NOTE
Numerous images have been removed from the
electronic version of this thesis for copyright reasons.
From Booth to Shop to Shopping Mall:
Continuities in Consumer Spaces from 1650 to 2000
By Barbara Henderson-Smith
[image removed]
A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy, Griffith University, 2002
Approved by __________________________________________________
Chairperson of Supervisory Committee
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ii
Abstract
This thesis sets out to evaluate the role of consumer spaces in twentieth-century daily
life. It is not concerned with the act of consumption but rather with the ways in
which the social, cultural and educative role of the retail spaces is used as a marketing
tool. The links that have been established between civic and commercial space over
the last three hundred years are charted in order to locate the reasoning behind the
growing tendency to design shopping malls as social and cultural spaces in the
twentieth century. Three principal benefits to developers of the retails spaces from
the promotion of consumer spaces as public spaces are identified in the thesis. First,
links between the public and commercial developed to encourage potential
customers into a particular retail space as opposed to its competition. Second,
consumer spaces are developed as social and leisure spaces to encourage consumer
loyalty. That is, they are developed as a means of encouraging repeat visits. Third,
they are developed as a tactic to keep potential shoppers in the retail space for a
longer duration. The logic behind this strategy being the more time spent in a
consumer space the more goods purchased.
The origins of this merchandising practice are traced back to the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries well before the advent of the department store form. The thesis
located a number of strategies developed in the seventeenth century by tradesmen
and merchants to sell their wares. At this time, it is evident that the consumer space
was opened up to the public who were encouraged to enter without the obligation to
purchase. Further, it is evident that, by the eighteenth century, shopkeepers and
manufacturers’ workshops included showrooms where potential customers could sit
and take tea. Public spaces were also designed within the retail space so that potential
customers could see and be seen. British shopkeepers often linked the retail space
with the social practice of promenading by strategically situating their premises in an
already established thoroughfare or site used for promenading. By the late eighteenth
century, consumer spaces housed entertainment facilities such as art galleries,
exhibitions and lounging rooms.
After tracing the development of this merchandising strategy to the eighteenth and
nineteenth centuries, the links that can be made between twentieth-century consumer
iii
spaces is examined. In addition, the early developments of shopping centres in the
1940s and 1950s are surveyed and their developmental logic and merchandising
strategies are compared with more recent forms of shopping malls developed from
the 1970s and 1980s.
Keywords: consumer spaces, consumption, shopping, spectacle, shopping malls,
department stores, urban planning, consumer education.
iv
Contents
Abstract .............................................................................................................................. iii
Table of Contents .............................................................................................................. v
Table of Illustrations ...................................................................................................... viii
Acknowledgments ............................................................................................................. x
Statement of Originality................................................................................................... xi
Glossary............................................................................................................................. xii
INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................ 3
CHAPTER I: THE CONCEPT OF ‘POTENTIAL MARKETS’ AND THE
OPENING-UP OF THE RETAIL SPACE .................................................... 15
Introduction...................................................................................................................... 15
Trade, Commerce and the Development of the ‘Modern’ Retail Space: An
Overview of Current Literature..................................................................................... 15
Trade, Commerce and Consumption in Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century
England ............................................................................................................................. 20
Trade, Home Production and the Concept of Potential Markets ............................ 21
Social Emulation and the Development of the Domestic Market........................... 29
New Patterns of Consumption...................................................................................... 33
New Methods of Distribution and Advertising .......................................................... 33
The Stimulation of the New and the Creation of Potential Markets ....................... 34
Conclusion ........................................................................................................................ 35
CHAPTER II: THE DEVELOPMENT OF RETAIL SPACES IN
EIGHTEENTH AND NINETEENTH-CENTURY BRITAIN, FRANCE
AND AMERICA .............................................................................................. 40
Introduction...................................................................................................................... 40
The Development of the Eighteenth-Century British Retail Space......................... 42
Methods of Store Display in Eighteenth-Century Britain ......................................... 43
Goods on Display............................................................................................................ 47
Methods of Advertising .................................................................................................. 47
Strategies of Enticement: The Introduction of Leisure Facilities and Entertainment
Within the British Retail Space ...................................................................................... 50
Nineteenth-Century Changes in the French Consumer Space that led to the
Development to the Department Store ....................................................................... 55
The Factors that led to the Dominance of the Department Store as a Retail Space
in the Nineteenth Century.............................................................................................. 59
v
CHAPTER III: THE SELLING MACHINES: FROM DEPARTMENT
STORE TO DEPARTMENT STORE MALL, 1900 – 1980............................ 76
Introduction...................................................................................................................... 76
1900 to 1940: Strategies of Enticement and the Dominance of the Department
Store................................................................................................................................... 77
Shopping Towns USA, 1908 – 1950: The Strategic Linking of Civic and Consumer
Spaces ................................................................................................................................ 79
Market Research, Merchandising and Streamlining Shopping Centres
To Maximise Profit.......................................................................................................... 88
The Birth of the Introvert Centres and the Return to the Architectural Principles
of the Arcade Form......................................................................................................... 93
CHAPTER IV: THE DEPARTMENT STORE MALL AND THE RETURN
OF THE ATRIUM SPACE ............................................................................ 101
Introduction.................................................................................................................... 101
The Birth of the Department Store Mall ................................................................... 103
Merchandising The Department Store Mall:
Developer ‘Speak’ And The Retail Drama …………………………………...110
The Re-Introduction of the Atrium Space …………………………………...113
CHAPTER V: THE BIRTH OF THE MEGA-MALLS, THE TOURIST,
THE CONSUMER, HYPER-REALITY AND THE FUNCTION OF
THEME PARKS AND AMUSEMENT GROUNDS WITHIN THE RETAIL
SPACE ............................................................................................................. 118
Introduction.................................................................................................................... 118
A Brief Background to the Mega-Mall ....................................................................... 119
Mega-Malls as Tourist Sites: The Strategic Linking of the Successful Elements
of Theme Parks And Amusement Grounds with the Successful Elements of the
Department Store Mall.....................................................................................................................122
Developer Speak and the Mall as Public Service Institution
130
CHAPTER VI: SHOPPING TO A THEME: MARKETING AND
MERCHANDISING FOR THE TOURIST DOLLAR ................................135
Introduction.................................................................................................................... 135
Retailing in Resort Communities: The Case of Sanctuary Cove............................. 137
Event Tourism ............................................................................................................... 143
Themed Streets and Heritage Listed Buildings: The Case of The Rocks, Sydney,
Australia .......................................................................................................................... 146
Blending, Speciality Retail, Heritage and Cultural Sites and Special Events for the
Tourist Dollar................................................................................................................. 153
Festive Marketplaces: The Case of Faneuil Hall, Boston, Massachusetts, United
States of America........................................................................................................... 156
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CHAPTER VII: A TALE OF THREE CITIES: CULTURE,
CONSUMPTION AND INNER CITY REVITALISATION ......................165
Introduction.................................................................................................................... 165
A Tale of Three Cities................................................................................................... 166
Targeting the Tourist Dollar ........................................................................................ 173
Economic Viability and Inner City Revitalisation Projects ..................................... 190
CHAPTER VIII: THE PRIVATE OWNERSHIP OF
COMMERCIAL/PUBLIC SPACE: THE REGIONAL SHOPPING MALL
AS TOWN/COMMUNITY CENTRE ..........................................................193
Introduction.................................................................................................................... 193
Two Approaches to Mall Development..................................................................... 195
Logan Hyperdome: Single-Function Ghetto, Pseudo Town Centre or UnderUtilised Public Space? ................................................................................................... 200
A Potted History of Logan’s Hyperdome.................................................................. 201
Robina Town Centre: The Civic, Cultural and Social Centre of the Gold Coast or
‘Just Another Shopping Centre’?................................................................................. 207
Conclusions .................................................................................................................... 213
CHAPTER IX: MERCHANDISING PRIVATE SPACE AS PUBLIC
AMENITIES: ISSUES OF THE PRIVATE OWNERSHIP OF PUBLIC
SPACE ............................................................................................................217
Introduction.................................................................................................................... 217
The Private Ownership of Public Space: The Implications for Law Enforcement
and Issues of Human Rights ........................................................................................ 219
Merchandising Private Space as Public Amenities: The Private Ownership of
Public Space and the Implications this Holds for Developers and Urban and
Cultural Planners............................................................................................................ 223
CONCLUSIONS............................................................................................ 230
BIBLIOGRAPHY .......................................................................................... 235
vii
Illustrations
Front Cover The Strand Arcade, Sydney (Peter Roberts, 2002) . .................................
Figure 2-1 Promotional illustration for Harding, Howell and Company of 1809.. 44
Figure 2-2 The Silk and Robe Department, Harrods 1909. ...................................... 44
Figure 4-1 The Canberra Centre, Australian Capital Territory. .............................. 101
Figure 4-2 Skylit Mall of Metro Centre....................................................................... 104
Figure 4-3 Linear Atrium, Eaton Centre Toronto.................................................... 112
Figure 5-1 Large Atrium Space and Water Park, West Edmonton Mall. .............. 118
Figure 5-2 Rock Climb, Camp Snoopy, Mall of America........................................ 123
Figure 5-3 Ferris Wheel, Mall of America.................................................................. 123
Figure 5-4Bourbon Street, West Edmonton Mall, Edmonton Canada................. 125
Figure 5-5 Waterpark and Wavepool, West Edmonton Mall. ................................ 129
Figure 6-1Costumed Freedom Trail Player, Faneuil Hall........................................ 135
Figure 6-2 Pacific Fair, Gold Coast, Queensland: A Regional Centre Trying to
Capture the Tourist Dollar........................................................................................... 136
Figure 6-3 Marine Village Sanctuary Cove................................................................. 138
Figure 6-4 Aerial View of Marina, Sanctuary Cove Queensland. ........................... 140
Figure 6-5 Road Access to Sanctuary Cove Marine Village. ................................... 141
Figure 6-6 Streets at Sanctuary Cove Designed for Promenading and People
Watching. ........................................................................................................................ 142
Figure 6-7 Fireworks at the ‘Ultimate’ Opening Event, Sanctuary Cove, February
1988.................................................................................................................................. 144
Figure 6-8 Athletes Gathering at the Promenade, Sanctuary Cove for Special
Event, July, 1988............................................................................................................ 145
Figure 6-9 Susannah Place, The Rocks, Sydney. ....................................................... 151
Figure 6-10 Interior of Restored Shop, Susannah Place, The Rocks, Sydney. ..... 152
Figure 6-11Outdoor Cafes in Restored Heritage Listed Buildings, The Rocks,
Sydney.............................................................................................................................. 153
Figure 6-12 The Canopy-like Sails, The Rocks Market, April, 2002. ..................... 154
Figure 6-13 Freedom Trail Players, Faneuil Hall ...................................................... 156
Figure 6-14 Marching Down the Red Brick Line, Faneuil Hall.............................. 159
Figure 6-15 Freedom Trail and Map of Boston........................................................ 160
Figure 6-16 Costumed Freedom Trail Player, Faneuil Hall..................................... 161
viii
Figure 6-17 Costumed Freedom Volunteer Tour guides, Faneuil Hall................. 162
PRINCESS SQUARE GLASGOW ...................................................................................... 165
Figure 7-1 Advertisement for Lewis’s Department Store........................................ 171
Figure 7-2 Aerial view of St Enoch Centre, Glasgow .............................................. 173
Figure 7-3 Artist’s Representation of Melbourne Central. ...................................... 175
Figure 7-4 Atrium and Escalators at Princess Square, Glasgow............................. 177
Figure 7-5 Art Deco Staircase, Princess Square, Glasgow....................................... 178
Figure 7-6 Central Dome, Queen Victoria Building, Sydney. ................................. 181
Figure 7-7 Restored Tile Work, Queen Victoria Building, Sydney. ....................... 182
Figure 7-8 Lalique/Chistophe Exhibition, Myer Centre, Brisbane, 1996. ............ 186
Figure 7-9 Artist’s Representation of the Central Atrium, Myer Centre. .............. 188
Figure 8-1 Canberra Centre, Australian Capital Territory. ...................................... 193
Figure 8-2 AMP ShopMobility Program, Garden City, Queensland. .................... 198
Figure 8-3 Logan Hyperdome: Entrance to Food Court and Cinema Complex. 201
Figure 8-4 Fashion Boulevard, Logan Hyperdome. ................................................. 205
Figure 8-5 Youth Space at Logan Hyperdome Library............................................ 206
Figure 8-6 Robina Town Centre and Lake Entrance. .............................................. 209
Figure 8-7 Robina: Paved Central Courtyard. ........................................................... 210
ix
Acknowledgments
Numerous people have contributed to this thesis in various ways. First, I would like
to thank the many retail managers, architects, developers and publicity officers linked
to the various shopping centre developments included in my case studies for their
most valuable comments on my research and for their willingness to provide primary
sources and photographs. Second, I would like to thank the various people who have
made comments on my research, including my original supervisors, Professors Tony
Bennett and Colin Mercer, and my current supervisors, Professor David Saunders
and Associate Professor Jennifer. I would also like to thank Sue Jarvis for her
editorial comments, Dr Jerry Ratcliffe for his encouragement and for the help he
gave me in formatting this thesis and Katy Roberts for her comments on the final
draft. I would also like to thank my partner, Peter Roberts, for without his support
this project may never have been completed. Peter also photographed a number of
the arcades, marketplaces and shopping centres illustrated in this thesis.
Finally, I would like to thank my parents Edward and Hilda Henderson Smith and
my three children, Christian, Joel and Victoria Johnstone for their support and
encouragement.
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Statement of Originality
This work is original and has not been submitted previously to a university as a thesis
for a degree or a diploma. To the best of my knowledge and belief, it contains no
material previously published or written by another person except where due
reference is made in the text.
xi
Glossary
EIGHTEENTH- AND NINETEENTH-CENTURY DEFINITIONS
Retail Arcade Glass covered, marble-floored passages through entire blocks linking
one street to another, occupied by a number of specialty retailers.
Bazaar Under cover street, or large long room, with a rows of shops on either side.
Unlike the arcade, bazaars did not take pedestrian traffic through an entire building
so as to link one street with another (This definition my own. It is taken from
description of Bazaars outlined by Adburgham, 1964: 18 and other references to the
insides of bazaars made by Frederick Geist (1983) and Mui and Mui (1989).
Department Store The most complex shop type, offering full service throughout a
full range of specialist merchandise and services (Beddington, 1991:xiv).
Emporium Developed from the concept of the large warehouse. They were shops
that housed more than one type of merchandise under one roof and often placed
these in different departments. Emporia operated upon a system based on high
turnover with a low profit margin, free-entry, a money-back guarantee, price ticketing
their wares and encouraged browsing This definition my own. It is taken from
description of Bazaars outlined by Adburgham, 1964: 47-50 and references made by
Frederick Geist (1983) and Mui and Mui (1989).
Market A designated area (usually in a central place within a town or village) where
individuals gathered to buy and sell goods.
Market-stall Tables (often covered by canopies) rented by vendors to display their
goods for sale.
Manufactory A shop where goods were made by hand in workrooms on the
premises (Adburgham, 1964: 14).
Wharehouse (Nineteenth century spelling) Any retail or wholesale establishment
housing wares which were not necessarily made on the premises. The term was
mainly used when the retailer considered the size of his business merited a more
impressive description than that of shop (Adburgham, 1964: 14, 15).
TWENTIETH CENTURY DEFINITIONS
Catchment Area The area expressed in terms of distance related to travel time and
population served by a retail centre (Beddington, 1982:xiii).
Introvert Centre Introvert centres are adaptations of the arcade system where shops
face inwards to an enclosed mall and thereby become much more closely knit, from
an operative point of view, than the open street plan.
Mall or Plaza Traffic free pedestrian precinct serving the retail units, linked to
transport discharge points (Beddington, 1982:xiii).
Mega-Malls Super Regional Centres that include entertainment facilities such as ice
rinks, wave pools, bowling alleys and theme parks. They usually also have themed
xii
streets and often house hotels all under one roof (International Council of Shopping
Centres, 1994: 8-10).
Mixed-Use Properties Often in downtown settings and combine significant retail
and office components in one location. These properties may also include hotel
space in their mix (International Council of Shopping Centres, 1994: 8-10).
New Town Developments Involve the large-scale development of thousands of
acres of land for residential, social and commercial uses.
Regional Retail Centres Suburban shopping centres with fewer than four
department stores (International Council of Shopping Centres, 1994: 8-10).
Shopping Centre Planned shopping complex under one central management,
leasing units to individual retailers, with a degree of control by management who are
responsible for the overall running of the centre (Beddington, 1982:xiV).
Super Regional Retail Centres Large suburban shopping centres with four or more
department stores and a total current size, including the department stores, of
approximately or more than 1,000,000 square feet (International Council of
Shopping Centres, 1994: 8-10).
Specialty and Festive Marketplaces Destinations, typically in an urban setting,
which combine exciting shopping, dining and entertainment activities in a distinctive,
often historical, setting (International Council of Shopping Centres, 1994: 8-10).
Village Retail Centres Found within communities and meet the retail needs of
those living there. They frequently serve as the town square for neighbourhood
activity.
xiii
Introduction
Introduction
Introduction
The shopping mall is so ubiquitous in contemporary life that it is taken for granted.
