4 days ago
Louis Vuitton, Tiffany leave Japan's regional stores to US brand Coach
Retail
Department stores look for new ways to bring luxury brands to shoppers
Louis Vuitton shuttered its location in the Keisei Department Store in Mito, Ibaraki prefecture at the end of last year. (Photo by Naho Kondo)
YURIKA YONEDA and MOE SAITO
TOKYO -- Major overseas luxury brands are pulling their outlets from department stores in areas outside Japan's major urban centers, leaving store managers struggling to keep their customers happy.
American luxury jewelry brand Tiffany closed its outlet on the first floor of the Keisei Department Store in the city of Mito last month. The move came after France's Louis Vuitton left the same store in December. The two had been the only directly operated outlets in Ibaraki prefecture, on the outskirts of the greater Tokyo metropolitan area. Their former locations remain covered in the department store.
