Shop talk

We are increasingly selective about where we shop – half the population patronises just 73 centres – and the dominance of the largest ones will increase. Just as individual shops compete with one another in each centre, centres now also compete with each other for customer patronage. The Bluewater brand strives to make headway against the Lakeside or Glades brands, and so on. The new regional malls leapt quickly to the top of retail hierarchies, and in-town centres have done much to boost the standing of Reading, Southampton and Glasgow.

According to CB Hillier Parker research, we are currently seeing a boom in shopping centre development. A total of 20 centres, covering an area of 450 000m2, are scheduled to be completed this year. In addition,19 schemes covering an area of 335 000m2 are planned for next year, with a further 27 schemes over a 598 000m2 area due to open in 2002. Larger schemes covering more than 40 000m2 account for well over a third of floorspace in the pipeline – developers are focusing on the biggest and best locations as these are the ones with greatest customer appeal and hence the most attractive in financial returns. Of the almost 4m m2 of shopping centre space in the development pipeline, 36 per cent or 1.4m m2 is located in the South East.

It is not only an increase in the quantity of shopping centre space that is significant, but also enhancements to the quality of the retail environment. Major retailers are demanding larger shop units to optimise their impact on consumers. In the wake of Bluewater, zoning of retailers is gaining headway. At the newly opened WestQuay in Southampton, the main mall area has been zoned for mass market retailers, while the lower ground level has been allocated to more upmarket players. Similarly, at Midsummer Place in Milton Keynes, tenant mix has been carefully controlled to ensure that like-minded retailers are grouped together. The aim is to make shopping easier for customers, so they don’t have to travel from one end of the centre to the other.

All this is excellent news for consumers and should also benefit retailers. New shopping centres stimulate interest and retail spending. Most retailers regard their shops in such centres as flagships and design the interiors with their latest trial formats. This gives even the longest established retail formats a new lease of life. In addition, new centres attract innovative overseas retailers such as Zara, Mango, InWear/ Matinique, Mexx, Free Spirit, Caroll, and so on. Such newcomers bring stimulating ideas in terms of visual merchandising and product grouping. Their presence requires a response from domestic retailers, to try new ways of doing things to reawaken consumer interest. These new ideas percolate from shopping centres into the wider high street shopping arena.

The retail sector has been in the doldrums over the past couple of years. Consumer incomes have been growing strongly, but much growth in spending has been channelled away from retailing – in favour of holidays, mobile phone charges, accessing the Internet, eating out, gyms, healthcare and the like. On the whole, we seem to be bored with what we see in the shops and how it is presented. But new centres such as Bluewater, show that a well designed shopping environment filled with new retailers, plus format innovation from existing companies, can buck the trend. Therefore a boom in shopping centre development is to be welcomed as a way of kick-starting retail spending.

We need to overcome our sentimentality about high street retailing. New shopping centres are successful because they are designed to give customers what they want. Many high streets are failing because they expect shoppers to make compromises – limited parking provision, unsafe multi-storey car parks, congestion, traffic clogged high streets, cramped shops and so on. Yet, the planning system aims to protect high streets against new development. There are too many shopping locations in this country – 1500-2000 – a number necessary in the days before mass car ownership, when people walked or went by bus to the shops.

New shopping centres need to be seen for what they are – a popular modern shopping environment to replace the legacy of inadequate provision from past years. The shopping needs of the British public can be served by far fewer centres now, with each centre offering a wide choice of shops and other leisure attractions. The implication is that many small, inadequate centres, especially suburban ones, will close (or at least will lose representation from national multiple chains). A Dartford could never hope to compete with a Bluewater, yet the residents of north west Kent are enjoying a great improvement to the quality and quantity of retail provision in their area. The UK needs around 100 premier league centres in the mould of Bluewater or Southampton WestQuay and it seems at last to be getting them.

Clive Vaughan is director of consultancy at Retail Intelligence