Exploring Galeries Lafayette Paris

 　　Galeries Lafayette is located at 40 Avenue Haussmann in the 9th arrondissement of Paris. Under the Byzantine-style giant carved gold dome, the customers are graceful, as if they are going to a medieval event, shopping has become a kind of enjoyment. Here you can not only admire the masterpieces of the world's top designers, but also learn about fashion and textile trends. A long-established world-famous brand store is enduring not only because they have almost all the fashion brands in the world, but also because of their global vision and cultural vision.

　　

　　Century-old shop with a long history

　　

　　In the autumn of 1893, Theophile Bader, a Jew from Alsace in eastern France, was walking on the Avenue Haussmann and found a sign "This shop is for sale" at the intersection of Avenue Lafayette and Rue Anten. A few weeks later, the owner transferred the store to Theophile Badr and his cousin Alphonse Kahn. In the spring of 1894, the newly renovated department store officially opened. Although the business area of ​​the store is only 70 square meters, it is close to the Paris Opera House, train station and avenue, and its location advantage is very obvious, attracting many white-collar workers and the middle and small bourgeoisie to shop. Thanks to the well-run operation, the store has grown rapidly. The brothers bought the entire building in 1896. In 1899 the store was officially named Galeries Lafayette. Later, the brothers bought the property on Haussmann Street and renovated it in the way of the Oriental "Bazaar". When the new store officially opened in October 1912, there were 96 departments selling a variety of the latest products, and a tea house, library, and hair salon were set up. On the roof of the store, the Eiffel Tower can be seen faintly in the distance, and the whole Paris has a panoramic view. In 1914, in order to welcome the patronage of the King of England, the store was renovated, and at the same time, on the basis of the traditional women's products department, men's clothing, interior decorations, and toy sales departments were added. Since 1916, Galeries Lafayette has successively opened branches in Nice, Lyon, Nantes, Montpellier and other places in France, and the stores have grown more and more. However, the Great Depression of 1929 and World War II took a toll on the store, which did not recover and develop until the 1950s. At the same time, the store has carried out many unconventional commercial promotion activities, such as inviting the most famous French singer Eddie to sing her classic song "La Vie Rose" in 1950. At that time, the crowd wanted to witness the singer's style crowded the surrounding streets. Waterlogged. In 1953, the store practiced a new business concept in the form of an exhibition, exploring art and special products from all over the world. By 1975, the business area of ​​Galeries Lafayette in Paris reached 47,800 square meters, ranking first among all department stores in Paris. In May 2009, Galeries Lafayette opened a branch with a business area of ​​16,000 square meters in Dubai, and in 2010 will open a new branch in Casablanca, Morocco.

　　

　　The world's No. 1 shopping paradise

　　

　　In 2009, Galeries Lafayette in Paris had a turnover of more than 1 billion euros, more than Harrads in London, Bloomingdale's in New York and 1setan in Tokyo. The store's turnover is still more, becoming the world's largest department store. It receives about 100,000 customers a day, and on the Saturday before Christmas in 2009, it received as many as 260,000 customers.

　　Galeries Lafayette Paris has 7 floors, with a business area of ​​70,000 square meters and 3 million kinds of goods. The first floor is the cosmetics and leather goods counter, which has the world's largest perfume and cosmetics store, including the latest products of more than 260 top brands and 400 beauty consultants; the second floor is the brand of young designers; the third floor is the more mature design The brand of the teacher; the fourth floor brings together almost all the brands of underwear in the world, which can be called a "surprise trip for fashionable ladies". The service here is almost impeccable, with an on-site café, library and hair salon. The baby care area on the 4th floor of the main building provides services such as bottle warming, diaper changing, and wheelchairs for customers with limited mobility, creating a comfortable shopping environment for customers. In addition, the department store also provides women with personal clothing advice to guide customers to follow the latest fashion trends. Galeries Lafayette Paris has more than 4,000 employees, about 80 percent of whom are women.

