When I covered retail for the FT in the early 1990s, industry bosses would often recite their three secrets of success: location, location, location. Back then, retail was largely a property game. Companies would make huge efforts to analyse local demographics, economics and infrastructure to estimate potential footfall and spend small fortunes to acquire the most promising sites. Stick your stores in the right place and customers would be ensnared in your web, just like spiders catching flies.
上世紀90年代初,當我為FT報道零售業時,行業老板們經常會背誦他們的三個成功秘訣:地段、地段、地段。當時,零售業基本上是一場房地產游戲。公司會花大力氣分析當地的人口、經濟狀況和基礎設施,以估計潛在的客流量,并花小價錢收購最有前途的地塊。把你的商店放在正確的地方,顧客就會被你的網困住,就像蜘蛛抓蒼蠅一樣。