I recently came across a blog from the economist about the re-opening of Marks & Spencer in Paris, which hasn’t been in europe since 2001. The store’s product focus this time around to primarily “women’s clothing and convenience food”. To my surprise, the blog describes how parisian masses (who were largely female) were lined up outside the store. Although this is a company that has been out of the local market for a decade, it had made such an impact on customers that they were willing to stand in a long, crowded line on a weekday to browse the shop. Marks & spencer have powerfully established themselves as a niche market that is made possible to the company’s attention to very different and specific conditions.

The blog asserts that multiple changing conditions have drawn even more french support to the store. Some of these situations, such as the rising demand for a quick lunch break and the convenience of food and shopping for a new target market of young office workers are fairly obvious. others, such as the link to smoking bans in cafes which necessitates a quicker lunch, would’ve been much harder for the company to forecast.