Original title: with the rich "move" luxury brands appear "suburbanization" phenomenon! The pandemic is reshaping the high-end consumer economy in the United States.

Source: FX168

As many wealthy people leave the city during the pandemic, luxury retailers are scrambling to open new and increasingly luxurious stores in the suburbs and holiday hotspots of the United States on Monday.

Gucci has set its sights on Oak Brook, Illinois, where Moncler recently opened a store in Vail, Colo., Dior opened a new storefront in Scottsdale, Arizona, Louis Vuitton opened a storefront in Plano, Texas, and Herm è s, the maker of Birkin bags, is on its way to suburban Detroit.

"luxury brands are grabbing land," said David Hurley, executive vice president of the Swiss watch group Watches of Switzerland. The Swiss watch group has opened eight stores in the US this year, in San Jose, Nashville and the suburbs of Philadelphia. "like many other companies, we are redoubling our store expansion plans".

While the pandemic has battered the economy and left millions out of work, the rich have benefited from the stock market boom and soaring house prices. Americans have saved $2.6 trillion since the outbreak of the coronavirus, according to the Oxford Institute for Economics. The vast majority of them are contributed by the richest 1/5 people.

Because of restrictions on travel and dining out, many people are profligate in other ways, with sales of luxury homes (with a median price of $1.03 million) surging 88 per cent in the most recent quarter, according to Redfin, a US real estate agency. Revenue from high-end carmakers Audi and BMW surged 90% in the most recent quarter, while Porsche sold a record 36300 vehicles in the first half of this year.

This shift in spending has brought wealth to high-end brands. In the most recent quarter, sales of fashion brand Herm è s grew by 127%, while profits of luxury giant LVMH quadrupled a year ago. Herm è s bags are usually seen as investment goods because of their high resale value, but demand for the brand remained strong during the pandemic, with one of them selling for as much as $450000 at auction last year.

Kayla Kayla Marci, an analyst at retail intelligence firm EDITED, says brands aim to profit from the luxury boom by moving upmarket. Big names such as Chanel, Gucci and Louis Vuitton have raised the price of their bags, while many other brands are opening new stores offering VIP suites, private shopping reservations and concierge services to greet the rich.

Milton Petrasa, chief executive of Luxury Institute, a market research firm in New York, said: "luxury retailing in Daliu is fragmented, and it seems that everyone has moved to the suburbs or holiday homes, so businesses are going there, too."

Real estate developers say this has prompted luxury retailers to look away from iconic fashion districts such as Beverly Hills, Manhattan and Miami, and analysts say luxury brands are well aware that people's lifestyles are being reshaped after people began a massive shift to online shopping in the early days of the pandemic.