In the last few years I have seen a handful of feng shui shops, selling feng shui paraphernalia, cures and offering consultation services by their in-house masters, all closed down after a few years of bad business.
Yesterday, I saw another feng shui shop in town area, located in a recently opened shopping mall. I was surprised that the owner chose to open his branch here since the mall is known to be a flop since day 1. There are no customers at all and rental is not going to be cheap in town area. It will probably fold once the lease is up.
All these make me question about the validity of feng shui applications for retail businesses. After doing some extensive research about it, it seems that feng shui theories used for commercial premises is a rather recent development. The earliest record I can find is a theme park in Shanghai built in 1916, where a fengshui master was consulted in the building of the place. In fact, up to the 1960s, feng shui was used solely for Yang Zhai (town planning, residential dwellings, basically buildings for non-commercial basis) and Yin Zhai (burial places). It was only after the Cultural Revolution, in the early 1970s when feng shui became a primary concern of businesses growing during the post-unrest economic boom. So to say, feng shui being applied to retail businesses has less than a century of history and developments.
Regards
Alvin Chua
4 comments:
The reason most Feng Shui shops, in terms of retail business, fail is because many Feng Shui Masters do not have good business sense. Just because one found a good store site base on Feng Shui principles does not automatically make them successful. If they do not treat their customers right, have good marketing, quality products, and have their finances in good order, all the good Feng Shui doesn't matter.
The same is true when you find a good house in terms of Feng Shui, it doesn't guarantee success. If the person who lives in the house is lazy and doesn't want to do anything, success isn't going to go to him or her. The same is true when it comes to a Feng Shui business, you need good business practice couple with good Feng Shui to make it a success.
Unfortunately, these Feng Shui Masters spend much time on learning Feng Shui, but not enough invested in good business practices and, therefore, leads to their failure.
Thank you for your comment. I fully agree with your insight. When it comes to retail business, the factors at play are different. It is no more just concerning the occupants (owner, boss, manager, staff) but a new focus is involved, and that is the customers.
A customer will not walk into a shop and start buying things he/ she don't need or interested in, just because good feng shui is in place. The complexity of running a retail business is much higher than buying a house or renting a office.
Thank you for dropping by.
I find that this is two different things and it shouldn't mix. Let's place our self as comsumers.
1) I more interested to know where is which masters office is.
2) I don't feel comfortable when a master ask me to buy any physical product from him or places strongly recommended by him.
3) In short, master shouldn't sell but advise what to buy. Sellers should not advise but only provide product info.
I want to hear advise from a master that have no reach into my pockets and I want to buy stuff from shops that sell things in a reasonable price and not because he says that it is good for me.
never forget that it is CHINA made and it is dirt cheap in mass production.
Hi, that is a good concept and the market should be made to be of such selling mechanism. The master should only recommend but he should not hard sell his products. Like that, clients will have more choices and not feel pressured at all. But it really depends of the master’s professionalism.
Regards
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