Abstract
The purpose of this study is to explore the effects of competition and complementarity on retailing in the historic city centre of Vienna and to analyse the changes brought about by these mechanisms. This concerns the status of Vienna’s city centre as a prime shopping location and the way this position has been undergoing significant changes. But it also concerns the structures and spatial organisation of retail in this main shopping district. The study itself is based on a survey of a sample of about 2000 shops.Three indicators serve as a basis to analyse the effects competition and complementarity have exerted on the retail premises: retail sectors, chain operation and store sizes. On a spatial level, the analysis is based on the functional units that constitute the historic city centre of Vienna.In the historic city centre of Vienna fierce competition among retailers is bringing about a reduction of the number of competitors but not a decrease in the number of retail premises. Nationally and internationally operating chains are the ‘driving forces’ of restructuring retailing and its related spatial patterns. Other retailers are forced to find free niches or market segments, which are defined by the principle of complementarity to retail sectors, retail forms or locations of national or international chain stores. The study comes to the conclusion that the effects of competition and complementarity cannot be explained in their totality, but they have to be interpreted as to the impact they have on the spatial organisation of the city. The competition between large-scale multinational chains is the source of the dynamic process that keeps transforming the entire retail trade in downtown Vienna. This process is regarded as crucial for the vitality of retailing in the city centre, as supplementary retail structures in surrounding neighbourhoods are provided with new opportunities and niches. The dynamics triggered by multinationally operated chain stores, are mutually related to the emergence of highly specialized supplementary zones adjacent to the main shopping streets. The larger retail formats in the main shopping area vice versa benefit from the specialised supplementary zones, which respectively contribute to maintaining the high standards of the Main Shopping Area but also to supporting the city as a prime shopping location, even though the observed restructuring of retail is converting the historic city centre into a themed destination for leisure shopping.
Highlights
Theoretical background ‘...contrary to the expectations of many geographers, a clear intraurban central hierarchical structure remained surprisingly robust.’ (Lowe and Wrigley, p. 641), and unlike retailing in US downtown areas, the historic city centres in European cities remain at the top of the retail hierarchy
New retail geography reflecting on geographies of display examines the cultural logic of retailing by determining the emergence of shopping streets as differentiated spaces of consumption and the role of streets as new urban landscapes of consumption. ‘’Streets of Style’... become invested with specific identities... emphasizing in particular the unique ‘brand’ of a... street location... identitybased location preferences have led to certain ‘pioneering’ clothing retailers locating in centres... and within these centres the identity and image of particular streets seem to have specific culture and image attached to them.’ (Lowe and Wrigley, 2000, p. 645) To participate in this image the ‘return’ to the city centre is becoming an important issue for multinational corporations as a competitive advantage
52 The transformation of the historic city centre into a leisure shopping destination where the city becomes consumed has shaped the retail structure into fragmented patterns of specialised areas
Summary
Theoretical background ‘...contrary to the expectations of many geographers, a clear intraurban central hierarchical structure remained surprisingly robust.’ (Lowe and Wrigley, p. 641), and unlike retailing in US downtown areas, the historic city centres in European cities remain at the top of the retail hierarchy (see for example BRAUN, 2002). 641), and unlike retailing in US downtown areas, the historic city centres in European cities remain at the top of the retail hierarchy (see for example BRAUN, 2002). These findings are supported by concepts based on central place theory, evolutionary economics and the new retail geography. In terms of evolutionary economy vitality, defined as number of shops and the variety of shops, is the competitive advantage of the city centres. Does the recent restructuring of retailing provide opportunities for generating new sectors offering new products as it is essential for maintaining vitality as a comparative advantage for the historic city centre?
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