After two years of living in her six-story Shanghai mansion, Mattel’s iconic American doll Barbie is moving out. The dream house has officially closed, and according to analysts, it’s because Barbie didn’t quite cut it with Chinese shoppers in the big city.
- Barbieshanghai.com
- A notice announcing Barbie’s new itinerant lifestyle in China after her Shanghai mansion went into foreclosure.
Mattel says Barbie was ready to move on. The Shanghai flagship store, which featured a spa, a cosmetics counter, and a cocktail bar, served its purpose and was meant only to establish Barbie’s brand in China.
“It did that successfully,” a Mattel spokeswoman said in an interview today, “so Barbie is ready for her next move in China.”
Like many other companies that are seeking more growth with China’s growing middle class, Barbie is moving beyond her big-city life to experience her days in smaller towns, where consumer demand is building. She’ll be jumping in her “Barbie Pink Bus” to head on tour in the near future, the spokeswoman said, declining to disclose further details.
The hope will be to take Barbie’s name further than the Shanghai store could, but Mattel could have an uphill battle. It joins a growing roster of U.S. retailers that are struggling in China. Electronics retailer Best Buy announced last month plans to shutter its China operations. Home Depot recently closed some of its China-based stores as well.
Globally, Barbie sales have been stagnant for years and Mattel has tried repeatedly to give Barbie a makeover in attempt to spur a comeback with consumers. In 2009, Barbie’s 50th anniversary, Mattel spent millions of dollars promoting “Fashionista” Barbies, whose clothing and accessories were inspired from well-known designers, such as Vera Wang. The El Segundo, Calif., company hired a seasoned choreographer to spin up “The Barbie,” a special dance filmed for debut on the “Today Show.”
And it opened its massive, nearly 38,000-square-foot, Shanghai store. (See our video from those optimistic days below.)
China’s toy market can be particularly rough for toy makers, said Bi Sheng, chief executive of online shoe company Letao.com. Mr. Bi says he attempted to start an online toy company before he set up his shoe business, but he figured out quickly that Chinese parents would rather have their kids studying than playing with dolls or cars.
“There are a lot of children here, but the toy market isn’t as ideal as many people think it would be,” Mr. Bi said.
Barbie will still be sold in other shopping outlets across China, Mattel’s spokeswoman says. With any luck, the company hopes she’ll be making it to a lot of new dream homes outside of Shanghai.
– Laurie Burkitt. Follow her on Twitter @lburkitt
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The government vowed to continue reforming the economy and emphasized the need to increase domestic consumption in order to make China less dependent on foreign exports for GDP growth in the future.
China is the world’s fastest-growing major economy, with an average growth rate of 10% for the past 30 years.
Available energy is insufficient to run at fully installed industrial capacity, and the transport system is inadequate to move sufficient quantities of such critical items as coal.
Its mineral resources are probably among the richest in the world but are only partially developed.
The technological level and quality standards of its industry as a whole are still fairly low, notwithstanding a marked change since 2000, spurred in part by foreign investment.
China’s increasing integration with the international economy and its growing efforts to use market forces to govern the domestic allocation of goods have exacerbated this problem.
Both forums will start on Tuesday.
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China reiterated the nation’s goals for the next decade – increasing market share of pure-electric and plug-in electric autos, building world-competitive auto makers and parts manufacturers in the energy-efficient auto sector as well as raising fuel-efficiency to world levels.
China’s challenge in the early 21st century will be to balance its highly centralized political system with an increasingly decentralized economic system.
Even with these improvements, agriculture accounts for only 20% of the nation’s gross national product.
China is the world’s largest producer of rice and wheat and a major producer of sweet potatoes, sorghum, millet, barley, peanuts, corn, soybeans, and potatoes.
China ranks first in world production of red meat (including beef, veal, mutton, lamb, and pork).
China is one of the world’s major mineral-producing countries.
China’s leading export minerals are tungsten, antimony, tin, magnesium, molybdenum, mercury, manganese, barite, and salt.
The largest completed project, Gezhouba Dam, on the Chang (Yangtze) River, opened in 1981; the Three Gorges Dam, the world’s largest engineering project, on the lower Chang, is scheduled for completion in 2009.
Beginning in the late 1970s, changes in economic policy, including decentralization of control and the creation of special economic zones to attract foreign investment, led to considerable industrial growth, especially in light industries that produce consumer goods.
The east and northeast are well served by railroads and highways, and there are now major rail and road links with the interior.
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Barbie Moves into Mobile Home as China Dreamhouse Shutters
