Search results

During the past 30 years the balance between retail development in “out of town” as opposed to “town centre” locations has been a recurrent theme in retail planning policy debates and policy initiatives within the UK. This paper reviews the continuing growth and diversification of out‐of‐town retail development and draws attention to the recent investment in retail services complexes in out‐of‐town sites. A brief outline of changing central government thinking suggests an increasingly restrictive approach to new out‐of‐town retail development coupled with a policy commitment to “put town centres first”. The paper then offers some illustrative examples of town centre management initiatives in Leicester, Leeds and Manchester, and concludes with a brief discussion of some of the issues surrounding the “in town – out‐of‐town debate”.

Throughout the 1980s and early 1990s the debate surrounding the comparative costs and benefits of town centre and out‐of‐town retail developments for consumers and to the environment has been a heated one. Informed by a largely puritanical view of consumerism, current Government policy tends towards the preservation of the traditional town centre. However, the actual evidence is far from conclusive and there is limited consumer research supporting this stance. Based on an interviewer‐administered survey conducted during 1994 and 1995 to assess shoppers’ opinions in both types of location in Preston, presents an examination of consumer perspectives and examines differences in perceptions and behaviour patterns among town centre and out‐of‐town shoppers.

Explores the potential impact of recent changes in planning policy on the growth of a new UK retail format ‐ factory outlet centres. Factory outlet centres are a new out‐of‐town shopping genre which has been imported from the USA. In 1993, there were two such centres in the UK; by 1994, there were proposals for 18. During the same time period, government policy towards out‐of‐town shopping developments changed, with successive guidance notes aimed at restraining out‐of‐town developments in a bid to enhance the vitality and viability of town centres. Examines the impact of changing policy on the development strategies of factory outlet centre developers and outlines the current and potential future shape of factory outlet centre retailing in the UK.

Examines the attitude of the consumer and local authorities to out‐of‐town shopping centres by means of results of a survey carried out in two suburbs of Bournemouth in the UK. Reveals that both the consumer and local authorities have reservations about the role of out‐of‐town shopping centres and its effect on the overall pattern of retail distribution, despite the apparent benefits of this kind of shopping.

The fears of many consumers a few years ago concerning the apparent impersonality and size of many shopping developments, have now been largely overcome. These have been superseded with concern for the distance and competitiveness factors associated with the latest trend in retailing — the movement ‘out‐of‐town’ — a development which at present receives hostility from many people in the United Kingdom, and cautious enthusiasm from others.

Within the UK the past three decades have witnessed dramatic and continuing changes in the geography of retail provision. During this period the traditional supremacy of town and city centres at the top of the retail hierarchy has been increasingly successfully challenged by the development and diversification of out‐of‐town and edge of town shopping facilities. This ‘out of town exodus’ (Schiller, 1987) can be traced from the food superstores opened by grocery retailers from the late 1960's onwards through the development of retail warehouses, retail parks and regional shopping centres (Guy, 1994) to a more recent ‘fourth wave’ (Fernie, 1995) which include warehouse clubs, factory outlet centres and airport retailing. The cumulative effects of these developments are seen to pose a major challenge to retail businesses in town and city centres and perhaps more fundamentally to the centres themselves. The traditional spirit of the UK's town and country planning policies, first established some fifty years ago, was to positively support retail activity in town and city centres and to restrict out of town retail development (Guy, 1994). However, from the early 1980's onwards, such policies had only a limited effect in stemming the tide of retail decentralisation and they often seemed to be honoured more in the breach than in the observance.

Within the UK, the continuing development of out of town retail outlets is well documented in the literature. The process is usually depicted as a set of four waves. However, all four waves focus on the retailing of goods rather than of services. Asserts that there are growing indications that retail services complexes are playing an increasingly leading role in the process of retail decentralisation. Describes some of the contributions to the growth of out of town services retailing and outlines a number of planning issues associated with them. Focuses on multiplex cinemas, leisure complexes and hyperpubs.

Purpose built multi leisure complexes have become an increasingly common feature in the urban landscape in many parts of the UK. This paper describes the principal characteristics of these complexes and provides an outline of their rather catholic pattern of locational development in and out of town and on both greenfield and brownfield sites. The paper then goes on to explore a number of the planning issues – trade impact, accessibility and transport considerations, environmental concerns and urban regeneration – raised by proposals for the development of multi leisure complexes.

It is not uncommon for the USA to be the origin of innovative retail formats. In recent years in the UK, the most recent retail out‐of‐town developments have their roots in the USA, most notably warehouse clubs and factory outlet centres. Charts the growth of one of these formats, factory outlet centres, in the UK and discusses the prospects for development potential in other European markets. Semi‐structured interviews were carried out with major developers and development consultancies to ascertain the type of strategies pursued, the locational criteria for site selection, the role of tenants in this process and the degree of customization or standardization of the format in market entry strategies. Although the UK appeared to offer US developers the best opportunity for market penetration, planning policy has progressively worked against the development of this retail format. It is unlikely that any more than seven to eight US‐style factory outlet centres will be built out of a total of 26 developments by 2001. There has been a considerable downsizing of initial proposals, with the creation of smaller, more downmarket centres than in the USA. US developers have been forced to seek sites in the rest of Europe much earlier than originally intended. Their strategies have differed from the standardized, upmarket brand character of one operator compared with a more customized approach adopted by the market leader.

The context for this paper is the growth of the out‐of‐town superstore and the subsequent decline of the town centre. It examines the development of a town centre loyalty card programme in the town of Leominster and reports on both quantitative and qualitative research carried out to assess the results of this initiative and its prospects for the future. The paper comments on the criteria that other town centre loyalty cards must consider and discusses the options available for enhancement of loyalty cards in the light of technological developments and in the context of the role that they can play in the revitalisation of the town centre.