Yet, this particular form of retail space has had a relatively short history. Fifty years
ago, in the United States alone, shopping malls barely dotted the retail landscape. In
comparison, by 2000, the number of shopping malls in the United States of America
surpasses 40 000 (The International Council of Shopping Centres, 2000).1 Similar
patterns are evident in Canada and Australia. The variety of shopping malls has also
increased rather than decreased. It is now possible to visit mega-malls, leisure-based
regional malls, mixed-use shopping centres, festive retail centres and harbourside
developments instead of simply being able to visit regional and neighbourhood malls.
The importation of mall design and merchandising techniques is also evident in other
forms of space. The recent study by Koolhass (Chung et al, 2001:408-422) has
demonstrated that other types of commercial and civic space such as airports, railway
and bus stations, art galleries and museums are being developed as shopping malls
(Chung et al, 2001:129-155). Further, the shopping mall has gained market
dominance to such an extent that even nations which traditionally supported markets
and small shops rather than huge department stores or shopping centres — such as
China, Korea and Malaysia — are now developing large fully enclosed shopping
malls.
Attendance rates at shopping malls have also increased. Everyday in Australia, two
million people visit a shopping mall. Similar attendance rates can be found in
American and European shopping centres. In a typical month in America, for
example, 199 million adults visit shopping centres. This accounts for 94 percent of
the population over 18 years of age (The International Council of Shopping Centres,
2000).2 In view of these facts, it can be argued that the contemporary shopping mall
is a dominant part of the commercial landscape of the majority of countries in the
world.
The impact of the mall on contemporary society is not limited to its dominance
economically. The presence of the mall has impacted upon other areas of society.
3
Introduction
The mall has become part of contemporary culture. It is represented in movies,
television series, books, video games, songs and advertisements. It is promoted by
city councils as tourist attractions and is utilised by many sections of society as a
social site. In many instances, shopping malls are being developed as de facto town
centres. In the last ten years, many regional centres have been designed as town
centres or urban cores. In response to a perceived need in the suburbs and to
pressures from local councils and market forces, developers are providing facilities
housed in the shopping mall that would, in other times, be provided in governmentowned locations by local councils. As a result amenities such as libraries, community
centres and meeting halls are being housed in shopping malls from a pure marketing
perspective. As a result, the shopping centre has evolved to be a central feature of
urban social life.
The questions surrounding the relationship between the shopping mall and the
social, cultural and leisure aspects of contemporary life form the basis of the
discussion in this thesis. In approaching this subject the thesis asks three questions.
First, of what benefit is it to the retail trade to develop consumer spaces as public
spaces? Second, when did this practice begin? Third, what are the implications of
the continued development of consumer spaces from a developer driven
perspective?
In answer to the first question, the advantages to the developer/retailer are identified
as being associated with the development of an increased customer base, as laying
the foundation for a customer base that makes return visits, and as creating a space
that maximises the duration of the shopping trip in the hope of maximising profits.
In answer to the second question, regarding the beginning of the practise of linking
the consumer space to aspects of social, cultural, educative and leisure spaces, it is
argued that this practise was well established by the eighteenth century. Eighteenthcentury shops and workshops often included showrooms. The retail space also made
use of the social practice of promenading as a merchandising strategy in the
eighteenth century. Rows of shops were strategically situated alongside established
thoroughfares or sites used for promenading. Further, towards the nineteenth
4
Introduction
century, consumer spaces housed entertainment facilities such as art galleries,
exhibitions and lounging rooms. These practices continued within the retail space in
the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and are strongly evidenced in the early
twenty-first century.
In response to the third question, Chapter IX surveys the implications for law
enforcement and issues of human rights, and the issue of access and of durability or
sustainability that continued development of community spaces within the privately
owned consumer space raise. The fact that often the only social, cultural or leisure
resources a community has access to are placed in commercial spaces and are
therefore only accessible at certain hours and to certain groups or individuals is also
an issue discussed.
Methodology
To give some background to this study, the thesis calls upon existing work from
several disciplines including history, sociology, political economy, urban planning,
architectural theory and cultural studies. At this point, it must be stated that the
thesis calls upon secondary sources to a large extent. From this perspective, the thesis
synthesises several pieces of quite diverse and unrelated research from quite disparate
disciplines in order to provide an overview of the development of consumer spaces
and provide some of the answers as to why the commercial space was, and still is,
linked to civic space. The thesis also makes use of existing research to examine
contributing factors to this linkage.
Contacts were also made with several Department Stores, including Bainbridges and
Selfridges in the United Kingdom and Coles Myers in Australia. Access was given to
archival materials. However, in all instances, access was not permitted to the archives
themselves.
Research for section two of the thesis also included an extensive literature search.
This was accompanied by interviews with the developers of Melbourne Central
Melbourne, the Centre Management of Pacific Fair, Sanctuary Cove, Robina and The
Logan Hyperdome in Australia, the management of the MetroCentre in the United
5
Introduction
Kingdom and the West Edmonton Mall in Canada. Site visits were also made to each
of these centres. These site visits took place over a two-week period to allow an
analysis of each mall from the perspective of ‘visitor’.
Content
Various forms of consumer spaces from the late seventeenth century to the present
day are examined in the thesis. The thesis looks at the development of merchandising
techniques, methods of display and the use of various forms of architecture in retail
spaces used as social and cultural sites. Areas of commonality, divergence and change
between the different forms of consumer spaces are examined in all four centuries.
Areas of commonality are located across merchandising mechanisms, architectural
design, display techniques and the promotion of ‘shopping’ as a social experience in
all four centuries. Change, on the other hand, is located in the scale of developments,
levels of investment, building technology and the volume and type of goods on sale.
One of the major aims of this thesis is to evaluate the role of consumer spaces as
community or public spaces in twentieth-century daily life. It is not concerned with
the act of consumption; but rather, with the social, cultural and educative role of
spaces designed to accommodate the sale of goods. Various forms of twentiethcentury consumer spaces — from the suburban shopping malls that have developed
in most countries of the world and the giant mega-malls of Europe and the United
States of America to festive retailing, revitalised arcades and themed streets — are
used as examples that demonstrate the intertwined nature of the civic and the
commercial in the twentieth-century retail space. The role of consumer spaces as
spatial spectacles and tourist sites is surveyed in the thesis.
Structure
To address its research questions, the thesis is divided into nine chapters. The
following describes the content of each.
In order to trace the development of the foundations of a new consumption-oriented
theory based upon a model of emulative consumption, Chapter I examines the work
6
Introduction
of Joyce Appleby, Joan Thirsk, Ian McKendrick and John Brewer. This body of
research points to the fact that between 1500 and 1700, in Britain, the form of
economic reasoning regarding international trade and home consumption (the
balance-of-trade theory) was beginning to be eroded by events within the domestic
market. These events were stimulated by a form of economic logic geared towards
the unlimited potential of home trade. By this logic, consumption was construed as a
positive force that was not only beneficial to national economic growth but was also
beneficial to the growth and development of the individual. Here, consumption was
perceived as a force that could motivate the lazy to work, that could encourage the
slovenly to dress neatly, and the uncouth to become more civilised (Appleby, 1976
and 1993, McKendrick, 1982: 8-12, in McKendrick and Brewer (eds) 1982).
Then, in examining the ways in which the shift in economic reasoning affected the
way in which manufacturing, markets and the commercial or retail space expanded,
the thesis makes use of a considerable body of evidence confirming the fact that in
the hundred and fifty years between 1600 and 1750 international trade in a wealth of
imported goods such as coffee, tea, tobacco, imported cloths and dyes, new foods
(potatoes and tomatoes and exotic fruits) complemented by an increasing ‘home
demand’ for these goods stimulated well developed trading and market systems in
England and in European countries such as Holland, Germany and France.
Having made use of a variety of historical references regarding shifts in economic
theory and shifts in production and manufacturing, Chapter II of the thesis then calls
upon the work of Adburgham (1979), Defoe (1745), Miller (1981), Mayhew, and
Cruikshank (1851), Mui and Mui (1989), Walsh (1993 and 1999) and others, to chart
the ways in which the retail space opened up in response to new markets and new
needs. At this point two arguments are made. The first concerns evidence from trade
cards, shopkeepers’ diaries and newspaper advertisements that demonstrate that the
consumer space exhibited sophisticated spatial, display and marketing techniques well
before the establishment of the department store form in the nineteenth century.
Here the continuities in retailing methods are stressed as opposed to the
'discontinuity' thesis of those who make the French department store the great
historical threshold.
7
Introduction
The second argument drawn out in Chapter II concerns the way in which consumer
spaces took on educative and social roles and incorporated the same architectural
and display techniques as used in civic spaces such as museums, art galleries,
expositions and other public spaces used for promenading. Here, the chapter argues
that, because consumption was no longer perceived as a drain on the nation but was
rather perceived as beneficial, and indeed, as having considerable civilising effects,
shifts occurred in the organisation of commercial space, which linked them, both in
the way they were designed and in their display methods, to civic spaces.
The tensions between the economic and the social, moral and educative role of the
consumer space are further examined in Chapter III. At this point, the thesis charts
the shifts that occurred in the consumer space after 1940. It argues that, due to
changes in patterns of urban development, the department store lost its dominance
as the most popular and most visited consumer space. The thesis examines the
circumstances that led to the development of a new type of consumer space — the
urban shopping centre.
Chapter III calls upon the work of Philp (1866), Baker and Funaro (1950), Gruen
(1973), Griffin (1974), Gillette (1985) and a variety of authorities to chart the
development of two quite distinct approaches to the development of shopping
centres from an urban planning perspective.
Chapter IV examines the ways in which the development of the department store
mall in the 1970s made use of many of the design and merchandising characteristics
of nineteenth-century consumer spaces. In particular, the ways in which developers
of the department store malls re-introduced the themed environment, the use of
skylights and, in later years, the atrium space in the design of department store malls
is surveyed. The fact that developers of the department store mall not only
incorporated the architectural design principles, but also merchandised the malls
according to the same principles as their counterparts, the department stores is also
discussed in Chapter IV.
8
Introduction
The reasoning behind the inclusion of earlier retailing methods into the design of
department store malls of the 1970s is explored to highlight that the inclusion of the
architectural features of nineteenth-century consumer spaces came about in an
attempt to overcome many of the merchandising problems encountered by previous
models of the shopping centre form (Maitland, 1988). It is argued that continuity
within retailing practices is often linked to an ongoing process of retail development
where successful elements of previous forms are often adopted to make the best of,
or improve upon a new model.
During the discussion of the development of the department store mall, the chapter
introduces Maitland’s (1988) and Kowinski’s (1985) analysis of the 1970s mall. This
analysis is undertaken in order to compare the reasoning of two quite different
schools of thought ⎯ the former, architectural, the latter, cultural theory ⎯
pertaining to the changes happening within the consumer space between 1970 and
1980. Here, the chapter looks at the common argument regarding the introduction
of theatrical techniques into mall architecture and interior design. At this point,
comparisons are also made with Fredrick Geist’s (1983) seminal work on nineteenth
century arcades and Michael Miller’s (1981) analysis of the department store.
Chapter V pays particular attention to the mega-mall, arguing that it was not until the
early 1980s, with the birth of the mega-malls, that leisure was once again linked to
retail in a deliberate attempt to attract the tourist dollar to the shopping mall. The
chapter examines mega-malls as hybrid forms of the department store mall. It pays
particular attention to the ways in which mega-malls link all the successful features of
the department store mall type with those of the theme park and amusement ground.
The ‘mega-mall of mega-malls’ ⎯ West Edmonton Mall (WEM) ⎯ is taken as a
case study to demonstrate the ways in which mega-malls employ nineteenth-century
architectural principles and merchandising techniques to attract and maintain custom.
Particular attention is given throughout the chapter to the ways in which WEM has
been affected by what many urban geographers refer to as ‘Disneyfication’ or
‘Disneylandisation’. These terms are used to describe the expansion and the
application of the hyper-reality principle beyond the boundaries of theme parks. It
9
Introduction
also marks the emblematic use of various ‘architectural styles’ that have been
displaced from their original historical context and the spatial and visual ordering
systems that generated them (Soja, 1992; Mitrasinovic 1995). Further, special
emphasis is placed on the application of the theme park model. The theme park
model is apparent in the themed streets of many revitalized inner-city centres
shopping malls and tourist resorts. It is particularly apparent in the mega-mall type.
Chapter VI comprises of a discussion of several examples of different types of
shopping malls internationally as a means of demonstrating the ways in which three
quite distinct types of consumer space have been developed and marketed as tourist
attractions. The chapter pays attention to the ways in which all three forms of
consumer space utilise similar merchandising techniques to attract the tourist dollar.
In particular, the chapter points to the ways in which they all have keyed into the
‘tourist gaze’ in one form or another (Urry, 1990:11). The chapter surveys the ways in
which diverse forms of consumer spaces have been utilised by developers to attract
the tourist dollar by creating a division between the ordinary/everyday and the
extraordinary (Urry, 1990: 8- 20).
Chapter VII outlines the conditions that led to the development of the department
store mall type into the cityscape. The chapter then turns its attention to examples of
the ‘malling’ of three cities ⎯ Brisbane, Glasgow and Melbourne in the late 1980s
and early 1990s. The cities of Brisbane and Glasgow are of particular interest in the
period as both were preparing for major cultural events and were hoping to attract
the tourist dollar. Brisbane hosted World Expo in 1988 and Glasgow was nominated
as the European City of Culture in 1990. Melbourne is addressed in the chapter
because of the city council’s concern with a declining city centre due to transference
of the developer dollar and potential trade to the more popular regional and
suburban centres.
The chapter pays particular attention to the developmental rhetoric of city councils,
planners and developers in the revitalisation process, arguing that the redevelopment
of consumer spaces was just as, if not more important an agenda than, the
redevelopment of other cultural facilities within their city centres. The chapter also
10
Introduction
examines the ways in which consumer spaces were designed, developed and, in the
case of existing consumer spaces such as arcades or nineteenth-century department
stores, restored as spatial spectacles to attract the tourist dollar and to bring ‘the
people’ back into the city centre.
The chapter examines the successes and failures of this form of redevelopment. It
surveys the problems associated with the issue of economic viability arguing that it is
naive to rely upon the introduction of an inner-city leisure based mall, or a festive
marketplace as the panacea to inner-city decay. It underlines the need for local and
state governments to look at ways of developing an integrated policy for inner city
redevelopment that acknowledges the role of consumer spaces as cultural resources.
Chapter VIII is concerned with the growing tendency for suburban shopping malls
to be designed as social centres. It surveys the ways in which suburban shopping
malls are increasingly being used as social spaces, and, as such, are replacing the town
square or village green as sites of congregation. The chapter questions the reasoning
behind the design of leisure-based regional malls to include amenities and services
previously unavailable in the suburbs ⎯ especially in the outer suburbs (Duffy,
1994:33). It is particularly concerned with the fact that while suburban malls are
often designed as ‘public spaces’ and, in many cases, are functioning as defacto town
centers, they are privately owned, financed and managed retail spaces; and, as such,
will only exist and be available for public use as long as it is profitable to their
owners. In cases when centres are not profitable ⎯ or begin to lose money ⎯ they
may be closed and ‘the public’ will be left without facilities they had come to think of
as ‘public amenities’. Similar problems exist in the promotion of consumer spaces as
cultural amenities and as tourist attractions by city councils in attempts to revitalise
city centres discussed in Chapter 7. In the light of these issues, it is argued that as
long as consumer spaces are managed and run privately on a purely ‘for profit’ basis,
then, their role as public spaces and as cultural amenities is questionable.
In conclusion, Chapter VIII examines the design and function of suburban shopping
malls as public spaces. It consists of two examples of the leisure-based regional
shopping centre in Australia as well as some examples of neighbourhood centres that
11
Introduction
are providing leisure amenities to the suburbs. It examines the differences in their
developmental logic, the different types of facilities they offer to consumers and the
various ways in which consumers themselves make use of each type of consumer
space. This comparative analysis is undertaken as a means of introducing problems
associated with the current developer-driven model.
Chapter IX looks at some of the implications for urban and cultural planners
associated with the development of the shopping mall as a public space. The
conclusion then suggests areas for future research and policy development that could
be undertaken.
12
Introduction
1
Hhttp://www.icsc.org/srch/rsrch/scope/current/index.htmlH accessed 2
December, 2002
2
Hhttp://www.icsc.org/srch/rsrch/scope/current/index.htmlH accessed 2
December, 2002
13
Chapter I: The Concept of ‘Potential Markets’ and the
Opening-up of the Retail Space
Chapter I: The Concept of ‘Potential Markets’ and the Opening-up of the Retail Space
Introduction
This chapter is interested in the ways in which the themes of commerce and trade
impacted upon, and moved towards changing modes of production, distribution and
retailing in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century England. It asks the following
question: ‘If (as has recently been argued by Walsh (1999) and as will be discussed in
Chapter 2) it is possible to locate evidence that points to a well-established retailing
system in England during the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, then what
circumstances led to its development?’
In answer to this question, the chapter makes use of the research of a group of
scholars who have examined the political, economic and sociological debates
surrounding the development of free trade and the introduction of secondary
industries in Britain between the late sixteenth and the early nineteenth centuries.
