Ou Yangkun, the chief executive of the mainland office of the World Luxury Association, was recently shopping in Beijing for a diamond-studded Hermes belt buckle called Starry, which costs US$45,000. He was out of luck. Shops were sold out everywhere and the best staff could do was put him on a waiting list.
'The buckle is an ideal gift for people who hope to keep low-profile because it's not easy to see under one's suit,' says Ou.
March is a busy month for luxury sales in Beijing, as the city is crowded with dignitaries and entrepreneurs who come for the annual gathering of the National People's Congress, and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. Scarves, handbags and other goods usually sell out in the city in March, and Ou says Beijingers are now keen for solid-gold eyewear from the German firm Lotos, which costs 200,000 yuan (HK$245,000) to 300,000 yuan per pair.
It was with some unintended irony, then, that the Ministry of Commerce announced 'Consumer Promotion Month' last Monday. This is no less than a nationwide programme to boost consumer spending, to run from Ching Ming (April 4) to Labour Day (May 1).
'Each city is required to hold some activities to boost consumption,' says Shen Lan, a Shanghai-based economist for Standard Chartered. '[The scheme] will include some discounts in the shopping malls, and also activities in the restaurants and hotels. It will help to boost consumption for clothes, food, vacations and restaurants.'
It's all part of efforts to rebalance the economy, to make it more consumption-driven and less dependent on exports.