Tough customers!!!
By SETH FAISON of the NYT
IADING, China -- On a recent afternoon, only a few customers could be found wandering around the American Dream, a sprawling theme park on the outskirts of Shanghai.
Most of the rides were closed. The paint was peeling on the pillars supporting a worn-looking "Palladium" theater. Two attendants slept on the counter of a ticket booth. The hot-dog concession was open, but out of food.
The day's take at the gate: 12 people. Pretty paltry for a park that cost $50 million to build a few years back, when bright forecasts predicted 30,000 visitors a day.
Like countless other virtually empty theme parks in China, the American Dream symbolizes the disastrous miscalculations made by both Chinese and foreign investors who were persuaded by Chinese officials that a huge, child-loving populace would fuel a lively theme-park business.
Instead, projects have been swamped by excessive competition, poor market projections, high costs and relentless interference from local officials.
The dismal outcome highlights a glaring fallacy in the rationale of innumerable foreign investors who come to China, misty-eyed about the potential demand in China's enormous market but blind to all the competing supply.
"If we can just sell one item to every Chinese ..." has been a mantra of naive Western business executives for over 100 years.
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