Constance Gustke
Published: July 27, 2006
It's no surprise big cities have the highest percentage of
women who buy luxury goods. What is surprising, though, is
which cities emerge on top. Chicago, once known more for its
grit than its goods, tied with Los Angeles for first place.
Buxton, a retail research firm based in Fort Worth, Tex.,
looked at households likely to spend money on upscale retail
fashion categories, including women's clothing, fine jewelry,
watches and purses. Rich Hollander, president of Buxton's
Customer ID section, observed that "people who are fashion-conscious
tend to cluster together." Cities like St. Louis and
Pittsburgh, which ranked 19th and 20th on the list, respectively,
missed the cut, but they still scored above the 100 benchmark
that serves as the weighted average.
Upscale Retail Spending Index: 245
The largest city in the Midwest tied with the largest in the
West for the top slot. The reason: Many designers and specialty
retailers covet Chicago for its lush market. Among them, Barneys
New York and Barneys Co-op are considering Chicago as a site
for new flagships, and Marc by Marc Jacobs is reportedly looking
for digs in the area. The city's famous Marshall Field's,
which was bought by Federated Department Stores in February,
will be reinvented as a Macy's flagship this summer. It joins
Neiman Marcus, Louis Vuitton, Gucci and many other notable
names on Chicago's Northside mecca, Magnificent Mile, which
attracts 22 million visitors a year.
Index: 245
Andy Warhol once likened Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills to "a
giant butterscotch sundae." And with good reason: Fashion
divas scoop up goods in stores like BCBG Max Azria, Chanel,
Gucci and Prada, all located side by side on Rodeo Drive and
within the shopping center Two Rodeo. More high-end stores
are fanning out throughout Los Angeles, as well. WWD reported
earlier this spring that the J. Crew-owned brand Madewell
plans to open a second store, stocked with "timeless
and ageless" merchandise, according to the company, this
August. Barneys New York plans to open its contemporary apparel
offshoot Co-op in spring 2007.
Index: 233
Did someone say luxury retail? New York City ranks third,
and it's fitting, considering the fashion powerhouses chockablock
on upper Fifth Avenue and Madison Avenue. Nestled among luxe
purveyors like Henri Bendel, Fendi and Gucci is Louis Vuitton's
milky-white glass 20,000-square-foot flagship, which was once
an Art Deco bank. On upper Madison, Barney's flagship anchors
the pricy neighborhood that includes an expanded, low-rise
Giorgio Armani store. Anne Klein, which shuttered its SoHo
store in 2002, is reenergizing its line with nine new stores
throughout New York City in the next several months.
Index: 220
Booming wealth in upscale suburbs of Virginia and Maryland
make the nation's capital a key destination for high-end retail
customers. And, this May, a slew of new upscale specialty
stores, including Christian Dior, Jimmy Choo and MaxMara,
opened in the Collection, designed by world-class architects
and sporting a 9,000-square-foot sculpture garden, in Chevy
Chase, Md. And WWD reported that Neiman Marcus will launch
its new Cusp stores at Tyson's Corner in McLean, Va., with
its 9,500-square-foot venue. Virginia is known for pioneering
the luxe movement; the Fairfax Square mall brought Herms to
the area in the Nineties.
Index: 211
The City of Brotherly Love also loves its specialty boutiques
and upscale department stores. WWD reported that Federated
Department stores this August is opening a new Macy's in the
historic John Wanamaker flagship, which housed the nation's
first department store, in downtown Philadelphia. But there
are also many "mom-and-pop" trendy boutiques in
Philadelphia, such as Petula's Folly on Sansom Street, which
offers lines from Nicole Farhi and Habitual Jeans, and Crash
Bang Boom on South Fourth Street, which sells punk-rock clothing
labels from Lip Service and Lucky 13.
Index: 209
Orange County is one of the most affluent spots in California.
Composed of chic oceanside enclaves like Newport Beach and
Laguna Beach, the county is considered by many retailers to
be an essential market for luxury branding. Shopping centers
in the area abound near million-dollar homes. Well, why not:
A 2002 U.S. Census report said that retail sales per capita
were $12,205 in Orange County, compared with $10,264 in the
state of California. Take South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa,
one of the top luxury-goods malls in the country. It sports
Armani, Chanel and Fendi outposts among many others. A Blomingdale's
store is slated to open there next spring.
Index: 208
Think Hamptons and Gold Coast chic when Nassau and Suffolk
counties in New York come to mind. Suffolk contains much-ballyhooed
names like Southampton and East Hampton, where celebrities
like Steven Spielberg have homes. Nassau County, on the north
shore of Long Island, was reported to be the sixth-richest
county in the U.S., according to the 2000 U.S. census report.
The Americana Manhasset shopping center here is a 220,000-square-foot,
open-air venue that features upscale brands like CH Carolina
Herrara, Fendi, Herms, Oscar de la Renta and Valentino.
Index: 206
The metropolitan area of Detroit spans roughly 2,026 miles
and is made up of Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties. The
city is known for auto giants like General Motors Corp. and
Ford. But nearby Troy is much better known among shoppers
for its upscale shopping center, the Somerset Collection,
which offers valet parking and gift wrapping. Stores inside
the 1.45 million-square-foot center, which has marble floors
and cascading waterfalls, include MaxMara, Gucci and St. Johns
Boutique. This fall, Barneys New York plans to open a Co-op
store in Troy. Some of Detroit's wealthiest inhabitants call
Grosse Pointe home, and it has specialty shops like Boutique
Bellissima.
Index: 201
Head to the Twin Cities to shop at the country's largest shopping
complex, aptly named Mall of America. Inside the massive 2.5
million-square-foot space, which houses an amusement park
and a walk-through aquarium, sit over 520 stores anchored
by Bloomingdale's and Nordstrom. The 12-floor, pedestrian-friendly
Nicollet Mall - Mary Tyler Moore famously threw her hat into
the air on one of the walkways - is tucked in downtown Minneapolis.
Upscale retailers include Neiman Marcus and Saks Fifth Avenue.
Index: 197
When inhabitants of California's eighth-largest city go looking
for luxury goods, they travel under and over the bay. Thus,
a recent petition circulating in Oakland had a rare mercantile
twist: It favored bringing a department store to downtown.
There are many fine retail possibilities in the Bay Area.
On Berkeley's fashionable Fourth Street lie one-of-a-kind
boutiques like Isabelle (luxe European lingerie), Lilith (soign
French apparel) and Margaret O'Leary (handmade sweaters).
Across the bay in San Francisco, there are luxe stores like
Gucci and Louis Vuitton housed alongside Saks Fifth Avenue
and Neiman Marcus on landmark Union Square, the third largest
shopping area in the U.S.
Source: Buxton, a customer analytics firm based in Fort Worth,
Tex. *INDICATES A TIE. The number of households that fell
into these categories was divided by the total household count
for the Metropolitan statistical area to determine the percentage
that exhibited upscale retail fashion purchase behavior. This
MSA was then multiplied by the number of women over age 18.
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Big Spenders - (continued) 
