What Sought After Big Brand Chains Indicate a City/Metro has "Arrived?" (live in, shops)

[18Montclair]

I believe it was Trafalgar Law(?) that shared this with us a few years ago:

A Luxury Brand Hierarchy developed by industry watchers and academics...


Just looking at top 2 jewelry stores ranked, where everything costs $50,000+

Leviev has 1 North American location in New York(the only other location is Moscow)

Graff Diamonds has 6 stand alone stores in North America: New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Vancouver, Palm Beach & Bal Harbour.

[elchevere]

^ ^

I’m definitely adding/putting a Richard Mille boutique (not uncommon for $350,000 timepieces up to $2M) to ultra high end and above Panerai, IWC, Breguet, and Patek....Beverly Hills, NYC, Aspen, Vegas, Boston, Miami and Bal Harbour boutiques.

[18Montclair]

South Florida is extremely impressive when it comes to core premium brands on up.

Vegas and Honolulu also rank way wayyyy above their size.

[Citykid3785]

Whole foods
Trader Joe's
Lifetime fitness
Nespresso

[cpomp]

Originally Posted by KodeBlue

Uniqlo
W Hotel
Bloomingdales, Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue

High-end shopping, hotels and certain experiential places like Starbucks Reserve are the best idicators.

Not many metro areas have a Neimans, Bloomingdales, Saks and Nordstrom. Pretty much, just the largest US cities.

[GeoffD]

I don’t think it’s chains. It’s when your indie restaurants start making top-100 lists.

[kyle19125]

Some of the super selective from my many years working in the retail industry that aren't the uber-high end, but more mainstream include:

Crate and Barrel
Pottery Barn
Williams Sonoma
Sur La Table
Anthropologie
JCrew
LL Bean
Chico's
Coach
Aveda
Bare Minerals
Kiehl's

[18Montclair]

Originally Posted by kyle19125

Some of the super selective from my many years working in the retail industry that aren't the uber-high end, but more mainstream include:

Crate and Barrel
Pottery Barn
Williams Sonoma
Sur La Table
Anthropologie
JCrew
LL Bean
Chico's
Coach
Aveda
Bare Minerals
Kiehl's

Yup. Michael Kors is another brand I really like that has achieved high end status but is still attainable to most folks.

[mjtinmemphis]

Bloomingdales are only in large metros from Atlanta on up to NYC.

I know Saks is a highly sought after retailer along with Niemans Marcus.

Nordstroms is pretty cool too. The more Nordstroms, the higher the ranking.

A good selection of local grocery stores. I know in St. Louis there is Dierbergs, Straubs, Field Foods that come to mind. Charlotte has Harris Teeter. If nothing like that, there needs to be a good number of Whole Foods and Trader Joes.

[Johnhw2]

I'm a suburban guy and my acid test is a Costco and a Lexus dealer within a few miles, less than five miles. Metro needs a niemans for spouse and her sister.
Safe and great schools for the burb are requirements too. Rare find all these in a metro smaller than 2 miliiin. A personal requirement is too medical specialists. I require a MDVIP internest ideally three to chose from and a too hospital. But these are due to my spouses needs not all would need these specifics