American brands, prices lure foreign shoppers to Black Friday frenzy
Associated Press
If you think your commute to the mall is far, try more than 4,000 miles.
Marie-Pierre Lalande, an Air France flight attendant and mother of three, boarded a plane to Atlanta from Paris and arrived on Thursday just in time for one of America's busiest shopping days.
Seems like quite a journey, but to some foreigners it's a bargain.
"These very American brands, in France they cost a fortune," Lalande said.
Lalande is one of a growing number of foreign tourists that headed to the States to jump on the Black Friday bandwagon.
Wally Brewster, a spokesman for General Growth Properties Inc., which operates more than 200 malls across the country, said more tourists are willing to travel longer distances for items unavailable abroad.
"Tourists are finding great value over here since we have items that they cannot get, and it's way more expensive to import them over there," Brewster said.
Visitors usually flock to metro areas, like Chicago, Los Angeles and New York, and also major border cities, like San Antonio, which draws Mexican nationals to its North Star Mall.
JAPANESE IN HAWAI'I
Brewster said Japanese jet-setters come to Honolulu's Ala Moana Center for high-end fashion retailers like Dior, Fendi, Louis Vuitton and Hermes.
In Miami, tourists are headed to Miami-based Dolphin Mall from Latin America, Mexico, Brazil and the Caribbean.
"They want to see the madness of people going to the mall at 5 a.m. to go shopping because that usually doesn't happen in any other country," said Lucia Plazis, a marketing specialist for Taubman Centers' Dolphin Mall.
Responding to the growing trend, Chelsea Property Group, a unit of mall developer Simon Property Group, sent a team abroad this year just to market Black Friday to tour operators.
Lalande, who learned about Black Friday from her brother who lives stateside, said she plans to target apparel retailers Polo Ralph Lauren and Timberland, and also will purchase an Eastpak schoolbag for her 12-year-old daughter, Marie.
"For teenagers going to school, it's either that or death."