The chapter does this in order to outline the ways in which the organization of the
retail space shifted from one that was closed and concessionary to one that was open
and welcoming and able to cater to the trading potential of the home market. In
response to a form of economic logic geared to the unlimited potential of home
trade, the seventeenth and eighteenth-century consumer space opened up and
become more accessible to browsing, window-shopping and potential custom.
Before turning its attention to this body of research, however, the next section of
this chapter provides a brief overview of the current debates surrounding the ‘birth’
of consumer culture and of consumer spaces. These debates form the basis of the
arguments of Chapters I and II.
Trade, Commerce and the Development of the ‘Modern’ Retail
Space: An Overview of Current Literature
Since Jefferys penned The History of Retailing in the 1950s, the growth and
development of the nineteenth-century French department store has been regarded
as instrumental in changing consumer habits and trends. Perrot, for example, argues
that the grand magasin or department store ‘brought about the psychological “takeoff” of the desire for consumption in the modern sense’ (Perrot, 1984:111). Rosalind
Williams agrees. She argues the origins of the consumer revolution are located in late
nineteenth-century French department store where pioneering efforts in retailing and
15
Chapter I: The Concept of ‘Potential Markets’ and the Opening-up of the Retail Space
advertising turned France into a kind of ‘pilot plant of mass consumption’ (Williams,
1982:11). In a similar vein, Porter Benson states that the coming of the department
store symbolises ‘one of the most profound changes in recent history: the shift from
a production orientated society to one centred on consumption’ (Porter Benson,
1986:75).
Implicit within this tradition is the argument that the emergence of the department
store is ‘analogous to the industrial revolution, Marxist alienation and the beginnings
of mass consumption’ (Walsh, 1999:47). Pasdermadjian in The Department Store: Its
Origins, Evolution and Economics (1954:8-10) posited this form of argument as early as
1954. Michael Miller’s The Bon Marché (1981) is a more recent example. Here, the
operations of the French department store are perceived as complementing the
machinery of mass production because such stores not only distributed the goods
produced in factories but also exploited both staff and customers through their
efforts to sell such goods.
Concentration on the French model prevents this body of work from gaining a
comparative edge because it neglects to acknowledge the fact that the American and
English models had as much impact upon the development of urban retailing as did
the French model. It has also resulted in a tendency to concentrate on the similarities
in development worldwide and hence to ignore the variations between the
developments of the same forms in different countries. For example, this body of
work fails to recognise that one of the reasons why department stores did not
develop to the same degree in England as they did in America and France relates to
the popularity of co-operative stores in the United Kingdom rather than the
principles of free entry, fixed prices or departmentalisation were not in practice in
England in the early eighteenth century. In fact, as discussed later in this chapter and
in Chapter 2, these principles were in use in England well before their advent in
France.
The English examples of retailing entrepreneurship bring into question the
‘commonly accepted myth [that] the French commercant Aristotle Boucicaut was the
founder of the first modern department store’ (Laermans, 1993:82). Rudi Laermans
16
Chapter I: The Concept of ‘Potential Markets’ and the Opening-up of the Retail Space
argues that the Boucicaut myth ‘is reported as fact by, among others, Pasdermadjian,
1954; Ferry, 1960; and the influential book by Sennett, 1976’ (Laermans, 1993:82).
The belief that the French commercant Aristotle Boucicaut was the founder of the
first modern department store is not restricted to this small group of researchers. It
has also influenced the work of Rosalind Williams, Michael Miller, Rachel Bowlby
and others to the extent that the majority of work dealing with the cultural history of
urban retailing has a tendency to concentrate on the development of the French
department store and, in particular, on an analysis of the Bon Marché as an indicator
of the development of retail space worldwide.
In subscribing to the myth that Boucicaut’s establishment of the Bon Marché
revolutionised the consumer space and consumer practices, this body of work tends
to consider the early French department stores as important pioneers in the field of
retailing goods. They depict them as led by revolutionary businessmen who had the
audacity to abolish with one stroke traditional retailing methods (Laermans, 1993: 85)
when the process was, in fact, much more gradual. The well-known work of Bucklin
(1972) and Hollander (1960) dealing with the growth and development of distributive
systems suggests a richer and longer gestation period for American retailing systems
(Fullerton, 1988:109; Dixon, 1981; Jones & Moneison, 1990). The same can be said
of the development of retailing in England. Mui and Mui’s (1989) study, Shops and
Shopkeeping in Eighteenth-Century England, traces the gradual development of a complex
network of retailing systems that expanded in response to changes within the
transportation system, in population and housing trends, to changes within the
marketing and advertising practices of manufacturers, and also to the growing
demand for consumer goods.
Evidence from trade inventories, trade cards and shopkeepers’ diaries of the period
between 1695 and 1790 further confirms the fact that elements of the department
store (including architectural design, methods of display, shop fittings and innovative
sales methods) existed prior to ‘birth’ of the French department store in the midnineteenth century. In particular, this block of evidence points to the fact that the
‘revolutionary’ practices accredited to the department store, such as free entry, fixed
and marked prices, browsing, window-shopping and the encouragement of shopping
17
Chapter I: The Concept of ‘Potential Markets’ and the Opening-up of the Retail Space
as a ‘social practice’, were well established at the beginning of the eighteenth century
(Walsh, 1993, 1999; Mui & Mui, 1989; Adburgham, 1967).
Two contributory factors led to the argument that the advent of the nineteenthcentury department store brought about a retail revolution. The first (that is taken up
in Chapter 2) is the fact that, as Claire Walsh has recently argued, most histories of
the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century retail space have painted retailing practices
as primitive (Walsh, 1999:47). Dorothy Davis’s A History of Shopping, for example,
argues that little effort was spent on ‘fitting up shop-furniture to house the display of
goods’ (Davis, 1966:193; Walsh, 1999:47). Similarly, Michael Winstanley (1993:58),
The Shopkeeper’s World: 1830-1914 states that ‘not much effort to attract customers’
was spent from shopkeepers and that ‘goods were left to sell themselves’.
Further, within these histories of retailing, shops are painted as small, dark, dank
spaces where it is only the fact that supplies are unable to be obtained by other
means that forces a transaction between retailer and customer (Walsh, 1999:47). An
example of this form of argument is located in David Chaney’s, The Department Store
as a Cultural Form. Here, Chaney states that ‘retail shops until the last quarter of the
nineteenth century were so small and the production of goods such a personal
business that the extended process of negotiating a transaction was only embarked
upon if both sides felt reasonably confident that a successful outcome could be
achieved’ (Chaney, 1983: 22).
The second contributory factor leading to the conclusion that the advent of the
nineteenth-century department store brought about a retail revolution is the
argument that until the dawn of the Industrial Revolution there was little need for a
distribution and retailing system to market goods on a mass scale. In discussing this
histiographical tradition, Don Slater argues that ‘there has been a considerable
histiographical barrier to investigating this connection, a preoccupation, often
dubbed as a “productivist bias”, with seeing the relation between modernity and
capitalism as an Industrial Revolution, with production as the engine and essence of
modernization’ (Slater, 1999:16).
18
Chapter I: The Concept of ‘Potential Markets’ and the Opening-up of the Retail Space
Implicit within this argument is a low emphasis placed on the importance of the
development of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century systems of production,
distribution and retailing that not only catered to the needs of existing markets but
also actively created new markets. By placing such a low emphasis upon the
developments within the pre-industrial spaces of production, distribution and
retailing, the ways in which the architectural design, the display techniques and the
marketing methods of the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century retail spaces fed into
the development of the nineteenth-century department store have been neglected
This ‘productivist bias’ has been contested in recent years by revisionism from within
the fields of political economy, history and sociology. Slater argues that this
revisionism:
started by addressing a contemporary Keynesian question to the eighteenth
century. How can industrialization have proceeded on a capitalist basis without
the prior existence of adequate effective demand for its produce? To whom could
these industries sell? Why did they not simply go bankrupt, leaving to the
liquidators a pile of rationally organized but silent factories? (Slater,
1999:17)
Two main schools of thought — the world system advocates and the home demand
advocates — set out to address these questions.1 There is debate within the two
traditions with regard to the exact period to which the development of consumer
culture should be backdated. However, both schools of thought agree that there is a
need to backdate beyond the nineteenth century. Further, revisionism within both
schools has shifted the focus away from the argument that industrialisation was an
agent of change and development in the contemporary West to an interest in the
ways in which the origins and development of changes within consumption patterns
themselves, and the demand for new consumer goods from international markets,
were instruments of both transformation and growth in contemporary culture.
However, whereas the world system advocates (as their name suggests) are globalists
and look to ‘international wheels of commerce as the prime motor of development’,
the home demand advocates are nationalists, and therefore look to ‘indigenous’
demand as the driving force (Agnew, 1993:23). However, both the world system
advocates and the home demand advocates point to a considerable body of evidence
19
Chapter I: The Concept of ‘Potential Markets’ and the Opening-up of the Retail Space
confirming the fact that, in the 150 years between 1600 and 1750, a wealth of
imported goods such as coffee, tea, tobacco, imported cloths and dyes, and new
foods (potatoes, tomatoes and exotic fruits), complemented by an increasing ‘home
demand’ for these goods, stimulated well-developed distribution and retailing
systems in England and in European countries such as Holland, Germany and
France2 (Mukerji, 1983; Mintz, 1985).
The major findings of the world system advocates and the home demand advocates
are utilised in the following sections of this chapter to demonstrate the ways in which
the themes of commerce and trade impacted upon, and moved towards changing,
modes of production, distribution and retailing in seventeenth- and eighteenthcentury England.
Trade, Commerce and Consumption
Eighteenth-Century England
in
Seventeenth-
and
Recent revisionist trends within the history of consumption have meant that
numerous researchers have uncovered a rich history charting the ways in which
commerce and trade impacted upon, and moved towards changing, modes of
production, distribution, retailing and consumption in seventeenth- and eighteenthcentury England. Four of the major revisionist arguments are utilised in this chapter.
The first concerns the argument that between 1600 and 1750 in Britain, the form of
economic reasoning regarding international trade and home consumption (the
balance-of-trade theory) was beginning to be eroded by events within the domestic
market. These events were stimulated by a form of economic logic geared towards
the unlimited potential of home trade. By this logic, consumption was construed as a
positive force that was not only beneficial to national economic growth, but also
beneficial to the growth and development of the individual (Appleby, 1976 & 1993;
McKendrick et al, 1982; Brewer & Porter, 1993). The second revisionist argument
concerns the point in favour of the production and marketing of secondary products
(such as stockings, wool clothing, beer and laager1) for ‘home trade’ as opposed to
1
This word is spelt here as it was in its historical context.
20
Chapter I: The Concept of ‘Potential Markets’ and the Opening-up of the Retail Space
the sole production of primary products for trade abroad (Smith, 1949; Thirsk,
1978). The third concerns the argument that the introduction of labour-intensive
industries heralded changes in the consumption patterns of peasants, labourers and
servants whose purchasing power had been enhanced because they now produced
secondary goods for market rather than simply producing enough goods for their
own subsistence (Thirsk, 1978; Mingay, 1994; McKendrick et al, 1982). The fourth
revisionist argument utilised in this chapter concerns the fact that changes within the
modes of manufacturing, distribution and consumption during the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries were accompanied by changes within the English retailing
system (McKendrick et al, 1982; Brewer, 1982; Walsh, 1999; Mui & Mui, 1989).
Incorporating the arguments and findings of the revisionists, the next section of this
chapter outlines the ways in which the themes of free trade and commerce facilitated
the beginnings of a highly sophisticated retailing system in eighteenth-century
England.
The chapter calls upon this research to first outline a brief pre-history of the
department store. It examines the factors that led to the development of a wellestablished retailing system prior to the nineteenth-century emergence of the
sophisticated merchandising and display techniques that have been accredited solely
to the department store form by many cultural theorists. The second aim of the
chapter is to outline the circumstances that led to continuities in retailing methods;
this is opposed to the ‘discontinuity’ thesis of those who characterise the
development of the French department store as the great historical threshold for the
development of consumption. The arguments of recent revisionists are summarised
below to provide a backdrop to the development of the retailing practices that predate the nineteenth-century department store.
Trade, Home Production and the Concept of Potential Markets
The concepts of potential markets and expandable spending first appeared in the
writings of English economic pamphleteers in the late seventeenth century, with the
recognition of the elastic nature of domestic consumption and its benefits to the
nation. During this period, consumption lost its pejorative meaning.3 The meaning of
the word ‘markets’ also subtly changed from a reference to the form of consumer
21
Chapter I: The Concept of ‘Potential Markets’ and the Opening-up of the Retail Space
space where merchants gathered to sell their goods — commonly known as markets
— to the more elusive concept of expandable spending (Appleby, 1976:532). The
most influential force leading to the recognition of the concept of expandable
spending was, in fact, a craze for printed calico and other cheap, colourful fabrics
imported into England by the East India Trading Company. During this period,
domestic spending accelerated and the potential market power of previously
untapped wants was revealed (Appleby, 1976:508-510). It was against this backdrop
of increased spending that the concepts of the elasticity of the home market and the
economic benefits of domestic spending found their theoretical beginnings.4 Here,
the economic advantages to the nation of envy, emulation, love of luxury, vanity and
vaulting ambition were put forward in defence of the new economic theories
(Appleby, 1976:505). For example, Sir Dudley North wrote in 1691:
the main spur to Trade, or rather to Industry and Ingenuity, is the exorbitant
Appetites of Men, which they will take pains to gratify, and so be disposed to
work, when nothing else will incline them to it, for did Men content themselves
with bare Necessaries, we should have a poor World. (Sir Dudley North,
1691:14)
Barbon was even more explicit, arguing that ‘it is not Necessity which causeth
Consumption. Nature may be Satisfied with little; but it is the wants of the Mind,
Fashion and the desire of Novelties and Things Scarce which causeth Trade.’
(Barbon, 1690 cited in McKendrick et al, 1982:7) Here, the idea that the individual
had an unlimited propensity to consume, and, correspondingly, to drive the economy
to new levels of prosperity, had certainly arrived in the economic literature of the
1690s.5 Within this recognition of the individual’s unlimited propensity to consume
there is an acknowledgment of the elusive concept of expandable spending, and with
it, a recognition of the unlimited potential of the market.
However, this did not mean ‘the market’ as it was commonly referred to by
seventeenth-century political economists. This new recognition of the elasticity of
the market referred to national rather than international trade. As such, it represented
a significant shift in ways of thinking about trade and patterns of domestic
consumption within England. Before this period, economic idioms were trapped in
the mercantilist balance-of-trade theory. The balance-of-trade theory concentrated
22
Chapter I: The Concept of ‘Potential Markets’ and the Opening-up of the Retail Space
on production of goods for overseas trade to such an extent that it obscured the
dynamics of home consumption. The logic behind the argument that markets for
English goods should be sought outside the country stemmed from a belief that
home consumption drained the nation’s wealth.
In England, the most noticeable consumers were the very rich and the very poor and
their patterns of spending did little to encourage a re-evaluation of consumption. As
landowners, the rich could tap agricultural revenues. Their rent rolls were the
principal source of capital. However, they spent their profits on foreign goods rather
than investing their income. On the other hand, the very poor were a conspicuous
drain on the economy because there were so many of them and their subsistence
needs were paid for through taxes.6 These factors gave weight to the argument that
since domestic consumption took from the store of English capital, through luxury
buying and the maintenance of the poor, markets for English goods should be
sought outside the country (Appleby, 1976:500).
English writers, like Mun, Maleness and Misseldon, remained largely blind to the
benefits of increased domestic spending. In 1620, Mun argued, for example, that ‘the
ordinary means to increase our wealth and treasure is by foreign trade, wherein we
must observe this rule: to sell more to strangers than we consume of theirs in value’
(Mun, 1621:125).7 To obtain this surplus, Mun argued, the English either had to
reduce their consumption of foreign goods or sell more of their native products
overseas. Luxuries were equated with ‘foreign’ and were therefore a danger to the
balance of trade. Domestic consumption, or home demand, was at best a necessary
evil that grew, if at all, only in response to population growth. From this perspective,
total demand appeared to be inelastic. The rich were expected to buy their luxuries
from overseas markets, the poor to have enough to subsist. In these circumstances, it
was unthinkable that all levels of society might acquire new desires and find a new
means to enhance their purchasing power, thus generating new spending habits
capable of destroying all traditional limits to the wealth of nations (Appleby,
1976:501; McKendrick et al, 1982:15).
23
Chapter I: The Concept of ‘Potential Markets’ and the Opening-up of the Retail Space
However, the balance-of-trade theory was beginning to be questioned in the mid1600s by a form of economic logic geared towards the unlimited potential of home
trade. By this logic, consumption was construed as a positive force that was
beneficial not only to national economic growth but also to the growth and
development of the individual. Houghton wrote in 1681, that: ‘Our high living is so
far from Prejudicing the Nation that it enriches it.’ He further stated that the ‘sins’ of
pride, finery, vanity, shows, play, luxury, eating and drinking caused ‘more Wealth to
the Kingdom than loss to private estates’ (Houghton, 1681:60).
