Consumption is keeping Lebanon alive. As a major contributor to gross domestic product, the Lebanese penchant for luxury puts the shine on the country’s numbers, financially precarious as it may be for the individual. At the close of 2010, after years of waiting and false starts, the highlife has found a true home in the revived downtown Beirut. Still, the current conditions, which have the potential to carve Beirut a place among the world’s great retail cities, are not assured. With Beirut Souks — Solidere’s consumerist dream — at the center of it all, downtown Beirut rivals, at least in names, the great shopping districts of Paris or New York. The 200-outlet complex began its very soft opening in October of 2009 and has now seen its first full year of operation. Persistent delays and mismanagement of initial space allotment, especially in the Gold Souks section, made for a
