Mexico City: A vibrant retail panorama

A day spent crammed at the back of an Airbus is worth it when you arrive in Mexico City, a sprawling place that seems to have no beginning or end, from the perspective of the airport, at least. So large is the city that getting to see things is a matter of choosing your targets and then deciding whether it’s worth spending the interminable journey time for the likely return, as far as retail inspiration is concerned.

And this is a city of very distinct parts. If it’s luxury that is sought, there are whole neighbourhoods that will pander to this and all the usual US players, from Office Depot to Walmart, have opted to set up shop, or shops, in the city. Size being such an issue, we visited the upscale business and shopping area of Polanco and Santa Fe, the new town filled with office blocks on the city’s western fringe.

If shopping makes you tired, head for one of the cafes around Constitution Square, the world’s third largest after Tiananmen Square and Red Square, where you can relax and stare across at historic Mexico City.

And if you do make it to this amazing place, forget travelling by taxi. Where possible the only way to go is by subway – fast, clean, regular and 3 pesos (a shade under 15p) for each journey – mass transport as it should be.

Liverpool Polanco and Interlomas

‘Liverpool es parte de mi vida’ runs the strapline for the leading department store group in the country and with 14 stores in the capital, it really is a fact of life for many Mexico City residents. That is, providing they are among the city’s affluent and growing middle class as this is a distinctly aspirational shopping destination. This store is the chain’s mothership and is listed, owing to a sweeping cast concrete façade that dates from the 1960s.

There are multiple floors of branded goods but it’s the beauty hall, on the ground floor, that is likely to be the showstopper for most visitors. A vast atrium is filled, overhead, by a giant mobile sculpture that turns continuously, creating an interior that looks like a 007 vision of the future from the late 1960s. There was actually a move to remove this, but fortunately the plan was quashed and as a feature this is as distinctive as Galeries Lafayette’s stained glass cupola in its store on Boulevard Haussmann. The rest of the shop is, to an extent, what you’d expect of a large department store dealing in luxury goods. But a full-size kid’s carousel and the kind of spa that you normally only find in select country retreats both mark this one out as being something different.

A (longish) journey away is a Liverpool newcomer that threatens to strip the Polanco store of its flagship status. Welcome to Liverpool Interlomas, a structural fantasy designed by Rojkind Architects of the kind that most designers can normally only dream about. Opened in December, it is the anchor for the shopping centre. From the outside, it is a titanium fortress that has already graced the pages of most architectural magazines, but the inside is just as impressive.

Like the Polanco store, the Interlomas branch has a huge atrium – all white and with floors that seem to cut across each other as they appear at improbable angles across its width. Above all of this there is daylight – courtesy of a geometrically-patterned series of windows that stretch across the atrium’s ceiling.

In this store there is much to admire, whether it’s the modish armies of mannequins poised sitting or standing, or the visual merchandising throughout that really does make you pause and consider getting out the wallet. Pride of place, however, goes to the deli-cum-restaurants on the top floor. Not only can you emerge into the daylight and soak in the warmth of the Mexican sun, but there are themed eating areas across the whole of the floor – meaning Italian, Japanese, Mexican or French are all within reach. There is also the largest collection of Mexican wines in the country and a lighting scheme that concentrates in spotlighting specific areas, rather than flooding the whole space with a high level of ambient light.

Both stores are worth a visit and in spite of the fact that they house more or less the same offer, they are both entirely different.  

Big business with Superama

Supermarkets are big business in the Mexican capital and the large US operators, most notably Walmart, have been in the market for years – making the move south of the border is straightforward logistically and, to an extent, culturally. Indeed, by the end of 2011, there were more than 2,000 Walmart-owned and operated stores in Mexico and among them is Superama.

This is actually a home-grown outfit (there are Walmart Supercenters and Sam’s Clubs in Mexico City), but Walmart acquired the Superama chain, along with a number of other fascias at the end of the last century.

Internally, this is one of the grocers with an emphasis on fresh. Local ingredients, including de-needled prickly pears, and the fruit and veg departments and the fish display are as good as you will find anywhere. A striking graphics package around the upper perimeter also adds to the impression of a supermarket that is about lifestyle as well as selling food.

Also worth noting is the name, which while it is a trifle anodyne, is certainly better than department store Suburbia, also owned by Walmart, which is not far from this branch in Polanco. 

Upscale and mass market

Antara is probably the most upscale mass-market shopping mall in the Polanco area and as you walk in the first thing that will strike a note of familiarity is Zara. It’s a mark of the consistency of Zara as an organisation that the windows of this store look the same as those in London, or anywhere else for that matter. Moving on, you see a branch of Massimo Dutti and then there’s a Zara Home, followed by Pull and Bear and, of course, a Bershka branch. There’s even an Oysho, the Inditex lingerie brand that is the least common of all the Spanish retail group’s formats. The only omission, and for no apparent reason, is young fashion operation Stradivarius.

What is clear is that alongside the likes of Hackett, Juicy Couture, Calvin Klein and Hugo Boss, Inditex is the mid-market mainstay of this development and if you want a slice of European design this is one of the city’s prime destinations.

Also worth mentioning is the kiosk in one of the secondary areas of the open-air mall. Merry Cupcakes does what the name might lead you to suppose, with a candy-striped back wall and a kid’s illustration of the cakes at the base of the counter. Just as you thought this was a trend that might have reached its zenith, the cupcake phenomenon reaches out to new markets.

From an aesthetic perspective, this mall is better than most of what you’d expect to find in Europe with the green wall that has become de rigueur in new developments, consisting in this location of a series of boxes with plants. It’s a nice twist on a now familiar trope.