Thomas went
further to argue that luxuries were not a ‘sin’ but rather, ‘true spurs to virtue, valour
and the elevation of the mind, as well as rewards to industry’ (Thomas, 1677:362).
North, on the other hand, pointed purely to the economic benefits of consumption
when he argued that envy and social emulation was ‘a goad to industry and ingenuity
even amongst the lowest order’. He stated that when ‘the meaner sort’ observe
people who have become rich they ‘are spurred up to imitate their industry’ (1682:6).
Barbon argued that fashion promoted trade because it stimulated the purchasing of
new goods before old ones were worn out (Barbon, 1690:65). In a similar vein,
North praised consumption for its stimulus to home trade. He argued that nations
never benefited more than when ‘Riches are tost [sic] from hand to hand’ (North,
1690:15).
Accompanying this new line of economic thought was the debate over the value of
money. According to the balance-of-trade theory, items of merchandise or goods
were of little or no value to national development unless they were traded for silver
and gold, that alone constituted wealth. Home consumption diminished the nation’s
wealth because money (or gold and silver) was spent in exchange for goods.8 In turn,
many luxury items, instead of retaining their value, were consumed or used up.
Arguing against this theory, the economic pamphleteers of the 1690s stressed the
utility of money as a means to attain goods that individuals desired. Coke, for
example, argued:
The wealth of every Nation consists in Goods more than Money, so much
therefore as any Nation abounds more in Goods than another, so much the
24
Chapter I: The Concept of ‘Potential Markets’ and the Opening-up of the Retail Space
richer is that Nation than the other, for Money is of no other use than employed
in Trade, and the defence of the Nation. (Coke, A Detection, ND:522)
In like mind, Thomas (1677) argued: ‘To distinguish rightly in these points, we must
consider money as the least part of the wealth of any nation, and think of it only as a
scale to weigh one thing against another’ (Thomas, 1677: 359). Similarly, Gardner
(1669) wrote that ‘some Goods are more acceptable in some Countries, at
sometimes, than Money’ (Gardner, 1669:7). Martyn (1701) took the argument one
step further by arguing that money was only a means of satisfying the desire for
goods. He argued that:
The true value of principal riches, whether of private Persons, or of whole
Nations, are Meat, and Bread, and Cloaths and Houses, the Conveniences as
well as the Necessaries of Life. These for their own sakes. Money, because ‘twill
purchase these, are to be esteemed Riches; so which Bullion is only secondary
and dependent, Cloaths and Manufacturers are real and principal Riches.
(Martyn, 1701:558)
Similar sentiments can be found in Thomas Papillion’s (1686) The East-India Trade: A
Most Profitable Trade to the Kingdom. Papillion argued against the balance-of-trade
maxim that commerce was only beneficial to the nation when more goods were
exported than imported. Papillion maintained that this was true only if gold and
silver were the sole stock of the Kingdom: ‘Whereas in truth the Stock and Riches of
the Kingdom, cannot properly be confined to Money, nor ought Gold and Silver to
be excluded from being Merchandise, to be Traded with, as well as any other sorts of
Goods.’ (1686:4, in Appleby, 1976:507) Likewise, Houghton argued that money in
coin was ‘good for nothing, but potentiality [was] good for everything’ (Houghton,
ND: 24-25 in Appleby, 1976:507).
Houghton’s comments return us to other aspects of the debate surrounding
domestic consumption and home trade. His usage of the concept of potentiality in
particular is pertinent to aspects of the debate (discussed above) concerning the
positive benefits of home consumption not only to the nation but also to individuals.
While Houghton does not refer to the uplifting benefits of consumption in the same
sense as Dalby — who argued that consumption acted as ‘true spurs to virtue, valour
and the elevation of the mind, as well as rewards to industry’ (Dalby, 1677:362, in
25
Chapter I: The Concept of ‘Potential Markets’ and the Opening-up of the Retail Space
Appleby, 1976:509). Nevertheless, Houghton saw consumption as a force with
unlimited potential. Other critics of the balance-of-trade theory expressed similar
sentiments. Of these writers, Joyce Appleby has argued that by uncovering the
motives behind personal spending, this group found ‘a human dynamic’ and a market
mechanism’ that outgrew the static, specie oriented mercantilist view of home trade’
(Appleby, 1976:509).
Here, then, it is possible to see the foundations of a new economic theory — a
consumption-oriented theory based upon a model of emulative consumption — in
the writings of the critics of the balance-of-trade theory. There was also a shift in
emphasis in the pro-home trade pamphleteers towards the economic benefits of
production at home, in manufacturing industries and in systems of farming that
employed labour intensively so that ‘by the end of the seventeenth century
propagandists favoured occupations that employed as many people as possible and
promoted trade that “passed through the hands of a multitude”’(Thirsk, 1978:8).
The underlying logic of the argument for ‘production at home’ can be found in an
earlier treatise entitled The Discourse of the Commonweal of this Realm of England.9 This
treatise discussed the condition of the English economy in a period of financial crisis.
One of the causes of this crisis, the Discourse argued was that, while England was a
producer and exporter of goods such as ‘wool, cloth, fells, leather, tallow, tin, pewter
vessels, lead, beer, butter, and cheese’, the production of these goods was not labour
intensive and represented occupations ‘requiring the industry of a few persons’
(Smith, 1549 in Lamond, 1954:10).10 Escalating this problem, the Discourse argued,
was the fact that, at the same time, England was importing a large number of goods
that were either not produced at home or not produced in sufficient quantities. Sir
Thomas Smith argued that if these foreign manufactured goods were made at home:
twenty thousand persons might be set a work within this realm[sic]. I think
these things might be wrought here, not only sufficient to set so many awork and
serve the realm but also serve other parts, as all kinds of cloth, kerseys, worsted
and coverlets, and carpets of tapestry, knit sleeves, hosen, and petticoats, hats,
caps; then paper, both white and brown; parchments, vellum, and all kinds of
leather ware, as gloves, points, girdles, skins for jerkins; and so of our tin, all
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Chapter I: The Concept of ‘Potential Markets’ and the Opening-up of the Retail Space
manner of vessel; and also all kind of glasses, earthen pots, tennis balls, tables,
cards, chests (since we will needs have such kind of things); and daggers, knives,
hammers, saws, chisels, axes and such things made of iron. (Smith, 1549 in
Lamond, 1954:126 -127)
The development of an ‘encouragement industry’ that, as its name suggests, would
‘encourage’ people into the workforce by providing an employment base for ‘twenty
thousand people’ was perceived by Smith as a means of reversing the financial crisis
felt in England during this period. In fact, an examination of the numerous ‘new
occupations’ that came into existence between 1560 and 1630 demonstrates that this
is exactly what happened.
In the period between 1600 and 1770, both the nature of English manufacturing and
the type of goods produced changed dramatically.11 Instead of only producing goods
for overseas markets, manufacturers were making goods for domestic consumption.
As early as 1608, it was claimed that ‘English manufacturers had triumphed over
foreign competitors in the making of fustians, cards, silk laces, ribbons, points, silk
garters, girdles, bewpers, bolsters and knives’ (Thirsk, 1978:136).
During the period between 1600 and 1770, primary products such as flax, woad and
tobacco12 were also grown locally to service home markets and to provide factory
owners with the materials needed to produce manufactured goods (also aimed at the
home market) of a similar standard to imported goods.13 In fact, by 1647 the
production of rape and other primary products such as woad and flax had become so
successful that Carew Reynal argued in The True English Interest that transportation
systems needed to be improved to encourage and facilitate home trade.14 Also, calls
were made for changes within English farming industries: ‘The smaller estates the
land is divided into the better for the nation; the more people are maintained and the
land better husbanded’ (Reynal, 1647:32–33 in Thirsk, 1978:142).
This was an original and unfamiliar argument that ‘dethroned’ the old adage that
‘whosoever doth not maintain the plough destroys this kingdom’ (Reynal, 1647:3033) and in its stead linked England’s pastoral economy with industry. Within this new
system of smaller landholdings, seventeenth-century pastoralists soon realised
products such as ‘cattlehides, sheepskins, wool, flax, rape, woad, and timber were
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Chapter I: The Concept of ‘Potential Markets’ and the Opening-up of the Retail Space
more advantageous to produce than cereals’ since they provided raw materials that
were in growing demand from manufacturers throughout England (Bland, Brown
and Tawney, cited in Thirsk, 1978:148).
It was not simply those industries providing manufacturers with raw materials that
flourished during this period. Other home-based industries also thrived during the
early 1600s. One example was stocking-knitting. By the beginning of the seventeenth
century, knitted stockings had become standard articles of clothing. The average
person wore out two pairs of stockings per year. This meant that the domestic
market had the potential to support the production of around ten million pairs of
stockings each year. Merchants calculated that one knitter completed two pairs of
stockings a week. On this basis, the domestic market could have provided a base of
employment for about 100,000 people for 50 weeks of the year.15
Knitting was not the only home-based industry to develop during this period. Others
included ‘button making, pin and nail making, starch making, soap making, knife and
tool making, pot and oven making, alum mining, ribbon and lace making, linen
weaving, the brewing of alegar and beeregar, and the distilling of aqua vitae’ (Thirsk,
1978:6; see also Thirsk and Cooper, 1972:64). Agricultural industries also thrived
during this period, providing England’s labourers with the opportunity to accumulate
funds surplus to their immediate needs. Before the appearance of these industries
villagers existed in subsistence conditions, owning and producing sufficient products
to furnish their immediate needs (Thirsk, 1978:7).
The adoption of new labour-intensive industries reversed this trend, and at the same
time heralded changes to the consumption patterns of peasants, labourers and
servants. These groups now had the means to enhance their purchasing power so
that, by the mid-eighteenth century, new spending habits were being witnessed at all
levels of British society. Moreover, the new consumption habits of the working and
middle classes were based upon an emulation of ‘their betters’.
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Chapter I: The Concept of ‘Potential Markets’ and the Opening-up of the Retail Space
Social Emulation and the Development of the Domestic Market
McKendrick argues the expansion of the market via social emulation was first
noticed among the domestic servant class — particularly among female servants,
who were often responsible for the transmission of London’s latest fashions to the
provinces by copying the dress styles of their mistresses. One London employer
wrote of a female servant who copied the latest fashion of the hooped petticoat: ‘she
had not liv’d [sic] with me three weeks before she sew’d [sic] three penny canes
round the bottom of her shift instead of a hoop-petticoat’ (Mrs Centilivre, 1722,
cited in McKendrick et al, 1982:59).
In fact, female servants were so astute in copying the latest fashions worn by their
employers that many social commentators of the day complained that it was difficult
to tell the difference between servant and mistress. Defoe, for example, complained
that when ‘required to salute the ladies, I kissed the chamber jade [sic] into the
bargain for she was dressed as well as the rest’ (Defoe, 1725, cited in McKendrick et
al, 1982:59). Defoe’s contemporaries agreed:
Our servant wenches are so puffed up with pride nowadays that they never
think they go fine enough. It is a hard matter to know the mistress from the
maid by the dress, nay very often, the maid shall be the much finer of the two.
(Strauss, 1735, in McKendrick et al, 1982:60)
While servants were the most readily observed group to imitate the upper and middle
classes, it is also possible to locate accounts that testify to the growing consumption
of ‘luxuries’ by the industrial workers and labourers from the 1750s onwards. Here,
one has only to survey the changes in garments worn by the agricultural workers
depicted by Stubbs in the period between 1783 and 1785 to note that they followed
the very latest in fashion (Kent, 1969; see also McKendrick et al, 1982:61).
It was not only in the area of clothing that the working and labouring classes
emulated the upper and middle classes. They also imitated middle-class dietary
habits. The habit of tea drinking, for example, was ‘singled out by Jonas Hanway as
the apotheosis of luxury spending on needless extravagance by the poor. He was
shocked to find that even labourers mending the road demanded their tea.’ (Mathias,
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Chapter I: The Concept of ‘Potential Markets’ and the Opening-up of the Retail Space
1979:162) In fact, tea consumption increased fifteen-fold between 1697 and 1808
(see Schumpter, 1960, table 18). Tea was not the only consumer product to display
such rapid growth patterns. Household expenditure in England increased by 300
percent per annum (from ten pounds to forty pounds) in the period between 1670
and 1801. Of this period, Mathias argues that ‘while the population increased by
fourteen percent tea consumption increased by 97.7 percent and that of printed
fabrics by 141.9 percent’ (Mathias, 1979:162).
It is little wonder, then, that David Macpherson argued as early as 1760 in Annals of
Commerce:
home trade is with good reason believed to be a vast deal greater in value than
the whole of foreign trade, the people of Great Britain are the best customers to
the manufacturers and traders of Great Britain. (Macpherson, 1760, cited
in Minchinton, 1969:38)
The potential of home trade to support English manufacturing industries did not
escape the notice of entrepreneurs and manufacturers themselves. English
manufacturers were not only aware of the situation, but actively sought out home
trade from all classes. As Josiah Tucker argued:
English manufacturers were more adapted for the demands of the Peasants and
Mechanics, in order to appear in warm circumstances, for Farmers,
Freeholders, Tradesmen and Manufacturers in Middling Life; and for
Wholesale Dealers, Merchants, and for all persons of Landed Estates to
appear in genteel life; than for all the magnificence of Palaces or the Cabinets of
Princes. Thus, it is that the English of those several denominations have better
Conveniences in their House, and affect to have more in Quantity of Clean,
neat Furniture, and a greater variety, such as Carpets, Screens, Window
Curtains, Chamber Bells, polished Brass locks, Fenders etc. (Tucker, cited
in McKendrick et al, 1982:26)
In fact, by the mid-eighteenth century, English manufacturers — in response to the
potential of home trade — radically changed the way in which they marketed,
advertised and distributed their products. Mathew Boulton, a producer of toys and
buttons, argued:
30
Chapter I: The Concept of ‘Potential Markets’ and the Opening-up of the Retail Space
We think it of far more consequence to supply the People than Nobility only;
and though you speak contemptuously of Hawkers, Pedlars and Petty Shops,
yet we must own that we think that they will do more towards supporting a
manufactory than all Lords in the Nation, (Boulton, 1795, cited in
Robinson, 1963:49)
While manufacturers such as Boulton courted trade from the working classes, others
— such as Josiah Wedgwood and John Foster — actively made use of the model of
emulative consumption to promote trade amongst the middle classes using royal
patronage to stimulate trade. McKendrick aptly describes this process as giving
‘social cachet’ to goods (McKendrick et al, 1982:28). In this sense, the use of royal
patronage was a deliberate attempt on the part of manufacturers to give household
goods ‘snob’ appeal and ‘social cachet’, and therefore increase demand. In 1767,
Josiah Wedgwood argued that:
if a Royal, or Noble Introduction be as necessary to the sale of an Article of
Luxury, as real Elegance and beauty, then the Manufacturer, if he consults his
own inter[est] will bestow as much pains, & expense too, if necessary, in
gaining the former of these advantages, as he wod [sic] in bestowing the latter.
(Wedgwood, 1767, in McKendrick et al, 1982:100)
Twelve years later, Wedgwood continued to support the use of ‘proper sponsors’,
arguing:
Fashion is infinitely superior to merit and it’s plain from a thousand instances
if you have a favourite child you wish the public to fondle and take notice of,
you have only to make choice of proper sponcers. (Wedgwood 1779 in
McKendrick et al, 1982:100)
These examples illustrate the ways in which the model of emulative spending was
used by manufacturers to court two quite distinct markets. Wedgwood and Foster
used ‘snob’ appeal to expand trade amongst the upper and middle classes whilst
Boulton utilised the same model to increase spending amongst the working classes.
In both instances, however, manufacturers not only recognised the financial benefits
of social emulation but they also felt morally justified in utilising it as a method of
stimulating trade. Like many of the social commentators of the time, they were aware
31
Chapter I: The Concept of ‘Potential Markets’ and the Opening-up of the Retail Space
of the positive benefits that consumption had on all ranks of English society. For
example, as early as 1750 Henry Fielding argued:
Nothing has wrought such an alteration in the order of the people, as the
introduction of trade. This hath indeed given a new face to the whole nation,
hath in great measure subverted the former state of affairs, and hath almost
totally changed the manners, custome [sic] and habits of the people, more
especially of the lower sort. The narrowness of their future is changed into
wealth; their frugality into luxury, their humility into pride, and their subjection
into equality. (Fielding, 1750, cited in McKendrick, 1982:73)
The cause of these changes in English society was social emulation. Again Fielding
argued of the time:
while the nobleman will emulate the Grandeur of a Prince and the Gentleman
will aspire to the proper state of a Nobleman; the Tradesman steps from behind
his Counter into the vacant place of the Gentleman. (Fielding, 1750, cited
in McKendrick et al, 1982:74)
By 1763, social emulation had become so widespread that The British Magazine argued:
The present rage of imitating the manners of high life hath spread itself so far
among the gentlefolks of lower life, that in a few years we shall probably have no
common folk at all. (Vol. IV, 1763: 417, cited in McKendrick et al,
1982:74)
By the mid-eighteenth century, then, it is possible to locate an intellectual
justification of emulative spending. It was increasingly accepted that all levels of
English society had the right to enjoy the act of purchase. Moreover, the very act of
consumption was perceived as a means of achieving vertical social mobility. Social
emulation via consumption was perceived as a means of self-improvement
(McKendrick, 1982:74). Manufacturers therefore actively made use of the model of
emulative spending to stimulate new markets and demand for new goods. The
process of stimulating trade involved several marketing strategies. Wedgwood, for
example, did not simply rely upon the right kind of sponsorship to sell his products.
