One of the world’s best known concept stores – the 3500sqm Barbie in Shanghai – closed this week. 

The stunning $30 million pink flagship of Mattel’s legendary children’sbrand was closed without warning on March 7. Analysts have been quick tooffer explanations for the store’s demise, citing poor location,overpricing and failing to meet the needs of the local market.

Mattel offered no explanation for the closure, other than to say it was “committed to developing the Barbie brand in China”.

“In 2011, the company will take all of the great experiences previouslyonly available at the Barbie concept store in Shanghai to many moreconsumers in broader areas across China.”

Arguably, Mattel could have chosen a better location for its flagship.The Huahai St location may have put the store amidst a long, tree-linedstrip of fashion stores, but it had little street-front presence, withthe six-story store accessible via a single escalator encased in apink-lit tunnel.

Arguably, a shopping mall location, more of a family destination than a fashion strip, might have attracted more customers.

Some analysts said the store failed because Mattel failed to localiseits offer, but that is simply untrue. It developed a Chinese Barbiecalled Ling and made concerted effort to reduce the brand’sAmericanisation, without going so far as to hide its roots.

Besides promoting the dolls for children, the store sold fashion forolder consumers, but this never really appeared to take off. A cosmeticscounter, a spa and a nail emporium were clearly targeted at women30-plus; the goal was to turn Barbie into a lifestyle brand.

Most of us who visited the Barbie store to experience the retail conceptalways considered the store an exercise in brand marketing rather than aself-sustaining retail proposition. To that end it succeeded, but thetrading results of the store were insufficient to warrant such a heavysubsidisation beyond two years.

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