iconic quilted handbag. For the Central Park installation alone Chanel paid $400,000 for the space plus a charitable donation. Originating in Hong Kong, it traveled to Tokyo before landing in NYC and was scheduled to continue on to London, Moscow and Paris. Chanel reps cited a "refocusing of investments" in deciding to bring the tour to a premature end.

Tags: Central Park, CentralPark, Chanel, Karl Lagerfeld, KarlLagerfeld, then and now, ThenAndNow, Zaha Hadid, ZahaHadid

Then and Now: Damien Hirst

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Art

Most of the "then and now" pieces I have done so far have looked at reversals of fortune from the middle of the year, but the cult of artist Damien Hirst has taken quite a turn in just three months. It was in September that my colleague Jared Paul Stern reported that Hirst raked in a staggering $200.8 million in total over his two-day solo sale at Sotheby's in London, shattering pre-sale estimates. It was just about the last time we used those types of terms on the blog to describe the art market. The fall sales brought terms like gloomy and dismal. Now it's beginning to look more like Hirst timed his tour de force art auction perfectly, Bloomberg reveals that at Art Basel Miami Beach New York art dealer Christoph Van de Weghe had eight works by Damien Hirst in his booth and sold only two, both at a discount. And at the November sales in New York, 11 out of 17 Hirst lots failed to find buyers at three auction houses. The resale market for Hirst is considered to be especially sluggish for pieces over the $1 million mark.

The article quotes Anders Petterson, founder and managing director of London-based art-market research company ArtTactic who says that oversupply resulting from Hirst's one man sale may have flooded the market and will keep prices low for a while. It's hard to feel sorry for Hirst, whose wealth and ego seem nearly boundless but he is a also an employer. The Guardian reported last month that Hirst fired up to 17 people who make the pills for his drug cabinet pieces and three people who make his butterfly paintings.

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Tags: art, damien hirst, DamienHirst, then and now, ThenAndNow

Economy Turns the Rich into "Stealth Shoppers"

by Rigel Celeste (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Celebrity Shopping

Earlier this year the term "stealth wealth" kept popping up in reference to the trend in luxury markets away from big bold brand names and toward items with more subtle logos or even totally invisible labels -- it was cool to be so elite that nobody but a select few would recognize who you were wearing.

But now, just a few months later, stealth wealth has been replaced by stealth shopping. The economy has made times so hard for so many people that the wealthy are embarrassed when they are seen spending large amounts of money. Does that mean they stop shopping though? Heck no. They just do it in secret.

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Tags: economy, stealth, stealth shoppers, stealth shopping, stealth wealth, StealthShoppers, StealthShopping, StealthWealth, then and now, ThenAndNow

Then And Now: The Player's Club

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Last March, the New Yorker featured an article on ex-baseball player Lenny Dykstra's luxury magazine, The Players Club, aimed at professional athletes. The magazine was created to show the pros not just how to spend the massive amounts of money they earn but also how to keep their wealth and make smart decisions so they don't join the ranks of players who earn millions and wind up in financial trouble just a few years later. It sounded like things were going great for Dykstra. Now it seems that The Players Club is in a little trouble of its own. The NY Post reports that acting editor Chris Frankie recently resigned and says he is owed back pay. Meanwhile Dykstra says Frankie owes him money. So far the magazine has had four different printers and three different editors and the word on the street is that Dykstra doesn't pay his bills on time, if at all. As a consequence of the turmoil, last issue of Players Club was published in October, and the November issue will now be combined into a year-end double issue which hasn't shown up yet even though we are more than halfway through December. Rumors that the magazine will fold have been floating around for the last month or so. Given the grim climate for luxury magazines and shrinking advertiser dollars, he's certainly in the bottom of the ninth with a couple of outs.

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Tags: lenny dykstra, LennyDykstra, the players club, then and now, ThenAndNow, ThePlayersClub

Then and Now: Domestic Help

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Was it really just eight months ago that I sat at the Luxury Summit listening to Robert Frank, author of Richistan, speak about wealth and spending. .Frank's adventures in Richistan, his name for the parallel universe the wealthy inhabit, have taken him to some pretty interesting places including Starkey International Institute in Denver, Colorado, the "butler bootcamp" that teaches people how to cater to those at the far end of the wealth spectrum. Frank said then that a good butler can earn as much as $150,000. But those butlers may find themselves out of a job or taking a pay cut now. Both the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times have pieces on people firing their domestic help. Agencies which once struggled to find enough qualified nannies and household staff are now finding their offices flooded with those who have recently lost their jobs.

While a recession was being discussed all those months ago, it hadn't quite eaten into the upper tier. People saw having help as an investment, a way to maximize their own time available for recreation, family time and work. As their own income and wealth has started to fall the time equal money equation has tipped in favor of money. Nannies and domestic help are finding their salaries cut or are being let go. Nanny sharing is on the rise as people find ways to get by with less help but not lose a person who in many cases is practically a member of the family. Some people have decided to gradually cut back in an effort to mitigate the damage to the housekeeper or nanny's income. People are doing their own housework and even outdoor chores, dispensing in some cases with the lawn service companies which are so ubiquitous in California. Even dog walkers are finding it harder to make a living. And those butlers, whose jobs were more administrative than hands-on may find themselves running the same large households with less and less staff.

In some cases it becomes a question of what people are interested in giving up, the help or other creature comforts. The WSJ article quotes a woman who decided to lay off the nanny rather than give up her Botox treatments. Whereas in the NYT article a woman cut back on her gym membership and lunches out before she decided to make the decision of giving up her housekeeper.

Tags: butler, domestic help, DomesticHelp, nanny, then and now, ThenAndNow

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