Rather, he developed a whole battery of commercial techniques and aggressive
selling devices to develop new markets both at home and abroad. He accepted
special orders for the sake of ‘prestige and publicity; offered flexible credit facilities;
32
Chapter I: The Concept of ‘Potential Markets’ and the Opening-up of the Retail Space
opened show rooms in London and put on spectacular sales exhibitions as well as
making use of advertising in newspapers and trade journals’ (McKendrick et al,
1982:76, 77).
New Patterns of Consumption
New patterns of consumption were also instrumental in the success of Wedgwood’s
business, including the popularisation of the habit of tea drinking and a diversion of
the market away from an enthusiasm for porcelain to an enthusiasm for pottery. As
Neil Brewer argues: ‘It required one of the most brilliant campaigns in the history of
consumer exploitation. To manipulate and extend market opportunities was not as
simple as many historians have supposed.’ (Brewer in McKendrick et al, 1982:103)
Besides developing new marketing strategies and making use of the concept of social
emulation, manufacturers also needed to develop new ways of distributing and
selling their goods. The age-old practice of the Birmingham manufacturer of keeping
within the realm of his own forge had given way to a very different one where
merchants ‘travelled the whole island to promote the sale; a practice that would have
astounded [their] forefathers’ (Hutton, cited in Gentle & Field, 1975:52). The iron
merchants, West England clothiers, Manchester wharehousemen [sic] and the hat
and smallware manufacturers no longer waited for their customers to come to them,
but instead actively sought out new markets. This practice spread throughout
wholesale-based industries, encapsulating the wholesaler-retail grocers, drysalters and
tea dealers (Mui & Mui, 1989:16). Manufacturers also relied upon a whole network of
distributive channels, that included petty shops, travelling representatives, hawkers
and pedlars.
New Methods of Distribution and Advertising
The new methods of distribution were facilitated by improvements occurring across
a diverse range of sites. Improvements to the inland transportation system resulted in
the servicing of many communities previously outside the normal circuit of trade.
Inland transport was made easier by improvements in the road conditions, while the
construction of canals and the development of more navigable rivers enabled barges
to transport raw materials from rural communities to townships containing factories
33
Chapter I: The Concept of ‘Potential Markets’ and the Opening-up of the Retail Space
(Mui & Mui, 1989:10–14). Distribution was also facilitated by new developments in
methods of communication, particularly the development of a more efficient and
extensive postal system. The rise of newspapers and the appearance of commercial
directories listing the names, addresses and occupations of the principal inhabitants
of the country in the 1780s further facilitated distribution during this period by
providing a ready list for tradesmen (Mui & Mui, 1989:30).
Technological advances within the printing industry allowed manufacturers to
produce pattern cards and catalogues illustrating their wares. The introduction of
these pattern cards and catalogues allowed shopkeepers to display manufacturers’
goods without actually stocking them, thus making both manufacturing and
distribution more cost-effective and allowing an increase in trade. In 1770, Jackson’s
Habit-Wharehouse, for example, was selling ready-made masquerade dresses. However,
rather than having a complete stock of goods on the premises, customers could
order from ‘a book of several hundred prints coloured, that contained the dresses of
every nation’. Similarly, Walthal Fenton of Woodhead near Cheadle — a draper by
trade — did not stock ironmongery but rather stocked the manufacturer’s catalogue
and ordered specific items when requested by his customers (Mui & Mui, 1989:14).
Thus, with the introduction of pattern cards and catalogues, both distributors and
manufacturers increased their normal trade.
The Stimulation of the New and the Creation of Potential Markets
While eighteenth-century manufacturers realised the importance of improving and
developing new distribution channels, they were also aware that it was not enough to
simply cater to the needs of existing markets. Manufacturers perceived that it was
necessary to create new markets — to actively stimulate a demand for goods. One of
the ways in which demand could be stimulated, manufacturers realised, was via the
introduction of ‘the new’. The London Tradesman (1747), for example, in its catalogue
of ‘all the TRADES’, recognised the pervasive impact of new fashions on the most
diverse employment.
Trade after trade was said to require ‘a fruitful Fancy, to invent new Whims,
to please the Changeable Foible of the Ladies’; or ‘a quick Invention for new
34
Chapter I: The Concept of ‘Potential Markets’ and the Opening-up of the Retail Space
Patterns to create Trade’; or the ability to create ‘a new Fashion’ since ‘he
which can furnish them oftenest with the newest Whim has the best Chance for
their Custom’. (Campbell, 1747:143)
This is exactly what happened. Changes in fashion had accelerated to such a rate that
by 1770 modes of fashion changed annually rather than lasting ten to twelve years as
had previously been the case (McKendrick et al, 1982:40).16 Men and women
increasingly not only had to wear what commerce dictated but they also had to have
within their homes the latest in pottery, furniture and books.
Conclusion
In summary, this chapter has traced the development of the foundations of a new
consumption-oriented theory based upon a model of emulative consumption. It has
called upon the work of Joyce Appleby, Joan Thirsk, Ian McKendrick and John
Brewer to trace these developments. As outlined above, this body of research points
to the fact that, in Britain, between 1500 and 1700, the form of economic reasoning
regarding international trade and home consumption (the balance-of-trade theory)
was beginning to be eroded by events within the domestic market. These events were
stimulated by a form of economic logic geared towards the unlimited potential of
home trade. By this logic, consumption was construed as a positive force that was
beneficial not only to national economic growth but also to the growth and
development of the individual. Here, consumption was perceived as a force that
could motivate the lazy to work, persuade the slovenly to dress neatly, and the
uncouth to become more civilised (Appleby, 1976, 1993; McKendrick et al, 1982;
Brewer, 1983).
Then, in examining the ways in which the shift in economic reasoning affected the
way in which manufacturing, markets and the commercial or retail space expanded,
the chapter made use of a considerable body of evidence confirming the fact that, in
the hundred and fifty years between 1600 and 1750, international trade in a wealth of
imported goods such as coffee, tea, tobacco, imported cloths and dyes, new foods
(potatoes, tomatoes and exotic fruits), complemented by an increasing ‘home
demand’ for these goods stimulated well developed trading and market systems in
England and in European countries17 (Appleby, 1976; Baumann, 1990; Berger, 1993;
35
Chapter I: The Concept of ‘Potential Markets’ and the Opening-up of the Retail Space
Fox Bourne, 1886; Thirsk, 1972 and 1978; Mukerji, 1983; Mintz, 1985). Here,
existing research examining probate documents, merchants’ diaries, submissions to
parliament, inventories from shops and chapmen, commercial manuals, shopkeepers’
and consumers’ diaries and advertisements such as trade cards was utilised to
underline the fact that well-developed systems of home production and consumption
based on home trade and commerce had developed in England and Europe by the
mid 1700s (Slater, 1999; McKracken, 1998; McKendrick et al, 1982; Mukjuri, 1983;
Mintz, 1985; Shammas, 1990 & 1993; Weatherill, 1993, 1988; Mui & Mui, 1989;
Spufford, 1984; Willan, 1970; Brewer & Porter, 1993; Baumann, 1990; McCulloch,
1856, 1859; Fox Bourne, 1886).
Having made use of this vast amount of evidence regarding shifts in economic
theory and shifts in production and manufacturing in Chapter 1, Chapter 2 calls
upon the work of Adburgham (1979), Defoe (1754), Miller (1981), Mayhew &
Cruikshank (1851), Mui and Mui (1989), Walsh (1993, 1999) and others to chart the
ways in which the retail space opened up in response to new markets and new needs.
The subject of the next chapter charts the development of retail spaces in Eighteenth
and Nineteenth-Century Britain, France and, to a lesser extent, America.
36
Chapter I: The Concept of ‘Potential Markets’ and the Opening-up of the Retail Space
Notes
1 The world system advocates are associated with the work of Fernand Araudel and Immanuel
Vallerstein. It is from their work that Cjandra Mukerji relocated the origins of the consumer
revolution in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.
2 In particular, rich histories of international traders and of merchants examining diaries and the
inventories of local boroughs have been developed for Holland, Germany and England.
3 See Appleby (1976:500–50) and McKendrick et al (1982:6) for two excellent discussions of this
process.
4 I use the word beginnings here deliberately. For, as Neil McKendrick has argued (McKendrick et
al, 1982:10), while it is possible to locate economic arguments justifying home trade and the notion
of expandable markets, the idea was not universally accepted until much later. See also Appleby,
1976.
5 For an excellent discussion of these points see Appleby, 1976 and McKendrick et al. 1982.
6 Gregory King’s estimate that half the families in England could not pay for their living indicates the
dimension of the problem of underemployment.
7 See also Appleby, 1976; and Thirsk, 1978: 133–136.
8 Appleby argues that ‘according to the balance-of-trade theory, gold and silver alone were wealth,
and countries without mines could become wealthy only by a carefully managed foreign trade that
brought in more specie than went out. This explanation of wealth underwrites the notion of sterility
of domestic trade and led to an evaluation of all economic activities in terms of their contributions to
a balance of payments.’ (Appleby, 1976:507)
9 According to Joan Thirsk, The Discourse (early drafts of that were written in 1549) expressed the
ideas not of one eccentric man, but of many intelligent thinkers, preachers, and politicians who
called themselves Commonwealth men. The Discourse was in some sense a party programme.
See Thirsk (1978:13-22).
10 Two things need to be noted at this point. The first is the fact that even as early as 1549 when
the Discourse of the Commonweal of this Realm of England was first penned, the home market for
consumer goods was a recognisable and statistical fact. However, at the time of writing the treatise,
Smith’s major concerns centred on the fact that the sales tax from these goods was not benefiting
the Commonweal but rather ‘foreign’ nations. This form of economic argument was still in line with
the mercantilist balance-of payments explanation of how a nation’s wealth grew. The second point
of interest from Sir Thomas Smith’s argument lies in its total lack of reference to the elusive concept
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Chapter I: The Concept of ‘Potential Markets’ and the Opening-up of the Retail Space
of ‘expandable spending’ or to the unlimited potential of the market (Appleby, 1976:532;
McKendrick et al, 1982: 6). Of course this concept had not yet appeared in economic pamphlets of
the 1500s and therefore was unrecognisable to Smith.
11 Thirsk agues that ’While Thomas Mun and Edward Misseldon concerned their attention in the
early 1620s on the problems of overseas trade, the world around them was being shaped in a new
image. Industrial and agricultural producers were toppling the gilded image of clay and mud from its
pedestal by producing goods, many of them cheap and cheerful, for the home market: if they
attracted purchasers from abroad so much the better but that was incidental’ (Thirsk, 1978:136).
12 Thirsk argues that ‘the history of tobacco growing is superb, and unusually well documented. It
became an occupation that employed hundreds of poor by the 1640s and 1650s’ (Thirsk,
1978:141).
13 The production of rape is a good example. In 1625, Benedict Webb developed 550 acres of rape
in the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire, with the sole intention of producing rapeseed oil for cloth
making (Thirsk, 1978:137).
14 In particular, he stressed that the river systems needed to be developed, suggesting that use
might be made of new scientific methods in the form of two new engines that were currently being
offered as a method of cutting rivers at an easy rate (Reynal, 1647:32–33 in Thirsk, 1978:142)
15 From these figures, Thirsk argues that ‘13% of labourers and paupers could have supplemented
their living by knitting’ (Thirsk, 1978:6; see also Thirsk and Cooper, 1973:64).
16 An interesting example of this process is cited in Allison Adburgham’s Shops and Shopkeeping,
1800–1914, where she cites Jane Austen’s description of the mode of dress of the wife of an
‘undistinguished colonel living in the depths of rural Hampshire’. In the citation Austen states that
the colonel’s wife is dressed ‘nakedly in white muslin, a devotion to fashion bordering on the
frenetic’ (Adburgham: 1964:1–2).
38
Chapter II: The Development of Retail Spaces in Eighteenth
and Nineteenth-Century Britain, France and America
Chapter II: The Development of Retail Spaces in Eighteenth and Nineteenth-Century Britain, France and America
Introduction
The development of large shops, showrooms, bazaars, emporiums, arcades and
department stores in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries is surveyed in this
chapter. A comparison of the development of merchandising techniques, methods of
display and the use of various forms of architecture used by merchants and
developers in each century is carried out in order to re-evaluate some of the current
assumptions regarding the development of the department store. The work of
Adburgham (1979), Defoe (1754), Miller (1981), Mayhew and Cruikshank (1851),
Mui and Mui (1989), Walsh (1993, 1999) and others is then called upon to chart the
ways in which the retail space opened up in response to new markets and new needs.
At this point, two arguments are made. The first concerns evidence from trade cards,
shopkeepers’ diaries and newspaper advertisements demonstrating that the consumer
space exhibited sophisticated spatial, display and marketing techniques well before
the establishment of the department store form in the nineteenth century. Here the
continuities in retailing methods are stressed as opposed to the ‘discontinuity’ thesis
of those who regard the French department store as the great historical threshold.
The second argument drawn out in this chapter concerns the way in which consumer
spaces took on educative and social roles and incorporated the same architectural
and display techniques utilised in civic spaces such as museums, art galleries,
expositions and other public spaces used for promenading. The chapter argues that,
because consumption was no longer perceived as a drain on the nation but was
rather perceived as beneficial — and indeed, as having considerable civilising effects
— shifts occurred in the organisation of commercial spaces, that linked them, both
in the way they were designed and in their display methods, to civic spaces. For
example, commercial spaces took on the characteristics of spaces from the educative
sphere by adopting the same display techniques used in the expositions, great
exhibitions, museums and art galleries. At the same time, commercial spaces
incorporated viewing balconies and large areas for promenading in the belief that the
effects of seeing and being seen both encouraged emulative spending and had
positive civilising benefits to the individual.
40
Chapter II: The Development of Retail Spaces in Eighteenth and Nineteenth-Century Britain, France and America
Before developing these arguments, a brief outline of current debates surrounding
the development of consumer spaces in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries is
provided.
At present, there is a propensity within cultural and historical studies of consumer
spaces to place a great deal of emphasis upon the importance of the novelty and
significance of the nineteenth-century department store as bringing about a ‘retail
revolution’ and thus changing patterns of consumption. The emphasis placed by
cultural theorists upon the novelty and significance of the department store, with its
massive scale, emphasis upon display, dramatic interior design and freedom to
browse, is very much a result of the construction of dramatic contrasts with a
preceding age of supposedly primitive retailing. For example, it has been argued that,
in the eighteenth-century shop, ‘not much effort to attract customers’ was made
(Frazer, 1981:110). Further, it has been argued that ‘goods were left to sell
themselves’ (Winstanley, 1983:58; Walsh, 1999:47). Alongside the assumption that
little effort was spent on the display of goods in the eighteenth-century consumer
space, it has been argued that shopping did not become a social activity until the
advent of the department store in the late nineteenth century.1 Interrelated is the
assumption that browsing and window-shopping did not come into practice until the
late nineteenth century when they were introduced by department store developers
and managers.
In contrast to these arguments, evidence from shopkeepers’ inventories, newspaper
advertisements, trade cards and shopkeepers’ diaries of the period between 1695 and
1790 confirms the fact that elements of the department store (including architectural
design, methods of display, shop fittings and innovative sales methods) existed prior
to the ‘birth’ of the French department store. In particular, this block of evidence
points to the fact that the ‘revolutionary’ practices accredited to the department
store, such as free entry, fixed and marked prices, browsing, window shopping and
the encouragement of shopping as a ‘social practice’, were well established by the
middle of the eighteenth century (Walsh, 1993, 1999; Mui & Mui, 1989; Adburgham,
1967).
41
Chapter II: The Development of Retail Spaces in Eighteenth and Nineteenth-Century Britain, France and America
These arguments are adopted in the chapter, not to suggest that change has not taken
place between the eighteenth-and nineteenth-century practices of retailing, nor to
argue that the department store was not influential in propagating consumer norms
and practices, but rather to emphasise, as Clare Walsh has recently argued, that ‘the
themes of continuity within retailing methods stress changing processes rather than
revolutionary breaks’ (Walsh, 1999:52-55). This chapter agrees with Walsh’s
argument that rather than perceiving the emergence of the department store as the
primer for a ‘retail revolution’ (Miller, Williams, Bowlby, Jeffries) it is more valuable
to see it as part of an ongoing process of retail development. In order to demonstrate
these points, the next part of the chapter examines eighteenth-century retailing
practices in England.
The Development of the Eighteenth-Century British Retail Space
The development of the British retail space underwent a number of changes in the
period between 1600 and 1760. It began with the closed concessionary system of
guilds that excluded advertising, competition and increased rates of exchange
(Berger, 1993; Geist, 1983). It ended with new methods of marketing that included
the introduction of free entry and with it the removal of the bartering system and the
obligation to purchase. Advertising, price ticketing, leading articles, ready money
sales, mail order services, free delivery services and even money-back guarantees, as
well as a large stock of ready-made goods, became the stock-in-trade of the majority
of eighteenth-century English shopkeepers (Mui & Mui, 1989:247). The success of
these new merchandising principles was by no means guaranteed. In fact, according
to the cautious principles of traditional commerce, the new businesses based on
large-scale, low profit margins should have failed. The removal of the obligation to
purchase, that also meant that custom had to be sought via the introduction of
various merchandising mechanisms and tactics, further increased the risk of failure.