　　“It’s a place to work around the clock,” says Anne Bois, general manager of Galeries Lafayette Paris. Wandering around this shopping paradise, as a slogan from the 1970s put it, “there’s always something to be found. "

　　

　　Always strive to be the first to lead the trend

　　

　　With the development of the times and the renewal of consumption concepts, Galeries Lafayette Paris keeps pace with the times, continues to develop, and does its best to lead the global consumption trend. In July 2009, it opened the world's largest shoe city for consumers who are addicted to shoes, with a business area of ​​3,460 square meters. There are more than 180 brands in Shoe City, half of which are proprietary brands. Footwear sizes range from 34 to 43 and prices range from 100 to 1,300 euros, according to the needs of a large number of foreign tourists, especially from China and Russia. The shoe city also has a foot salon and a shoe department. Michelle Rouleau, deputy general manager of Galeries Lafayette, said, “Be surprising, always be the first, and lead the way.” Every day, hundreds of shoppers travel around the world wanting to buy the latest products. What new plans are there? Prepare to open a "Bordeaux Wine City", which is planned to open in April 2010. This will be the largest Bordeaux wine city in the world, and will sell more than 3,000 Bordeaux wines ranging from 3 to 30,000 euros. . Most notably, the store will sell 1899 wines from France's Yauem winery.

　　The French who patronize Galeries Lafayette in Paris are now in the minority. In the past three years, foreign customers' spending as a percentage of store turnover has increased from 40 percent to 53 percent. Galeries Lafayette is now the world's largest duty-free store, with a tax rebate rate of 12%-15%. It is a must-see department store for foreign tourists visiting Paris. Galeries Lafayette has become the most visited place by foreigners after the Eiffel Tower. Thierry Vanier, manager of the store's international promotion department, said, "70% of the Japanese who travel to France visit Galeries Lafayette." However, today Chinese customers have surpassed Japanese and Americans as the store's main foreign source customer. The Chinese are particularly fond of French luxury goods, mainly buying perfumes and cosmetics. In order to receive good Chinese customers, the store has specially set up a reception group consisting of 10 people who can speak Mandarin and Cantonese, and also provide a Chinese version of the store floor map for free.

　　

　　Innovation Park Brand Bridge

　　

　　In order to keep the machine that devours more and more commodities running, the store has set up a logistics organization with precise calculations. About 28,000 trucks deliver 500,000 boxes of goods to store basements each year.

　　These logistics agencies serve the brand, and the store's job is to make the brand more original and attract as many customers as possible. Michel Rouleau, deputy general manager of Galeries Lafayette, said, "It's important to know which brands don't have it yet and which brands have refused to enter the store." In fact, Galeries Lafayette is the best bridge for brands. Stores give brands two seasons to investigate and exit the store if they don’t, with an exit rate of around 10%. Some brands become well-known brands once they enter Galeries Lafayette.

　　However, some brands are still boycotting to this day, such as the American brand Abercrombie, which has been reluctant to sell in big stores for 15 years. The famous watch Rolex has been thinking for 20 years, but its stubbornness has paid a price. The Swiss watchmaker opened its first watch counter in the Galeries Lafayette department store in Paris just a few weeks ago. Louis Vuitton also made people wait for a long time, but the luxury goods boss finally saw that there was money to be made, "because in the Galeries Lafayette department store in Paris, the turnover per square meter of the Louis Vuitton brand is the highest in the world. Bernard Arnault, President of Moët Hennessy-Louis Vuitton Group, he can often be seen wandering the Galeries Lafayette department store in Paris on Saturdays. However, the world's largest department store will keep trade secrets from the world's number one luxury goods owner.

