Harry Potter Pays a Visit to Hong Kong Retailers
Hong Kong retailers know how to bring a crowd into their fancy stores.
Case in point is Times Square in Hong Kong's Causeway Bay area, which I recently visited during a trip to Hong Kong Fashion Week. The multi-story, ultra-luxe shopping center practically recreated the set of the latest Harry Potter movie, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2." The elaborate scene was meant to attract even more consumers to the already popular commercial tower with 16 floors.
Outside the shopping center was a lifesize version of the Hogwarts Express train. Parents were enthusiastically snapping photos of their children in front of the large red engine and children posed on the platform where you could enter a train car for a pretend ride to the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
Inside the mall's massive center court were fake structures that could have been stolen from the back set of a Harry Potter movie. There were stuffed owls, bird cages and even brooms and leather suitcases lying around for children to pick up and pose with. Several young Harry Potter fans nabbed the brooms, hopped on them and jumped off stairs, trying to emulate their favorite actor.
You could even take rubber stamps carved with the word Hogwarts and postmark cards. Meanwhile, shoppers perused stores such as Chanel, Bottega Veneta, Zara, Burberry, Gucci, Coach and the Lane Crawford department store that overlooked the entire Harry Potter scene.
Harry Potter seems to be just as popular in Hong Kong as he is in the United States.