Against this risk, eighteenth-century merchants tactically developed a whole battery
of commercial techniques and aggressive selling devices to promote trade. These
merchandising mechanisms, have, until quite recently, been accredited solely to the
development of the department store.
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Chapter II: The Development of Retail Spaces in Eighteenth and Nineteenth-Century Britain, France and America
Some of the merchandising mechanisms utilised by eighteenth-century shopkeepers
and manufacturers included the introduction of showrooms, that included areas to sit
and take tea, the introduction of elaborate store fittings and displays, both within the
store and in shop windows, the introduction of the entrance to the shop that was
faced by glass on all sides and thus gave more display space, and the encouragement
of browsing and window shopping. The next section of this chapter looks at the
practices that were introduced into the British retail space between the mideighteenth century and the mid-nineteenth century.
Methods of Store Display in Eighteenth-Century Britain
While it has been assumed that elaborate display techniques and extravagant interior
fittings were first deployed in nineteenth-century department stores,2 inventories of
high-class London shops of the eighteenth century reveal the use of an impressive
display of interior fittings (Walsh, 1999:47). Clare Walsh’s recent research has
revealed evidence pointing to the fact that goods were not left to ‘sell themselves’ in
the eighteenth century, but rather sophisticated display techniques were used by
eighteenth-century shopkeepers to sell their wares. She argues that ‘not only were
goods on display on racks, shelving and glass fronted presses (sometimes lined with
velvet), in glass display cases and moveable show boards, they were openly displayed
around the shop’ (Walsh, 1999:52). The promotional illustration for Harding, Howell
and Company of 1809 demonstrates this point (Figure 2-1). Here, reams of material
are hung around pillars and from shelves so that customers can see and feel their full
effect.
As Walsh has argued, a comparison of this illustration with a later (1909) portrayal of
the silk and robe department of Harrods Department Store depicts similarities in the
display techniques and methods of selling in both centuries (compare Figure 2-1 with
Figure 2-2).
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Chapter II: The Development of Retail Spaces in Eighteenth and Nineteenth-Century Britain, France and America
[image removed]
Figure 2-1 Promotional illustration for Harding, Howell and Company of 1809: Walsh, 1999:54 .
[image removed]
Figure 2-2 The Silk and Robe Department, Harrods 1909; Walsh, 1999:56.
The 1809 illustration reveals much more than this similarity in display techniques. In
both centuries, customers approach the counter to be served. In both centuries,
customers are encouraged to look and feel the articles on display and to approach
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Chapter II: The Development of Retail Spaces in Eighteenth and Nineteenth-Century Britain, France and America
sales people for service. While the displays are more lavish in the late nineteenth
century, and consumer spaces become larger and more diversified, it is clear that the
often-argued novelty of visual display techniques accredited to the department stores
can be located in earlier forms of retailing.
Similarly, displays in shop windows were equally important as visual enticements in
eighteenth-century shops. As early as 1727, Daniel Defoe argued against the new
tendency to attract customers by expending large sums to decorate shops with glass
windows.3 He spoke disdainfully of the proprietors — the periwig makers, cane
chairmakers, guilders of leather, braziers, toy shops, looking glass shops, china shops
and coffee houses — because they were catering to and creating new luxury tastes
(Defoe, 1745:205-208).4 Despite Defoe’s warning, expenditure on elaborate shop
frontages and glass windows continued. Shopkeepers competed with each other for
passing trade by ‘exhibit[ing] their wares as in a continuous fair’ (Karamzin, 1789–90,
in James, 1957:261).
The first glass show windows appeared in the beginning of the eighteenth century in
the shops housing the luxury goods items. However, it was not until the middle of
the century that shops with show windows (that not only offered a view of the shop
but also exhibited products on a table behind the window) became widespread. Over
time, the show window underwent a series of developments culminating in its
extension to include the shop entrance itself. This development had the effect of
drawing the entrance into the shop, increasing the size of the show window, while at
the same time giving it an architectural quality separate from the shop itself.
The changes within the architecture and quality of glass of the store window also
affected the presentation of merchandise in the British retail trade. Between 1700 and
1750, window displays developed from a mere pile of goods to a collection of
displays. Visitors to London were so impressed by the new display methods that they
often commented:
What we do not have in France is glass like this, generally very fine and clear.
The shops are surrounded with it and usually the merchandise is arranged
behind it that keeps the dust off, while still displaying goods to the passers-by,
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Chapter II: The Development of Retail Spaces in Eighteenth and Nineteenth-Century Britain, France and America
presenting a fine sight in every direction. (Voyage en Angleterre, 1728,
cited in Mui & Mui, 1989:222)
Similarly, The Diary of Sophie von La Roche, a French girl who visited London in 1786,
notes the way in which she was struck by:
a cunning device for showing women’s materials whether they are silks, chintzes,
or muslins, they hang down in folds behind the fine high windows so that the
effect of this or that material, as it would be in the ordinary folds of a woman’s
dress, can be studied. (Williams, 1933:87)
The well-lit shopping streets of London fascinated Sophie von La Roche. Her
description of ‘lovely Oxford Street’ is interesting as it confirms the attractions that
shops offered to the passer by. Here, impulse buyers were tempted as:
First one passes a watchmaking shop, then a silk or fan store, now a
silversmith’s, a china or glass shop. The spirit booths are particularly
tempting…here crystal flasks of every shape and form are exhibited: each one
has a light behind that makes all the different coloured spirits sparkle. Just as
alluring are the confectioners and fruiterers, where, behind the handsome glass
windows pyramids of pink apples, figs, grapes, oranges and all manner of fruits
are on show…Most of all we admired a stall with argon lamps situated in a
corner house and forming a really dazzling spectacle. Every lamp, crystal,
lacquer and metal ones, silver and brass in every possible shape. (cited in
Williams, 1933:141)
Others were equally impressed with the exhibition of wares displayed in the windows
of the London shops. The Russian writer Nikolai Mikhailovitch felt that he ‘was
entering a new world with its stone pavements for pedestrians, [its] great number of
coaches, chaises and horsemen, crowds of well dressed people and everywhere
beautiful shops [that exhibited their wares] as in a continuous fair’ (Karamzin, 1789–
90, in James, 1957:261).
Goods on Display
The variety of consumer goods exhibited by the London shops during this period
was also impressive. One source of evidence, the tradesmen’s cards, reveal the
remarkable range of goods and services available to London’s visitors who could
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Chapter II: The Development of Retail Spaces in Eighteenth and Nineteenth-Century Britain, France and America
satisfy a remarkable range of wants from ‘Venice treacle’ and ‘Elephant’s teeth’ to a
backgammon table, and artificial eyes, teeth, eyebrows, calves, breasts and bottoms.
Specialist services from rat catchers to sow gelders were equally available as follows:
[M]akers of clogs, clocks and coach springs, of cricket balls, rocking horses, fish
hooks, and bows and arrows. A man could be purged, perfumed and taught by
a prize fighter all within the space of a few hundred yards. Food sellers tempted
him with everything from ‘portable soup’ to ‘icecream whip’. And of course
clothes sellers proliferated everywhere. (McKendrick et al, 1982:81–82; see
also Heal, 1925)
The trade cards are a source of information on the number of consumer goods and
the whereabouts of retail outlets. They also provide us with information regarding
common commercial practices towards the end of the eighteenth century. For
example, trade cards informed customers of the chimney sweep who operated a
satisfaction or money-back guarantee, advertised as ‘No Cure, No Pay’; and that
Josiah Wedgewood ‘deliver[ed] his goods safe and carriage free’. The booksellers
Lacklington Allen and Co. boasted on their trade cards ‘Lounging Rooms, where
buyers could comfortably browse’ (McKendrick, 1982:83–85).
An examination of trade cards from the late eighteenth century reveals that the
commercial practises of advertising, price ticketing, leading articles and money-back
guarantees were well established and utilised in several retail trades (Mui & Mui,
1989:247). Several grocers also advertised a free delivery service while booksellers
provided lounging rooms so that potential buyers could sit and read before
purchasing (Heal, 1925). However, trade cards were only one form of advertising
used by eighteenth-century retailers. The next section of this chapter looks at several
forms of advertising that were also used by shopkeepers in the 1700s to attract trade.
Methods of Advertising
Little in the research has acknowledged the role advertising played in the promotion
of eighteenth-century retailing. Yet, by the mid-1700s, shopkeepers were publishing
circulars, handbills, trade cards and newspaper advertisements to promote trade.
Circulars and handbills usually carried a description of goods stocked by the retailer,
their prices and future availability. They were just one page in length, making them
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Chapter II: The Development of Retail Spaces in Eighteenth and Nineteenth-Century Britain, France and America
ideal for the grocery trade as they allowed the maximum advertising of goods in the
minimum of space. Other stores did make use of this media; however, it was more
common for them to utilise newspaper advertisements. Like the circular and
handbill, a typical advertisement described the type of store, its stock and a list of
prices. In 1756, for example, Thomas Fletcher placed the following announcement in
the Whitehall Evening Post:
Thomas Fletcher, upwards of twenty-six years shopman to the late and present
Mr. Twining, begs leave to acquaint his friends and the Public, that he has
open’d his shop, The Grasshopper, near Essex Street, Temple Bar, sells all
sorts of fine Teas, Coffee, Chocolate, etc., at the most reasonable prices. (Mui
& Mui, 1989:227)
Similarly, James Donaldson, a grocer and tea man near the Cross in Leeds, placed
advertisements in the Leeds Mercury for several weeks after the East India Company’s
auctions. These informed his customers that he had just acquired a large assortment
of tea that he sold on ‘as low as terms and as good as quality as all the tea men in
London’ (Mui & Mui, 1989:227-228).
Grocers were not the only shopkeepers to advertise in newspapers or to publish
prices. Numerous advertisements appeared in 1774. These were placed by linen and
woollen drapers, mercers and haberdashers. Mui and Mui list these as:
Lancelot Iveson, silk mercer and woollen-draper; Bramley and Sturdy, mercers
and woollen-drapers; Edward Sanderson, mercer and woollen-draper; John
Fearn, silk mercer and woollen-draper; Sherbrook and Willot, linen drapers
and haberdashers; Wigglesworth and Tetley, mercers, linen and woollen drapers;
Samuel Horsfall, linen draper [and] Thomas Thompson, linen draper and
haberdasher. (Mui & Mui, 1989:234).
A common message in all these advertisements was that the lowest prices were ready
marked. T.J. Jackson listed prices for various sorts of materials: ‘Neat camlet, 19 in.
at 8d a yard, Superfine Camlets, 20–21in., 10d.’ Sherbrook and Willot also announced
that they proposed to sell ‘on the lowest terms for ready money’5 (Mui & Mui,
1989:237). By the 1780s retail advertisements were larger, and price competition had
become more common. Mui and Mui argue that ‘an increasing number of
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Chapter II: The Development of Retail Spaces in Eighteenth and Nineteenth-Century Britain, France and America
shopkeepers sought to attract custom by listing prices; ticketing their wares with no
abatement; and offering special bargains or particularly low prices for ready money’
(Mui & Mui, 1989:237). Many of these advertisements were couched in language that
would appeal to ‘the fashionable world’. The advertisements of Edward Archer, for
example, were often in French, addressed to ‘La Noblesse et le public’. Archer entitled
himself ‘Tabbinet and Poplin mercer to Her Majesty and His Royal Highness the
Prince of Wales’ (Mui & Mui, 1989, chapter 12, note 74).
It is possible to see similarities between the marketing techniques of manufacturers
and shopkeepers during the eighteenth century. For example, Archer’s advertising
technique of linking his name to that of Her Majesty and His Royal Highness the
Prince of Wales is similar to that of Foster and Wedgwood, who used the Countess
of Bective and the Duchess of Devonshire to give social cachet to their products.
The logic behind the advertisement was also similar. In linking his goods to the
British monarchy, Archer aimed — just as Foster and Wedgwood had — to
stimulate latent demand through social emulation.6
However, unlike Foster and Wedgwood, who aimed to stimulate middle-class
demand for novelties and fashionable goods, eighteenth-century English
shopkeepers adopted a marketing approach similar to Boulton’s in that they targeted
not simply the upper and middle classes, but also the working classes. Moreover, this
marketing technique proved to be highly successful. Shopkeepers catered to a
middle-class clientele via a ‘taylored service’ [sic] while they also catered to working
class custom via the availability of ready-made goods and by listing their goods at the
lowest price.
As well as advertisements, and elaborate store and window displays, eighteenthcentury shopkeepers used other merchandising strategies to court custom. As
mentioned above, the new display techniques facilitated by the introduction of plate
glass served to attract passing custom. However, they did not guarantee that custom
would enter — and indeed stay within the consumer space for any period of time.
Other inducements were needed to encourage ‘the passer by’ into the retail sphere.
One of the most interesting merchandising strategies utilised by eighteenth-century
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Chapter II: The Development of Retail Spaces in Eighteenth and Nineteenth-Century Britain, France and America
shopkeepers to attract custom and to keep it within the retail space for longer was
the introduction of the leisure principle into the retail space. With the introduction of
this principle came the development of shopping as a social activity.7 The next
section of this chapter examines the strategies employed by retailers to both attract
and keep potential customers within the retail space.
Strategies of Enticement: The Introduction of Leisure Facilities
and Entertainment Within the British Retail Space
The first strategy adopted by late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century English
retailers to attract the passer by into the consumer space was to make the shopping
experience a pleasurable one. Shopkeepers did this by introducing leisure and
entertainment pursuits into the retail space. This technique is coined ‘the leisure
principle’ throughout this chapter. The leisure principle was a key strategy because it
changed the shopping experience from one associated with needs and work to one of
relaxation, enjoyment and entertainment. Simultaneously, the shopping environment
shifted from a utility-based to a leisure-based environment — to a space where
individuals entered not simply to shop, but also to enjoy themselves.
Underpinning the introduction of the leisure principle into the retail sphere was the
growing acceptance of the concept of expandable spending and the insatiability of
the market. Seventeenth-century English traders first recognised the fact that demand
could be stimulated via the introduction of new fashion trends and novelties. By the
eighteenth century, British manufacturers, distributors and retailers had not only
realised that buying habits could be stimulated via the introduction of ‘the new’, but
were also very much aware of the role played by social emulation in stimulating trade.
On this basis, nineteenth-century English retailers recognised the need for a
consumer space that would enable them to display and promote new products and
new fashions in a way that would stimulate demand by allowing potential customers
to see and be seen.8
An analysis of the various elements involved in implementing the leisure principle
helps us to understand its underlying logic. The first linked the retail space with other
social activities and social events. The way in which nineteenth-century retailers
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Chapter II: The Development of Retail Spaces in Eighteenth and Nineteenth-Century Britain, France and America
linked the retail space to the leisure practice of ‘promenading’ provides a good
example of this merchandising tactic. Promenading, or strolling, became a popular
pastime among the middle, upper and noble classes in the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries. By the mid-eighteenth century, promenading had become so
widespread that public spaces such as civic squares, parks and streets were beginning
to be designed to accommodate the practice.
By the beginning of the nineteenth century, British shopkeepers often linked the
retail space with the social practice of promenading by strategically situating their
premises in an already established thoroughfare or site used for promenading. Regent
Street, designed in 1813 and completed in 1820, was developed as a series of
colonnades that formed a continuous shopping district. At the time, the Tallis Street
View described Regent Street:
The buildings of this noble street chiefly consist of palace-like shops, in whose
broad shewy windows are displayed articles of the most splendid description,
such as the neighbouring world of want and wealth. The Circus unites Regent
Street with Oxford Street. It is a continuous style of architecture, with houses
above it, its form is the best that could be devised for the purpose; it gives an air
of grandeur and space to the streets, and a free circulation of air to the houses. It
affords facilities to carriages and horsemen in turning from one street to another,
and is as elegant in form as useful in application. (cited in Adburgham,
1967:12)
Tallis Street View argued that Regent Street, with its use of colonnades, its ample space
to accommodate both carriages and pedestrians, and its paved streets, offered the
public the best facilities devised for the purpose of shopping. The covered streets not
only provided protection from the weather, they also provided a space where
London’s ‘neighbouring world of want and wealth’ could both see and be seen, thus
providing an environment where social emulation could flourish.
