The arrival of the Lunar New Year this month seems to
have sparked an epiphany for area shopping centers: Asian and Asian
American consumers have a growing pile of money and want to spend it
where they're welcome.
So in the Year of the Snake, malls around the Southland
are hustling harder to make themselves more appealing to the
demographic.
Desert Hills Premium Outlets, Ontario Mills and the
Outlets at Orange are partnering on a "Snaking through Southern
California" initiative to lure Chinese shoppers to their malls. Simon Property Group,
which owns the centers, says it's attempting to market to Asian
consumers with multilingual messaging and Lunar New Year decorations.
Many stores in South Coast Plaza now have Asian employees to cater to the influx of moneyed tourists from China,
Japan and South Korea who flock to the upscale mall. The center also
has a language-assistance program and maps in Asian languages.
Westfield Santa Anita in Arcadia, a city where more than
half the population is Asian/Asian American, is hosting its first-ever
Lunar New Year festival Saturday afternoon. Free activities include a
lion dance, Chinese calligraphy demonstrations and a Year of the Snake
photo booth for families.
The San Gabriel Valley center hung a 120-foot, 600-pound
red-and-gold dragon installation above its indoor carousel. Decorators
brought in a Chinese pagoda as well as kumquat trees for good luck.
Even after the holiday, Westfield plans to continue tweaking the Santa Anita mall -- currently home to Nordstrom, AMC Theatres, Macy’s and more -- to better suit its Asian American clientele.
This summer, Hai Di Lao, a hot-pot restaurant chain
based in China's Sichuan province, is to open its first U.S. location at
the center. Beijing-based eatery Meizhou Dongpo is also scheduled to
move in, in early 2014.
The mall already offers some store directories in Chinese.
The revamps could have a major economic payoff.
Government projections peg 2013 as a record year for Chinese tourism to
the United States. A report from Nielsen this past fall showed Asian
American buying power surging over $1 trillion within five years, from
$718.4 billion in 2012.
source: latimes.com
