| | |  Business News 
Transnational Shoppers: Mexican Consumers
 Leslie Berestein - San Diego Union-Tribune
go to original
January 11, 2010
| | Despite economic conditions and changes at border crossings, shoppers continue to make the trek north from Mexico to buy goods at shopping centers such as Las Americas Premium Outlets in San Ysidro. (Earnie Grafton/Union-Tribune) | |
Evangelina Ybarra strolled through the Fashion Valley shopping center last week with a Nordstrom bag in hand, accompanied by her daughter and two grandchildren. Like many of the upscale shopping mall’s customers, the two women had made the trek from Tijuana.
“We come for the variety, the quality,” said Ybarra, 63, “and the specials.”
Despite a negative economy and tighter border controls, by and large, San Diego County’s shopping malls and big-box stores remain a draw for shoppers from Tijuana, retailers say. While some retailers report seeing fewer customers from the south, cross-border shoppers continue to come for household goods, groceries, brand-name clothes at cheaper prices than imports, and luxury items from the boutiques of Fashion Valley and La Jolla.
Jason Wells, executive director of the San Ysidro Chamber of Commerce, said that recently implemented southbound checks by Mexican customs also are a problem for some shoppers who fear paying import taxes on certain items, or fear slow traffic returning south, and that this might dissuade some from as many shopping trips north.
“I believe the changes in Mexican customs practices have affected our commerce in a negative way, even more than the economy this year,” he said.
While retailers don’t have hard numbers on how much of their traffic comes from Baja California, it is estimated that shoppers from Mexico spend about $6 billion a year in San Diego County.
A Union-Tribune Publishing Co. ?survey of upper- and middle-class cross-border shoppers in Tijuana and Mexicali concluded that the biggest draw is price, followed by quality and special offers.
More than one in four survey respondents said they shop in San Diego County at least once a week, spending more than $100 per average trip.
“The bottom line is that we still offer the quality and prices, and things you can’t get in Mexico,” Wells said.
Several retailers at the popular Las Americas Premium Outlets center next to the border reported higher sales during the Christmas shopping season than they did last year, with some stores making up for last year’s deficits, he said.
Even though big-box stores such as Costco have opened in Tijuana, there are still items available only on the north side of the border that shoppers drive up for; a manager of the Chula Vista Costco store said its proximity to the border has kept traffic coming.
According to the newspaper’s marketing survey, the Las Americas outlet center, which sits next to the San Ysidro border crossing, draws the majority of cross-border shoppers to San Diego County, followed by the Chula Vista Center and Fashion Valley.
While sales have not been as strong as in the pre-recession days of 2007, “we have had a good year,” said Tom Fallon, general manager of the outlet center, which includes high-end outlet stores such as Banana Republic and Ann Taylor.
Most of those seeking higher-end items head for Fashion Valley. The mall draws well-heeled Tijuana residents, ?some of whom own property north of the border, seeking goods they can’t get at home, said Francine Miley, director of marketing and business development for the shopping center.
“It’s not the everyday item they are shopping for,” Miley said. “They cross the border and come here for the more unique and luxury items.”
The mall includes Tiffany, Louis Vuitton, Gucci and Jimmy Choo, and higher-end department stores Neiman Marcus and Bloomingdale’s, all of which attract affluent shoppers from the south.
However, some of those shoppers from Tijuana aren’t spending as much as they used to or coming as often, said the manager of one luxury retailer, who blamed a number of culprits, including long northbound border waits and a drop in the value of the Mexican peso.
According to numbers from the San Diego Convention and Visitors Bureau, Mexican day visitors to the county were down by 7.5 percent in October compared with the previous year.
Northbound wait times have been slow for years as security has tightened, most recently in June, when a new rule limiting the type of acceptable identification for returning U.S. citizens to a handful of documents such as passports, passport cards, SENTRI passes.
Still, the shoppers come. Evangelina Ybarra and her daughter Norma Ybarra, 40, said they have waited up to two hours in northbound border traffic when they come up to shop, which they do about once a week. Neither has a SENTRI card, and at times, they have decided to turn around.
“Sometimes the line is very slow and people get desperate,” said the elder Ybarra, who said the family was shopping for clothes for her granddaughter. “It makes you not want to cross.”
To avoid traffic, the women have devised an alternative plan. Especially with the number of sales U.S. retailers are having to lure shoppers, it’s worth the trip, they said.
“We cross on foot,” Evangelina Ybarra said. “Then we have our friends pick us up and drive us here.”
Leslie Berestein: leslie.berestein(at)uniontrib.com
|
|
| |
Vallarta Weddings
Tell a Friend
Site Map
Print this Page
Email Us