A brief visit to London

Last week, I had a trip to London-Oxford-Cambridge, several observations come to my attention.


(New Updates: Apr. 22, 2013)
Here comes an interesting News coverage of Pret a Manger on Bloomberg. For visitors to London, you might love it. ;)

1.) Mid-eastern expansion in London:

When I walking through several major touristic sites, I am a bit surprised. Every corner of the street you could find restaurants that has Arabic on their board. Of course they would have a English name, yet they mark Arabic names at the same time.

Walking down on Oxford street, I visit a few souvenir shops as sampling (not that scientific) progress. Most, if not all, are run by Mid-eastern or Indian or Pakistani. Apart from that, they are various outlets run by these people as well.

There is not secrets that oil-producing countries are extending their wealth into England, yet the scale and the amount is unknown. For me it is quite interesting to confirm such investment scale. They are not only interested in buying a few clubs for  weekly Premier League exposure and sponsorship, but also interested into the real front line cash-generating machine.

2.) Shoppers from those troubled countries: Says who Italian and Spanish are dying?

The very first thing I notice on my bus ride into City center is the language: ITALIAN taking more than 50% of passengers on such ride. Of course that is  a biased sample since it can easily explained by origin of the landing planes, possibly planes from Italy lands on Stansted around the same moment as my flight's arrival. However, more Italian exposure are spotted in the city. They travel in tours: high-school student trips, mid 40s or 50s on their annual vacation, and some retiree visitors.

Spanish exposure are less prominent, yet pervasive. In front of Primark, the most popular "Brand" on Oxford street famous for their "competitive pricing", I met a few of them. They carried their bags and newly-bought suitcase as their trophy!! Those I spoke to they are all from Spain, yet I suspect some of the Spanish speakers I met on street are from Latin America. Nevertheless, the Spanish speaking groups are, the same as Italian ones, hard to ignore.

I ponder a bit to develop a possible theory on that. First thing comes into my mind is:  people from all countries love travel, and discounted airliners and tour arranged by agencies might not cost them much. Yet, this theory are immediately overthrown by myself. If people in troubled region are really desperate fighting for their daily life, they would remain at home, trying to find a decent job and try all the best to keep it. Travel is certainly a luxury for those who are only temporarily-employed or unemployed.

The second theory comes in picture very fast. The wealth distribution in these troubled countries are widening. Those who "have" still able to afford the trip, and those who "have-not" are suffering at home. Interesting enough on the second day I just read a short article on London's free newspaper "London Evening Standard", saying that some 3,000 Italian youngsters choose to be Shepherd because such jobs offer them a stability.

Of course there is the third theory, but that would be too crazy if  that is the way they take. Given the credit line is loose now( please refer to my "Let's go to Arena"(Mandarin Version), these people using the credit in some weird sense. If these travelers are taking out their credits for travel and shopping for the moment. It would be too crazy.

3.) A real estate rebound: Would that be sustainable?

On my bus ride to Oxford and Cambridge, I see a lot of newly-developed housing project. The immediate thought is the UK housing market is coming back, although the falling price may yet be stopped anytime sooner.

After coming back I checked with data confirmed such hunch feelings. According to the latest (December quarter, 2011)statistics from UK Department for communities and local governments. The newly start house building activity increase 6% QoQ. And it is 74% above the trough in Mar. 2009, yet still 48% away from the peak.

The recovery is still fragile, yet definitely on its way.

4.) Dynamic Food cultures: who runs those chains?

There are three chains we constantly spot in the city. Wagamama(1992), Pret A Manger(1986) and Wasabi Sushi and Bento(2003) I am not surprised that the Metropolitan people will adapt to these takeaways rapidly. That is one thing I love above a metropolitan city, diversity is easily found and the choices are plenty.