Paris Dispatch: London is the Cheapest Place to Buy a Rolex

By Stephen Stephanou, Principal of Madison Retail Group

I recently returned from a trip to Paris and came away with a distinct sense that London is now the shopping destination for Europeans.

There were major trade shows in Paris the weekend that I was there so there were not only English, but German, Italian and Spanish being heard in addition to French. But the traffic and number of vendors at the shows was down this year. Charming hotel rooms could still be had - when in previous years, a late inquiry for a room for the weekend would be met with a somewhat cynical “non”. And as one Londoner put it, the shopping trip for those on the Continent now seems to be London - quote ” the cheapest place to buy a Rolex”. With the pound off its pinnacle, droves of shoppers are flying over on cheap fares or taking a long weekend via the Eurostar.

On the positive side, I did come across a brand new retailer with one store on the rue du Bac on the Left Bank (brochure here). The specialty is father and son clothes, only one store and not even a website yet. It had very nicely made casual clothes - denim and shirts and sweaters, sort of the J. Crew men’s store genre. It was also nicely located in the 6th arrondissement, a second home to many specialty stores that have locations on both the Right and Left Banks.

Another note, Polo is opening its third store in Paris on the Boulevard St. Germain. It is a stone’s throw from the local and affluent out of towners’ haunts like Brasserie Lipp, Les Deux Magots, and Cafe Flore. But the number of shoppers did seem down - and sales are presumably down as well.