　　

　　Tailor-made on-demand service

　　

　　On December 23, 2009, a few minutes before the store closed, two handsome men hurried into the store. While regular shoppers are taking advantage of the time before the store closes nervously picking out Christmas gifts, the two men wandered around the expensive counters, which caught the attention of salesperson Monique Bodé. For more than 20 years, Monique Bodé has been in charge of hosting VIPs. Facts once again proved that her judgment was correct. Among the two customers, one is the son of the head of a certain "Sunshine Country", and the other is his assistant. When Monique Bodé asked them what services they needed, they simply said they wanted to organize a Christmas event for the poor in the nation's capital. Monique Bodé knew immediately that she would not be able to rest for the next 24 hours.

　　In fact, Monique Bodt will organize and plan this Christmas event according to the client's request. A few minutes later, she immediately suggested to the guests to erect a dozen Christmas trees in some neighborhoods of your capital, and put stuffed toys, electric trains, cars, etc. around the Christmas trees. So Monique Bodé gathered all the artificial Christmas trees that the store itch and some of the store's Christmas window decorations. "The next day, everything was ready and the plane was loaded on time," Monique Bodé said.

　　There are many such anecdotes, for example, on a Sunday morning, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife Carla Bou Luni called Innick Bodet and asked her to prepare some gifts suitable for the status of the president and his wife, which were delivered at 18:00 that night. Monique Bode successfully found the gift, opened the door of the gift factory far away in Normandy, and delivered it to the Sarkozy couple at 17:55. One of the things that Monique Bodé is most proud of is a coat given to former French President Francois Mitterrand by an Italian guest. "The coat I picked that day has been on the cover of a magazine for several years," she said, somewhat smugly.

　　These "special" customers never step through the doors of Galeries Lafayette, but with their abilities and Monique Bodt's mailing address booklet, they know their wishes can come true at Galeries Lafayette Paris. Monique Beaudet, now in her 50s, started her career in politics, and she is very aware of the needs of these people, even some of the paranoid needs, "For example, some champagne customers only buy Louis Roederer, you know. Why? Because it's the only brand with a flat bottom, which makes it difficult to put explosives under the bottle." On-demand services include heads of state, billionaires, or entertainers. They spend a lot of money, usually spending 5,000-300,000 euros for a single consumption. Today, the turnover of the VIP service department has accounted for about 3% of the total turnover of the Galeries Lafayette department store.

　　

　　After the store closes at 20 o'clock, the thief is under strict surveillance

　　

　　, and a new day begins, but it is not in the eyes of customers. The procedure is the same every night, the rolling elevators stop working one by one from the highest floor to the lowest floor. All customers leave the mall within 20 minutes. In the evening, all departments restocked the goods, and the goods were delivered to each department by more than 1,000 small cargo boxes equipped with pulleys. The replenishment continued until the salespersons put the goods on the shelves before the store opened the next day.

　　Every night, 600 cash boxes deliver a day's operating income to the cash registers on each floor. The average daily turnover of the store is 4 million euros, with a turnover of up to 6 million euros on the Saturday before Christmas. The gross income for the day is settled the next morning and sent to the central finance room in the basement. Access to the central treasury room is only possible through a digital identification system.

　　Safety is a huge challenge for Galeries Lafayette. Stores attract 100,000 customers every day while keeping them safe. To this end, 360 surveillance probes were installed around the store. The central control center closely monitors every customer's every move. The central control center houses as many monitors as the Las Vegas casinos and the Space Launch Center in the United States. A surveillance wall consisting of more than 50 color screens protects the life of the store every day. "On average, we detect about 3,000 thefts a year," says store security manager Pascal de Portelli. Fragrance sales are the most problematic place, because fragrances are the easiest to sell in similar markets, while perfume sales The department is located on the street front of the store, and it is easy for thieves to escape after stealing. Every year, merchants are commonly referred to as "missing" losses, which means that stolen goods by thieves account for about 15% of their total turnover. To ensure the safety of customers and merchandise, Galeries Lafayette has a 120-person security team that patrols the store day and night.