The effects that seeing and being seen have on uplifting or improving public taste are
touched upon by Rosalind Williams. Williams’ work is helpful at this point because it
places emphasis on the relationship between the gaze, consumerism and the
‘civilising’ process. Incorporating Elias’s argument regarding the civilising process,
Williams demonstrates that there is a direct link between the development of
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Chapter II: The Development of Retail Spaces in Eighteenth and Nineteenth-Century Britain, France and America
manners and the growth and proliferation of consumer goods. For example, with the
civilising process came the use of the handkerchief and the spittoon. People no
longer wiped their noses on their sleeves or spat on the ground, but rather, because
of an awareness of being watched, used a more sophisticated means to carry out
these needs. ‘The civilising process,’ Williams argues, ‘implies a transference from
expression of personal feeling to the exhibition of personal objects.’ (Williams,
1982:24)
If we apply the principles of Elias’s argument to the incorporation of colonnades
within the nineteenth-century consumer space, it is possible to understand their
effect upon the consumer/visitor. Part of the appeal to visitors of new consumer
spaces was the fact that they became ‘part of the show’. Visitors, who were dressed
up for their shopping expeditions, not only watched their own behaviour but also
watched and copied others. This process of watching others also served as object
lessons9 where customers were able to see the effects of new fashions enacted. Real
life parades of the most recent and up-to-date fashions were displayed on a daily
basis by fellow shoppers demonstrating how to wear and accessorise outfits.
The impact that linking consumer spaces to the social practice of promenading had
on the fashion industry cannot be over-estimated. It gave fashion and design a
practical and real-life dimension by allowing potential customers to see how certain
outfits were worn in an everyday situation. Potential customers were shown how
fashionable clothes and accessories could be used. In this sense, the colonnades
provided a space where potential customers were ‘tactically’ taught how to consume
by emulating others. By incorporating colonnades within the retail space, English
retailers were strategically employing an architectural method to increase the effect of
emulative spending.
The same architectural principles were incorporated inside many of London’s
arcades, bazaars and emporia to facilitate emulative spending. All three forms were
designed to provide consumer spaces conducive to promenading. Bazaars, for
example, were often built into already developed sites and possessed numerous exits
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Chapter II: The Development of Retail Spaces in Eighteenth and Nineteenth-Century Britain, France and America
to different streets. They contained a series of courtyards and rooms with skylights,
light wells and multi-level, continuous galleries.
Bazaars were often designed around a central void. They were illuminated from
above by a skylight and contained a series of galleries that allowed a view of the
comings and goings. Galleries were used as platforms from which visitors/customers
viewed the animation of the crowds above and below. In so doing, they provided a
space where the crowd became both visitor and spectacle — where shoppers could
see and be seen. Like the colonnades of England’s shopping districts, the use of
galleries within bazaars was a tactical strategy on behalf of retailers to provide a
consumer space conducive to seeing and being seen, and therefore to emulative
spending.
However, unlike the colonnades — that simply provided a space conducive to both
window-shopping and to promenading — galleries within bazaars often contained
various kinds of exhibitions as well as shopping stalls. The Manchester Bazaar, for
example, was a two-storey building housing exhibitions of works of art alongside
shopping stalls on its second floor. Counters were hired by the proprietors to outside
tradesmen and tradeswomen. The counters on the first floor were let to males and
those on the second floor were let to females (Adburgham, 1964:19).10
While fashion played a key role in attracting customers, the proprietors of the
Manchester Bazaar were also concerned with entertaining their ‘visitors’. The
prospectus states that a proportion of the building had been dedicated to house
‘various interesting and amusing Exhibitions and Works of Genius’ to entertain their
visitors (cited in Adburgham, 1964:19).
As well as holding ‘amusing exhibitions’, the bazaar also housed a diorama for the
amusement of their visitors.11 Other forms of popular entertainment were
incorporated within bazaars. The Exeter Change contained a menagerie. Robert
Southey wrote in 1807:
Exeter Change is precisely a Bazaar, a sort of street under cover, or large long
room, with a row of shops on either hand, and a thoroughfare between them; the
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Chapter II: The Development of Retail Spaces in Eighteenth and Nineteenth-Century Britain, France and America
shops being furnished with such articles as might tempt an idler, or remind a
passenger of his wants. At the further end was a man in splendid costume who
proved to belong to a menagerie above the stairs. A macaw was swinging on a
perch above him. (Southey, 1807 cited in Adburgham, 1967:18)
The considerably smarter Royal London Bazaar in Liverpool Street boasted a grand
saloon, promenades and exhibitions. According to The World of Fashion (1830),
visitors could:
purchase any of the thousand and one varieties of fancy and useful articles, or
lounge and spend an agreeable hour either in the promenades or in the
exhibitions that are wholly without parallel to the known world. (cited in
Adburgham, 1967:18)
Here, the leisure principle was utilised by shopkeepers and developers to encourage
customers/visitors to stay in the British retail space longer than would generally be
necessary to make a normal purchase.
An examination of secondary and primary sources, including diaries, advertisements,
trade cards and shop prospectuses, reveals the ways in which leisure activities such as
promenading, dining, visiting exhibitions, dioramas and were well-established
practices in the British retail space before the advent of the department store.
However, changes within the retail space were also taking place in other nations such
as France. Changes within the French retail space were the result of increases in the
consumption of luxury items solely amongst the wealthy. Sombart argues:
In the decades around 1700 one can observe how the demand for luxury and
the desire of the trader to satisfy it are both connected to the increased tendency
toward an extravagant lifestyle amongst the wealthy. These were the decades in
that Brazilian gold began to fill the pockets of speculators in Paris, Amsterdam
and London. The endeavour to answer the demand of the wealthy for luxury
items shook the trader out of his artisan’s routine and radically advanced the
development of capitalism. (Sombart, cited in Geist, 1983:39)
The next section of this chapter pays particular attention to the French retailing
model prior to the advent of the department store.
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Chapter II: The Development of Retail Spaces in Eighteenth and Nineteenth-Century Britain, France and America
Nineteenth-Century Changes in the French Consumer Space that
Led to the Development to the Department Store
Several new types of shops developed in France during the late eighteenth century to
cater to the growing demand for luxuries. Sombart (1967) groups these together
under the title of the ‘consumption goods business’. The consumption goods
business encompassed three different types of stores. First, it encompassed the
fashion business that developed out of the shops owned by the mercers — that is,
from the silk trade. These shops sold not only material, but also all kinds of
accessories needed to complete the fashionable outfit. The consumption goods
business also included the interior decorating business. This developed out of the
shop of the tapestry maker and grew to a large supply business capable of furnishing
a salon or apartment. The goods sold within these stores ranged from candelabras,
mirrors and sofas to carpets, paintings and etchings. Finally, it included the luxury
item business that provided costly and superfluous objects, exotic curiosities, knickknacks, and gifts. Its clientele included browsers and people of leisure (Geist, 1983).
All of these shops catered to ‘a mixed public of courtly society, wealthy nobility, and
the nouveaux riches of the bourgeoisie’ (Geist, 1983:39).
Between 1800 and 1840, in an effort to cater to the new demands of the wealthy,
French traders in luxury goods — particularly the proprietors of the magasins de
nouveautés — radically changed their merchandising policies. They introduced new
methods of advertising and the concept of free entry, browsing and comparison
shopping were encouraged, they stocked ready-made items, and introduced a fixed
and marked pricing system (Bowlby, 1985; Benjamin, 1973; Davis, 1966; Miller, 1981;
Resseguie, 1965, 1962; Hower, 1938:177,188).12 Radical changes were also made to
the design and layout of French consumer spaces during this period.
Two factors contributed to these changes. The first relates to changes within the
design and organisation of the public space itself — with the supply of public spaces
such as exhibition halls, museums, gallerias, market halls, bazaars and railway stations
designed for promenading (Geist, 1983; Bennett, 1988). The second, related factor
concerns the fact that the burgeoning luxury item store and the form of retailing that
Sombart (1967) refers to as the ‘consumption goods business’ could not expand
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Chapter II: The Development of Retail Spaces in Eighteenth and Nineteenth-Century Britain, France and America
when they were housed in the shops that lined the early nineteenth-century French
streets. Unlike the streets of London, the streets of Paris in the early 1800s were not
conducive to window-shopping. Geist argues that the retail arcade developed in Paris
because ‘the street still existed in its medieval state. It had no sidewalk, was dirty, and
was too dangerous for promenading and window shopping’13 (Geist, 1983:62)
In contrast to the dirty and often dangerous streets of Paris, retail arcades were
designed for a luxurious stroll — for public promenading. But, as Kolloff argues, ‘[i]t
was not enough to save the pedestrian from the distress and anxiety of the street
tumult; one had to attract him positively to the arcade’ (Kolloff, 1849:113-14). How,
then, did this new form of retail development attract shoppers?
Geist argues that the arcades had ‘a magical power of attraction for the rest of
Europe, men of leisure and the literati, and made a new type of person possible, the
predecessor of the man of the crowd, the flaneur’ (Geist, 1983:67). In fact, Geist —
like many other contemporary theorists — is here calling upon Benjamin’s work on
Baudelaire. However, Geist’s work on arcades gives us a clearer understanding of the
arcade’s appeal than Benjamin’s work because Geist deals with the arcade as an
architectural form, and not simply as a cultural site. Geist’s research actually helps us
understand the dynamics of the architectural techniques used by the arcade’s
designers. For example, his analysis of the arcade's functions demonstrates that this
‘power of attraction’ was, in fact, not magical at all. Rather, it depended upon new
methods of architectural production developed in the nineteenth century to convert
an exterior into an interior. Within this method of architectural production, the
exterior facade is drawn into the enclosed space (Geist, 1969:4). The outside is thus
brought inside and a ‘city within a city’ is created. Walter Benjamin describes this
effect:
These arcades, a new contrivance in industrial luxury, are glass covered, marblefloored passages through entire blocks of houses, whose proprietors have joined
forces in the venture, there are arrayed the most elegant of shops, so that such an
arcade is a city, indeed a world in miniature. (1969:158)
The architectural method employed in arcades not only gave the consumer space but
also gave consumer goods ‘a magical power of attraction’ because ‘it eliminated direct
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Chapter II: The Development of Retail Spaces in Eighteenth and Nineteenth-Century Britain, France and America
contact between the interior space and the outer world and transformed the
atmosphere of that space’ (Geist, 1983:22). The employment of the skylight as the
sole source of lighting also had the effect of isolating the space from its natural
environment. In so doing, it prevented other perspectives and distractions from
intruding into the consumer space and created a void, therefore directing the
consumer’s attention to the store windows, and to the goods on display.
Another benefit to retailers of the architecture of the arcade lay in its transitory
spaces (Geist, 1983:54). Unlike the popular English bazaars that allowed customer
movement in several ways, the architectural design of arcades directed movement in
only two ways. In entering the enclosed space of the retail arcade, shoppers were
faced with two choices — that of moving from A to B or from B to A. In either
direction, the shopper was faced with large plate glass windows that attracted the
consumer to enter the new stores and, in so doing, encouraged sales.14
Like the development of the bazaars and emporia in England, the development of
the arcade in France altered the French retail space in several ways.15 It moved the
position of French urban retailing away from the street, eliminated direct contact
between the interior space and the outer world, made use of the skylight void and
introduced the concept of the transitionary space. In so doing, these architectural
methods also introduced a space that was ideal and considered necessary for display
purposes. Moreover, as Geist has aptly argued, French retail arcades — like their
English counterparts, the bazaars — often housed ‘a variety of additional
amusements and attractions’ (Geist, 1983:39). As the diary of an Australian minister
visiting Paris indicates with regard to the Palais Royal:
After dinner we proceed to visit some of the most noted places in the Palais
Royal. The extensive building was originally occupied by the Duke of Orleans,
but has subsequently been converted into a mart of general merchandise. The
departments on the first floor are occupied principally by Silversmiths, jewellers,
silk mercers, and dealers in fancy articles. The second story, is occupied as
public caffees, theatres, billiard rooms and richly decorated apartments for the
first restaurateurs in Paris. The higher or top stories are held by artists.
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Chapter II: The Development of Retail Spaces in Eighteenth and Nineteenth-Century Britain, France and America
The Palais Royal forms an immense square, within which is planted rows of
trees forming agreeable promenades. In this place of public resort all grades of
the Parisians are seen: and such are the exhibitions in this one spot, that it may
be called Paris in miniature ... we entered the ‘Cafe de Frois Sultanas’ [sic].
Here, in a room of costly furniture, crimsoned damask sofas and seats, platedglass, gilded columns, and rich lustres, is fixed a throne, on which is seated three
ladies dressed in the costume of the Turkish Sultanesses... we proceeded to the
‘Cafe des Mille Columns.’ Here by illusion of plated glass is represented four
extensive arcades supported by a thousand immense marble columns each, while
every column appears suspended by a beautiful glass lustre. The toute ensemble
is surprisingly magnificent and appears like enchantment. It reminded me of
some of the romantic depictions in those tales of impossibilities of the ‘Arabian
Night Entertainments’. (Greenwood, 19 July, 1824)
As Reverend Greenwood’s journal indicates, retail arcades not only housed elegant
shops but also cafés, billiard rooms, theatres and promenades. Like their English
counterparts, the bazaars and emporia, the French arcades had become social
centres.
The introduction of leisure into the consumer space proved so successful that
another form of the retail space — the grand magasin or department store — was
established in an effort to increase efficiency and to expand trade. However, it must
be emphasised at this point that, while in France the department stores expanded
upon the merchandising mechanisms of the bazaars, emporia, magasins de nouveautés
and the luxury goods stores to the extent that they eventually became more popular
than their predecessors, the new form of store did not wipe out the earlier forms of
retailing. Rather, it simply added diversity to the retail field. All forms of retailing
(including the older, street-fronted drapery and dry goods stores) existed side by side
during this period.16 However, the grands magasins did capture the public’s imagination
and gain market dominance between 1860 and 1920. Andre Sayous argued of this
period that ‘shops with more than one employee had grown in number, while those
without employees had tended to ‘diminuer dans le commerce’ (Sayous, cited in
Miller, 1981:207).
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Chapter II: The Development of Retail Spaces in Eighteenth and Nineteenth-Century Britain, France and America
The Factors that Led to the Dominance of the Department Store as
a Retail Space in the Nineteenth Century
Geist observes that several factors led to the department stores’ success and
dominance in the retail sphere during this period. The first relates to the fact that
most of the managers of the first department stores had received their training in
bazaars and emporia, magasins de nouveautés and dry goods stores. As Miller argues
with regard to the French department stores, ‘nearly all of the future leading
department stores of Paris’ had their origins in the magasins de nouveautés. In addition
to the Bon Marché, we find the origins of the Louvre, the Bazaar de l’Hotel de Ville in the
mid 1850s and the Printemps in 1865 (Miller, 1981:26-28). The new department stores,
then, benefited from earlier models of retailing in that they acquired personnel with
experience in successful retailing methods.
The second factor contributing to the department stores’ success is related to their
methods of display, that were designed to stimulate new demand by educating
customers about the benefits of new goods. Nystrom describes this as ‘showing
customers things about which they might not know anything’ (Nystrom, 1919:259).
Initially, the need to develop display techniques that taught potential customers the
ways in which goods should be used stemmed from the fact that department stores,
like their predecessors in various countries and in various forms, sold novel or new
consumer goods.17 Like the manufacturers and retailers discussed earlier in this and
in the previous chapter, department store managers realised that it was ‘the desire of
Novelties and Things Scarce that causeth Trade’ (Barbon, 1690 cited in McKendrick,
1982:7).
However, while recognising the importance of ‘the new’ or novelty goods in
stimulating trade, department store managers also realised that it was not enough to
simply introduce these goods into the retail sphere. Rather, they realised that it was
necessary to demonstrate to potential customers the ways in which goods should be
used and how such goods would benefit or improve the potential customer’s
lifestyle. Department store managers did this by thematically displaying the goods
they sold within their stores.
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Chapter II: The Development of Retail Spaces in Eighteenth and Nineteenth-Century Britain, France and America
Thematising goods allowed merchants to give their displays a narrative. It allowed
retailers to tell potential customers a story through their window and store displays.
It also allowed retailers to arrange goods in a way that emphasised their function —
be it aesthetic or service-orientated. The departmentalisation of goods further aided
this classification process. Goods were not only displayed according to the ways in
which they should be used. They were also categorised and compartmentalised in a
similar manner. Carpets, drapes, light fittings, ornaments and sofas, for example,
would be placed together in one department or area of the shop while other goods
used in the kitchen, such as pots and pans, plates, cookery dishes and baking trays,
would be found in another area, or department. This system of classification and
departmentalisation was applied to all goods on sale within these new stores.
In grouping goods together according to their function, store managers could
thematise and classify whole departments rather than simply one display. In
extending the display process, departmentalisation also helped potential customers to
come to know and recognise goods or objects according to where they were placed
within a store. For example, tablecloths would be placed alongside other objects used
in the dining room. More often than not, a complete table setting would be set up to
demonstrate how to set a table when entertaining. In this way, departmentalisation
helped potential customers to both classify goods and to appreciate the ways in
which they should be used generically.
At the same time, displays were given an element of fantasy. ‘Pastoral, vacation, and
holiday scenes, even colourful swimming pools with realistic mannequins in the act
of diving off boards and swimming were put in windows.’ So, too, were bedroom
scenes. Wannamaker’s New York store’s April 1927 window display highlighted ‘a
humanly adorable mannequin at one end of her quite modern boudoir with quite
modern underthings [while at other times] human models trying on corsets, corselets,
lingerie and bathrobes were featured in department store windows’ (Leach, 1989:116117). In this sense, department store displays not only thematically set the scenes for
their displays by providing the exact environment in which they should be used, but
also placed emphasis on the correct way to wear clothes — or, of gaining the best
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Chapter II: The Development of Retail Spaces in Eighteenth and Nineteenth-Century Britain, France and America
possible effects — by using the correct accessories with clothing for different
occasions.
