Siam Paragon, Bangkok's flashy new shopping mall, recently opened its doors to the public, and judging by the hullabaloo in the press, it was the Super Bowl of Thailand's shopping calendar.
Being a squeamish shopper with an aversion to crowds, I stayed away that day, preferring to ogle from afar. That's easy if you take the elevated SkyTrain, since Siam Paragon faces the main interchange station. Its glass-and-steel entrance beckons to the bored commuter: come in, look around, you don't have to buy. What piqued my interest was the new branch of the bookseller Kinokuniya, said to be the largest in Bangkok. Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn, the guest of honour, reportedly filled a trolley with her purchases there.
After waiting a few weeks for the buzz to die down, I went in search of new reading material at Siam Paragon. Naturally, I was also curious about the other outlets inside the cavernous mall, which houses an aquarium and a lavish Japanese-style food hall. As I strolled around, the big surprise was that most of the shops were closed. Scores of fancy foreign brands - Armani, Zara, Chanel - have bought space, but their outlets are hidden behind billboards that say 'Coming soon'.
Amid all the hype, it's curious that the media omitted to mention that most of the outlets are not yet ready for business. I walked past dozens of boarded-up shops, though the department store that anchors the mall was open and mobbed.
It sounds like a riddle: when is an opening not an opening? The answer is when it's a 'soft opening', a popular concept in Asia. I first heard it in Jakarta, and apparently it has caught on elsewhere. It's not the same as the 'grand opening' - when presumably everything is open - but rather, it's a chance to throw wide your doors and catch some publicity.
A friend in the fashion business explained that a soft opening lets investors save face when their project is running behind schedule - a common problem in Thailand. Siam Paragon was due to open this year: and that meant a last-minute scramble and the soft opening, for the sake of appearances.
