American casual wear brand Abercrombie&Fitch opened its first Asian store in Japan, Tokyo, Ginza on December 15. This is the fifth flagship store in the world with a total area of 974 ㎡. The store opened at 11.00 am and already by that time gathered a 400m long line of the first visitors. Although in the 11-floor store each floor is quite narrow the vault in the building creates an atmosphere of free space. A statue of a masculine male greets the customers at the entrance of the first floor. The walls on each floor are covered with paints of men sports scenes and other pictures expressing the physical beauty of the body.
The clothes are produced in China, Vietnam and India. Cut sew -5,400yen, polo shirt -8,600-14,000yen, sweat parka -18,000yen, shirt- 9,800-14,000yen, jeans -19,200-29,600 yen, comparing to the USA the prices in Japan are 2-3 times higher.
Almost all the customers that visited the opening of the store are familiar with this brand, however, even among the fans there were some mixed feelings about it "the more the brand becomes popular the more complicated impression we have about it".
Globally expanding companies one by one have been recently opening their new big stores in Ginza, Tokyo. The opening of the Abercrombie&Fitch store will be soon followed by the opening of GAP and Forever21 next spring. Ginza proved its importance and for the companies that come to the foreign market it is a major business area to appeal to Japan and Asia itself.