Shopping centres: Difference between revisions

Shopping centres have been replacing traditional markets since the previous century. They represent the modern lifestyle as they are sometimes called the chapels of consume. <br>I.Smolová<ref>I.Smolová, Z.Szczyrba (2000): Large commercial centers in the Czech Republic - Landscape and regionally aspects of development. Palacky University Olomouc</ref> provides an overall definition: “A Regional Shopping Centre is an architecturally unified complex of commercial facilities planned, constructed, owned and administered as a whole. They represent a concentration of retail stores, catering and services (entertainment and cultural establishments, e.g. multiplex cinema) aiming to satisfy the customers’ requirements in the field of goods and services in a short-term, mid-term and long-term perspective. The basis of shopping centres is formed by big retail units of the hypermarket type and by specialized superstores (e.g. hobbymarket).”<br>The localization of SC is determined mainly by the proximity of potential customers and accessibility by transport. Given the ratio of sales area to total required area stands at approximately 1:7<ref>I.Smolová, Z.Szczyrba (2000): Large commercial centers in the Czech Republic - Landscape and regionally aspects of development. Palacky University Olomouc</ref>, the localization is limited by the offer of development areas and by lot prices. Concerning Prague, the most wanted places are edges of the city and its high streets.<br>  

Shopping centres did exist before 1989 – every citizen then knew the famous first western-like Retail House Kotva for example, nevertheless the massive spreading of this shopping phenomenon began after the revolution in 1989 as a result of joining the global market. The capital city Prague forms a kind of bridge between the national and foreign market, therefore it has been affected the most by globalization and internationalization. The service sector has grown rapidly, leaving industrial brownfields in several parts behind. The most visible recent urban tendency is suburbanization including outward migration and commercialization. Stores, logistic centres and shopping areas are built. As I mentioned in the foreword, the so called area standard – square metres of shops per inhabitant – has tripled since 1989 from 0,331 to 1,1 in 2009 in the Czech Republic. Prague belongs below the average with the value of 0,87 sq m per citizen. The total number of shopping centres in the capital is 38, their area present 33% of the national SC area (CBRE, 2010).<br>  

 

 

[[Image:Shopping centre development.jpg|411x245px|Shopping centre development.jpg]]  

Figure 1: CBRE, 2010<ref>http://www.cbre.cz/propertyinfomap/emea/_PDF/EMEA_FPR_CZECH_RETAIL%20_H1_2010_ENG.pdf</ref><br>  

Figure 1 shows that shopping centres experiencied a steep increase in construction in the year 1998. The peak was in 2008, which is the year of opening of big Prague shopping centres like Arkády Pankrác (40 000m²) or the already mentioned Fenix Gallery (12 000m²). Most of the new supply was placed in smaller towns however - the focus of investors moved our of cities to these less saturated regional towns. <ref>http://www.ct24.cz/ekonomika/12186-boom-nakupnich-center-se-presouva-do-regionu/</ref> The graph shows there has been a decreasing tendency in the last two years. In 2010, the financial crisis displayed in construction maybe even more than in others fields, in Prague only one shopping centre opened (Harfa Gallery).