Grand Waldo has re-announced its plans to build a retail outlet mall, nearly two years after first announcing the Hong Kong-listed Get Nice’s acquisition of the complex. Ponte 16 says its extension into Ponte 14 will finally go ahead, nearly three years after it first outlined plans for shopping facilities there, and it wants to build a Japanese-style department store. Hey hey, what do you know, Macau really is a shopping paradise after all.

None of which is necessarily good news for the Venetian, which poured billions into its Grand Canal Shoppes and Shoppes at Four Seasons when everyone thought Sheldon Adelson was crazy to do so. He has been proved right, and the traffic running through those malls and the sales being rung up by Louis Vuitton testify to that. But being proved right in Macau doesn’t usually inspire congratulations. It usually inspires imitation and cut-throat competition.

To be sure, the Shoppes at Four Seasons, Wynn Macau and One Central have nothing to fear from Grand Waldo or Ponte 16. But it will be interesting to see how the Grand Canal Shoppes handles the competition. We have been advising the resort’s management for years to use the Venice-themed shops as the centerpiece of their China brand-marketing efforts. Will they do something before it’s too late and they are surrounded by mass-market competitors? Stay tuned to find out. Copyright & used with permission of IntelMacau.com