While 20 of Li & Fung's customers went bankrupt over the last two years, it still benefits from the downturn.
Din Tai Fungs provides customers with instructions at the table on how best to eat their xiaolongbao.
Online merchants such as Amazon have been strangling Li & Fung's biggest customers, among them Wal-Mart and Macy's.
All these and many more mainstream mall brands are on display halfway around the world from American shoppers because the faux mall serves as a customer showroom for Li & Fung, the Hong Kong trading and logistics firm that has become the go-to company for globalization.
Li & Fung, which counts major U.S. retailers like Target and Wal-Mart among its customers, said difficult economic conditions haven't derailed the company from its three-year plan to raise sales to $20.0 billion and achieve an operating profit of $1.0 billion by 2010.
Din Tai Fung uses a paper-thin wrapper filled with hot, juicy minced pork that make customers wonder how the dumplings don't prematurely burst while cooking.
Li & Fung, a major supplier of consumer goods to Wal-Mart, said last week that some U.S. customers have been reordering to restock inventory levels, which are down from seven to four weeks, according to J.P. Morgan.
Even an incomprehensible customer is always right, so Ms. Hoffman began studying and instructing salespeople in feng shui (pronounced fung shway), the ancient Chinese practice that seeks harmony between people and living spaces.
Li & Fung, a major supplier of retail goods to Wal-Mart and Target, fell 4.1% to 22.15 Hong Kong dollars ($2.86), after a customer, German department store operator Arcandor, filed for bankruptcy.
