40 years of retail change but Hong Kong remains a shopper's paradise
From department stores in the 1970s to malls with just about everything in 2012, Hong Kong remains a retail paradise for both locals and visitors
Hong Kong is now established as the world's most expensive location for prime retail space, but the city's retail sector is much more than the eye-watering numbers.
Shopping has a deep-rooted importance to the city and has long been the No1 pastime for locals, who prefer to frequent air-conditioned malls rather than pursue outdoor pursuits, especially during the hot summer months.
The definition of a shopping mall has undergone constant evolution over the past 40 years. In the 1970s, there were almost no shopping malls in the city. Instead, we had locally run or Japanese-invested department stores such as Wing On, Sincere, Shui Hing, Dragon Seed, Da Da, Daimaru, and Matsuzakaya.
Into the 1980s, Japanese-style department stores began to dominate the market, with Yaohan, Mitsukoshi, Jusco, Tokyu and Sogo becoming very popular. There were some large-scale "shopping centres" such as Ocean Terminal in Tsim Sha Tsui, New Town Plaza in Sha Tin, and The Landmark in Central. But these were the exception and these types of department stores were usually leased to tenants in the form of consignment counters.
There was very little retail zoning and limited shopfront design and the stores themselves had few points of differentiation.
Due to changing tastes and consumption demands of local shoppers, many department stores began to close down from the early 1990s.