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A retail park is a type of shopping centre found on the fringes of most large towns and cities in the United Kingdom and other European countries. They form a key aspect of European retail geographies, alongside indoor
shopping centres A shopping center (American English) or shopping centre (Commonwealth English), also called a shopping complex, shopping arcade, shopping plaza or galleria, is a group of shops built together, sometimes under one roof. The first known collec ...
, standalone stores like
hypermarket A hypermarket (sometimes called a hyperstore, supercentre or superstore) is a big-box store combining a supermarket and a department store. The result is an expansive retail facility carrying a wide range of products under one roof, including ...
s and more traditional
high streets High may refer to: Science and technology * Height * High (atmospheric), a high-pressure area * High (computability), a quality of a Turing degree, in computability theory * High (tectonics), in geology an area where relative tectonic uplift to ...
.
Cushman & Wakefield Cushman & Wakefield plc is a global commercial real estate services firm. The company's corporate headquarters is located in Chicago, Illinois. Cushman & Wakefield is among the world's largest commercial real estate services firms, with revenues ...
define a retail park as any shopping centre with mostly retail warehouse units, of a size or larger."DEVELOPMENT OF RETAIL PARKS ACCELERATES THROUGHOUT EUROPE", ''Across'': the European Placemaking Magazine, August 23, 2016
/ref> Retail parks have a number of retailers in a single location, but as opposed to an indoor centre, there is no roof and they aren't therefore weather-proof.


History

Retail parks originate from out of town retail location containing big box retailers which are not suited to pedestrianised
high streets High may refer to: Science and technology * Height * High (atmospheric), a high-pressure area * High (computability), a quality of a Turing degree, in computability theory * High (tectonics), in geology an area where relative tectonic uplift to ...
, such as garden centres, home stores supermarkets. More recently, many high street retaillers have moved to retail parks, since retail parks offer cheaper rents and cheaper parking for customers. For example, in the UK, Marks and Spencer and Next have closed or downsized many high streets stores and moved them to retail parks.


Geography

Retail parks generally are located in highly accessible locations and are aimed at households owning a car, though there are often also bus services. They are an alternative to city centre shopping districts. Such developments have been encouraged by cheaper, more affordable land on the outskirts of towns and cities, and with loose planning controls in a number of Enterprise Zones, making planning and development very easy. There are over 1,500 retail parks across the UK. Retail parks normally have large car parks (parking lots) and are not designed for people to browse, but instead for more direct shopping trips. This has meant retail parks have faced economic competition from Internet retail, since they have not historically offered the same experience factor as town centre retail. Vacancy rates in shopping centres in the UK are almost twice those of retail parks. Town planning policies which favour retail park development pose a threat to high streets as customers are deterred from high street stores. However most retail parks are the result of lack of planning rather than pro-car policies; car-centric urban planning such as retail parks are 'the unwitting result of a set of planning rules'.


Environment

Opponents of retail parks argue that retail parks 'do not make sense' because of the ongoing
climate crisis ''Climate crisis'' is a term describing global warming and climate change, and their impacts. The term and the alternative term ''climate emergency'' have been used to describe the threat of global warming to humanity (and their planet), and to u ...
. However, retail parks are likely to benefit from
climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...
. An article in ''
Nature Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physics, physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomenon, phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. ...
'' found that, due to anthropogenic climate change, catastrophic rain and floods will happen more frequently and with greater severity. During periods of heavy rain, retail parks in the UK see an increase in customer footfall.


Typical tenants

Typically retail parks host a range of
chain stores A chain store or retail chain is a retail outlet in which several locations share a brand, central management and standardized business practices. They have come to dominate the retail and dining markets and many service categories, in many pa ...
, including furniture, clothes or footwear
superstores A big-box store (also hyperstore, supercenter, superstore, or megastore) is a physically large retail establishment, usually part of a chain of stores. The term sometimes also refers, by extension, to the company that operates the store. The te ...
, electrical stores, carpet and others – and the
anchor tenant In retail, an "anchor tenant", sometimes called an "anchor store", "draw tenant", or "key tenant", is a considerably larger tenant in a shopping mall, often a department store or retail chain. They are typically located at the ends of malls. Wit ...
is usually a supermarket. Owing to their out-of-town sites, abundance of free parking and proximity to major roads, retail parks are often easier to reach than central shopping areas, and as a result town centres are less attractive to retailers.


Prevalence outside the UK


Continental Europe

Retail parks have been growing in Continental Europe: according to Cushman & Wakefield, who defines a retail park as an open-air centre with more than 5,000 sq. m. of retail space, total retail space in retail parks in Europe was predicted to be around 40 million sq. m. at the end of 2017. The amount of floor space in retail parks increased by 836,000 square meters in 2015, and 1.3 million square metres in 2016. France accounted for 54% of the new retail space in Western Europe, followed by Britain at 17% and Italy at 10%. At 70,000 sq. m., the "Steel" retail park in Saint-Étienne, France was cited as the largest planned project at that time.


North America

In the U.S., "retail park" is neither the common nor industry term. A shopping centre that in Europe is considered a retail park might fall into one of several categories in North American industry terms: *Power centers: Even larger centers of are considered power centers, typically anchored by category-killer big box stores (e.g.
Best Buy Best Buy Co. Inc. is an American multinational consumer electronics retailer headquartered in Richfield, Minnesota. Originally founded by Richard M. Schulze and James Wheeler in 1966 as an audio specialty store called Sound of Music, it was rebra ...
) incl. discount department stores (e.g.
Target Target may refer to: Physical items * Shooting target, used in marksmanship training and various shooting sports ** Bullseye (target), the goal one for which one aims in many of these sports ** Aiming point, in field artillery, fi ...
) and wholesale clubs (e.g.
Costco Costco Wholesale Corporation (doing business as Costco Wholesale and also known simply as Costco) is an American multinational corporation which operates a chain of membership-only big-box retail stores (warehouse club). As of 2022, Costco i ...
). According to a 2003 UK book on retail property locations, "the nearest British equivalent to the power centre is the large retail park." *Community centers: Slightly larger centers with general merchandise or convenience- oriented offerings are termed as community centers or large neighborhood centers by the ICSC (International Council of Shopping Centers), who state that they typically have a "wider range of apparel and other soft goods offerings than neighborhood centers. The center is usually configured in a straight line as a strip, or may be laid out in an L or U shape, depending on the site and design." *Strip malls: Open-air centers under are generally considered strip malls.


See also

*
Big-box store A big-box store (also hyperstore, supercenter, superstore, or megastore) is a physically large retail establishment, usually part of a chain of stores. The term sometimes also refers, by extension, to the company that operates the store. The t ...
(known as a "retail warehouse unit" in the industry in the U.K. and Europe) *
Power center (retail) A power center or big-box center (known in Canadian and Commonwealth English as power centre or big-box centre) is a shopping center with typically of gross leasable area that usually contains three or more big box anchor tenants and various ...
(North America) *
Neighborhood shopping center A neighborhood shopping center (Commonwealth English: neighbourhood shopping centre) is an industry term in the United States for a shopping center with of gross leasable area In architecture, construction, and real estate, floor area, floor s ...
(North America) *
Lifestyle center A lifestyle center (American English), or lifestyle centre (Commonwealth English), is a shopping center or mixed-used commercial development that combines the traditional retail functions of a shopping mall with leisure amenities oriented toward ...
*
Festival marketplace A festival marketplace is a European-style shopping market in the United States. It is an effort to revitalize downtown areas in major US cities begun in the late 20th century. Festival marketplaces were a leading downtown revitalization strategy ...
*
Strip mall A strip mall, strip center or strip plaza is a type of shopping center common in North America where the stores are arranged in a row, with a sidewalk in front. Strip malls are typically developed as a unit and have large parking lots in front. ...
* Types of retail outlets


References


External links


SmartCentres
– includes photos of its developments __NOTOC__ {{DEFAULTSORT:Power Center (Retail) * Shopping malls by type