However, it was not simply the fact that thematic displays provided the exact
environment in which goods should be used — nor the fact that, as Nystrom argued,
they showed customers things about which they might not know — that stimulated
trade. Other elements of these displays stimulated future trade by creating wants and
desires for the goods on display. The element of fantasy incorporated into the
displays, for example, portrayed the types of pleasure to be gained from obtaining
goods. They told of ‘all the beauty or benefits of the articles. [They told] how easy it
is to possess these things’. (Wannamaker, 1906, cited in Leach, 1989:102)
Wannamaker argued that the stimulation of desire through this method of display
resulted in higher purchasing levels. He stated, ‘At length desire ripens. And where
desire is earnest, the means [to purchase] can always be found.’ (1906:102)
In this sense, store displays were intended to ‘educate desire’. The stimulation of
desire was vital in stimulating future trade. Wannamaker’s statement that once desire
was stimulated the means to purchase would soon be found indicates that he was
well aware of this fact. At this point it is important to underline the fact that this
concept was not new. As mentioned in Chapter I, economic theorists first realised
the relationship between the stimulation of desire and the stimulation of trade in the
1690s when they introduced the model of emulative spending. However, it is
interesting to note that, by the late nineteenth century, the idea that potential trade
could be stimulated by displaying goods in a way that did not simply stress their
usefulness, but rather stimulated a desire for them, can be located in the advertising
techniques of the stores themselves, in trade manuals, and within mainstream
economic thought. For example, a nineteenth-century advertisers' handbook argued
that: ‘The usefulness and value of most things depends, not so much on their own
nature as upon the number of people who can be persuaded to desire and use them’
(An Advertisers’ Guide to Publicity, 1887). These sentiments reiterate William Stanley
Jevons’ comments made in 1871 when he argued that it was the ‘desires to extend his
range of enjoyment, the desire of variety and elegance in dress; and the desire to
build, to ornament and to furnish’ that promoted consumption (Jevons, 1871:102).
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Chapter II: The Development of Retail Spaces in Eighteenth and Nineteenth-Century Britain, France and America
Both Jevons’ economic argument and the advice of the nineteenth-century
advertisers’ handbook underline the fact that the belief that there was a relationship
between the stimulation of desire and the stimulation of consumption was not first
developed and utilised in the early twentieth century as the production theory
suggests. Nor was it limited to America or to American department store owners and
managers, as William Leach suggests in Land of Desire.18 During this period,
department stores in Europe, Britain and Australia were making use of similar
advertising and display techniques in an effort to stimulate demand (Reekie, 1993: 9495).
The third factor contributing to the success of the department stores, between 1850
and 1920, relates to their adaptation of the spatial design of the retail arcades. As
discussed earlier, by the beginning of the nineteenth century the design of the
consumer space was such that it provided a space conducive to display purposes and
encouraged emulative spending. This was particularly so with regard to the principles
incorporated in retail arcades and bazaars.
During the nineteenth century, the architectural design of department stores often
incorporated the same principles as the retail arcades. In 1887, for example,
American John Wannamaker’s Grand Depot was designed to include an arcade. The
Philadelphia Public Ledger describes the store:
The store, No 1313 Chestnut street has been purchased by Mr Wannamaker
and entirely demolished in order to make room for a beautiful arcade, leading
from Chestnut street to his great store. The entrance is handsomely ornamented,
and the arcade is tiled with marble and lighted by day by means of stained glass
skylights, and by night by elaborate chandeliers. (cited in Bronner,
1989:28)
The marketing methods, spatial organisation and display techniques introduced
between 1820 and 1840 were incorporated within the architectural design of the
department store form in various ways. In the instance cited above, Wannamaker
literally incorporated an arcade as an entrance into his department store to emphasise
its grandeur. On the other hand, the Bon Marché made use of the principles of the
skylight because these ‘were considered necessary for display purposes’ (Miller,
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Chapter II: The Development of Retail Spaces in Eighteenth and Nineteenth-Century Britain, France and America
1981:42). In fact, in the period between 1850 and 1900, several buildings from
diverse spheres — educational and commercial — utilised the skylight void as a
means of producing a space cognisant with exhibitionary or display purposes. These
include the Crystal Palace, London (1851), whose design resembles a contemporary
shopping centre in that it is a huge box-like construction with an atrium space; the
Galleria Vittorio Emanuelle, Milan, Italy (1865–67), that is probably the grandest
arcade construction built during this period; and the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris
(1865–69), that also incorporated the skylight void but that, unlike the Crystal Palace,
incorporated several smaller skylights placed within domes. Railway stations, such as
Saint Pancras, were another building type that used the atrium space as a means of
lighting. The Galerie des Machines, at the Paris Exhibition, also used natural lighting
from above to display its exhibits (1889). Finally, John Wannamaker’s Grand Depot
store contained a huge marble arcade lighted by stained glass skylights (0gg, 1987:63–
79; Porter Benson, 1986:19).
The number of buildings that made use of the skylight void for display purposes
during this period is too large to list them all here. However, what needs to be
underlined is the fact that this architectural method can be located across a number
of diverse institutions — educational, cultural and commercial. As Gustave Eiffel
had argued, the benefits of the skylight void as an exhibitionary space had been tried
and tested in the period between 1820 and 1850, and proven necessary for display
purposes in a variety of building types.19 It was then adapted to buildings designed
for the exhibition of goods for educative purposes, both in the commercial and civic
spheres (Bennett, 1988). Here, then, lies one of the reasons why the same
architectural techniques utilised by the arcades and department stores can be located
in nineteenth-century exhibitions, museums and trade halls. It was not simply the
institutions that ‘served as linked sites for the development and circulation of new
disciplines and their discursive formations’ (Bennett, 1988:73); rather, it was the
architectural discourse that produced a space conducive to the display of commercial
goods and objects used for teaching purposes.
The architectural method of the skylight was not the only component of this
architectural discourse incorporated within the design of early department stores.
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Chapter II: The Development of Retail Spaces in Eighteenth and Nineteenth-Century Britain, France and America
Turning once again to the architectural similarities across buildings used for
exhibitionary purposes during this period, it is possible to see that they possessed
other qualities developed in the early arcades of the 1820s. Exhibition halls,
exposition buildings, museums, department stores and bazaars, for example, all
featured galleries and balconies (Bennett, 1988:73). Inside the Bon Marché, ‘immense
gallery opened upon immense gallery, and along the upper floors ran balconies from
that one could view, as a spectator, the crowds and activity below’ (Miller, 1981:167).
Similar features can be found in descriptions of the American department stores
developed after 1850. Porter Benson argues that galleries and balconies were a
‘frequent feature’ of the early American department stores (Porter Benson, 1988:19).
However, the managers of department stores tactically altered the architectural
methods of arcades. Architect L.C. Boileau and engineer Gustav Eiffel, in their
design of the Bon Marché, for example:
Created a skeleton construction that permitted a continuous subdividable space
with holes left for the light shafts. Woodcuts from contemporary journals capture
the tremendous lighted spaces of the Bon Marché and show the glass-covered
interior – for which the arcade prepared the way. However, here the arcade is
now transformed; its arcades are now galleries. From the free-hanging staircases,
one can experience the space in all dimensions. (Geist, 1983:52)
There was also a tactical change in the function of galleries between the arcades and
the department stores. Within the department store, on the inner-most side of the
galleries, the ‘visitor’ was confronted with open displays, whereas in the arcades they
were faced with large plate glass windows of individual shops. The incorporation of
open displays introduced an ambience of the fair and the market while encouraging
shoppers to touch – and even to try – consumer goods. Miller argues that the
significance of the introduction of open displays as a means of encouraging
consumption cannot be minimised (Miller, 1981:167).20 They allowed ‘immediate
gratification felt by the department store customer in the act of purchase, and the
experience of handling the objects and learning more about them’ (Harris, 1978:172).
Open displays therefore acted as object lessons that were tactically used by retailers
to stimulate consumer interest in goods.21
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Chapter II: The Development of Retail Spaces in Eighteenth and Nineteenth-Century Britain, France and America
The incorporation of the architectural principles of galleries within these spaces had
two other major effects upon the consumer/visitor. First, galleries were transitionary
spaces, and therefore directed movement in certain ways. In so doing, galleries
directed the visitor’s attention to displays in a sequential manner. The benefits of
incorporating these principles of the transitionary space into the retail space were
obvious – in directing the consumer’s movement, the retailer could also direct the
consumer’s attention to numerous displays strategically placed along the passageway.
Miller’s description of the Bon Marché illustrates this point.
Inside, the spectacle of flowing crowds intensified, orchestrated by barred
passageways, by cheap tempting goods on the first floor that brought still another
crush to the store’s most observable arena, and by a false disorder that forced
shoppers to travel the breadth of the house. (Miller, 1981:168)
The principles of the transitionary space introduced in the early arcades were
therefore tactically utilised by department store managers to direct the shopper past
as many goods as possible.
However, while Miller is correct in arguing that the principles of the transitionary
space ‘forced shoppers’ to travel in directions tactically mapped out by the retailer, it
was not simply a matter of getting potential customers to pass as many goods as
possible in the hope that this would increase the potentiality of purchase. Other
factors also need to be taken into consideration when analysing the effects of the
incorporation of the transitionary space into the commercial sphere. Once again,
these are related to the ways in which the consumer space operated to teach
customers things about consumer goods they might not previously have known. The
incorporation of the transitionary space aided this process because it allowed the
retailer to tactically direct potential consumers past goods on display in a sequential
manner. In demonstrating the dynamics of this process, it is necessary to explain the
logic behind the design and layout of department stores. As described above, various
departments were set out ‘thematically’ to emphasise the use of goods. However,
they were not placed in the store without order. Rather, each department related to
the one before it according to the ways in which the goods on display were used. For
example, the kitchenware department would not be placed next to the lounge-ware
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Chapter II: The Development of Retail Spaces in Eighteenth and Nineteenth-Century Britain, France and America
department or the salon or library-ware department but would rather be placed near
to the department housing dining room furniture. Similarly, in the fashion
departments, ladies’ attire was placed sequentially: undergarments, outer garments
and accessories. Like the museums, then, ‘department stores were selective
concentrations of merchandise, merchandise grouped by functional categories’
(Harris, 1978:150). Like the museums, department stores served as educational
spaces. However, while museums educated the public from the point of view of civil
society, department stores educated the public to consume. Like their predecessors –
the bazaars, emporia and arcades – department stores incorporated the above
techniques into the consumer space in order to increase and stimulate consumer
interest in, and demand for, their goods on display.
The other way in which the department stores’ use of galleries tactically served to
increase customers’ perception, appreciation and classification of goods is related to
the fact that the department store, as a building type, was designed around a central
void, illuminated from above by a skylight with galleries that allowed a view of the
comings and goings. Here, potential customers could see and be seen. Like the
colonnades of England’s shopping districts, and the use of galleries in arcades,
bazaars and emporia, the use of galleries within department stores was a tactical
strategy on behalf of retailers to provide a consumer space conducive to emulative
spending.
The changes to the interior design of the arcade space to make room for the needs of
the expanding department stores had other practical benefits for retailers. This
returns us to Geist’s comments that Eiffel was well aware that his design not only
provided a space that provided ideal conditions to display goods, but also afforded a
space that permitted a continuous subdividing of that space. Because this change in
design facilitated continuous subdivision, merchants were able to create new
departments and thus do more business with no more expense for rent, taxes,
heating or cooling, and with only the addition of needed clerk hire. At the same time,
the option of adding more departments within existing structures allowed merchants
to diversify and increase stock at very little extra cost.22
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Chapter II: The Development of Retail Spaces in Eighteenth and Nineteenth-Century Britain, France and America
Diversification was a further way in which the consumer space was altered by the
development of the department store. It acted as a stimulus to consumption by not
only increasing the range of goods consumers could purchase, but also by
demonstrating, through the various displays and catalogues, the ways in which the
goods should be used. As Miller argues, ‘fashions were the clearest examples of this.
It was not simply that clothing styles varied from year to year or that complete
changes occurred. There were also entirely new kinds of clothing to fit entirely new
wants.’ (Miller, 1981:185)
Department store managers also introduced the concept of ‘the sale’ as a
merchandising tactic during this period. At this point it is necessary to return to the
discussion of the earlier forms of consumer space such as the bazaars, emporia and
the magasins de nouveautés and their introduction of the principles of free entry and of a
fixed and marked pricing system based on high turnover with a low profit margin.
Integral to this high turnover system was the concept of mass marketing. In order to
sell goods at a high turnover with a low profit margin, retailers needed to purchase
their merchandise in bulk. The factor that determined exactly how much
merchandise was purchased by retailers was their perception of the potential sales
different goods could achieve. Merchants were not always accurate in their
estimations and were often left with stock sitting on the shelf.
The introduction of ‘the sale’ resolved this problem. It was instrumental in
maintaining high turnover by acting as a mechanism that cleared stock that would
otherwise either sit on the shelves or take up valuable space in the stock room. To
clear stock meant to reduce stock. However, often the amount of stock (not on sale)
sold in other departments far outweighed the loss from the sale’s markdowns
because these times were often the busiest of the shopping seasons. As the
description of an early ‘white goods sale’ by the Bon Marché’s secretary suggests:
from eight in the morning the house filled with buyers milling about our white
displays. As always the store was marvellously adorned, her banners lined with
white calico and flowing with pillow lace, her columns wrapped with white
muslin.
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Chapter II: The Development of Retail Spaces in Eighteenth and Nineteenth-Century Britain, France and America
The sight was fairy-like but it was no time to be an idle spectator. Everyone, in
effect, is thrown into the melee, all our supporters are convoked, and mail order
or bureaucrats, firemen, gasmen, workers or cutters, all improvise as sellers, or
at least as debiteurs.
And truly the battle heats up, the crowd presses forward, engulfs the doors,
masses and crushes about the cashiers, assaults the stairways
The sales figure, moreover, is of an eloquence beyond comment. (Jean
Theodore Karcher, 1887, cited in Miller, 1981:121)
Karcher’s reference to the white goods sale above indicates that department stores
did not simply reduce certain goods, but rather held strategic marketing campaigns
around the sales where goods and whole departments were thematised. As
mentioned above, thematising displays gave the goods a narrative that was both
educational and entertaining. Moreover, consumers never tired of looking at them.
Even the most basic of goods, when displayed thematically, had ‘a magical power of
attraction’ (Geist, 1983): ‘Goods and decor blended into one another to dazzle the
senses and to make of the store a great fair and fantasy land of colours, sensations,
and dreams.’ (Miller, 1981:169)
Once again, it is possible to see the ways in which changes in the consumer space
during this period interacted with, and were often linked to, changes in other
institutional sites. Thematic displays were also part of the Exposition Universelle in Paris
in 1861, the Chicago World Fair 1893 and the Paris Exhibition in 1889. The colonial
exhibit at the Paris Exhibition, for example, consisted of a colourful ensemble of
exotic structures – Moslem minarets, Cambodian pagodas, Algerian mosques and
Tunisian casbahs (Silverman, 1977:77).
The similarities between department store displays and expositions was noted in the
American daily newspapers. Commenting upon the influence of the Centennial
Exposition and John Wannamaker’s new store, the Philadelphia Press stated:
As is commonly remarked, a view of the main floor from the antique gallery
west of the Chestnut entrance strikingly recalls the Centennial Exhibition.
There is the same width of display extending about as far as the eye can reach,
the riches of the world brought together from all lands, and representing all
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Chapter II: The Development of Retail Spaces in Eighteenth and Nineteenth-Century Britain, France and America
departments of art and industry, tastefully arranged to be shown with
advantage. There is the same sense of spaciousness and, what is especially
noticeable, the same ample illumination, the whole place being light, bright and
cheerful. (Wannamaker, 1911: 43, see also 44–56, & 67)
Like the expositions, then, that increasingly assembled ‘objects selected with
reference to the possibilities for public enlightenment’ (Bronner, 1989:222),
department stores selected and displayed merchandise in a manner that would point
the customer to the value of certain goods. They demonstrated how those goods
could be used to their best advantage by showing customers aspects of consumer
goods they did not previously know about. In this process, ‘descriptive writing [was]
set aside for pictures, and pictures, in turn, [were] replaced by objects’ (Bronner,
1989:223).
By the 1860s, the consumer space had changed dramatically. Innovative merchants,
in an effort to both ‘tactically’ increase the potentiality of trade and to protect the
immediate health of their businesses, adopted techniques previously employed by
shopkeepers in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. These included making
shop windows attractive and devising means of attracting people into the store, like
entertainment facilities. Moreover, retailers strategically built upon the complex series
of merchandising techniques within the eighteenth century consumer space to attract
and maintain consumer interest to encouraging purchase and to increase profitability.
The adaptation of eighteenth-century architectural techniques first introduced by the
retailers operating in the early French arcades, the English bazaars and emporia and
large, fast-selling stores allowed the nineteenth-century retailer to group goods in a
way that emphasised their value – be it aesthetic or service-orientated. At the same
time, it allowed retailers to demonstrate to customers how to use the goods on
display. In the process of tactically trying to increase the potentiality of custom, the
consumer space became dedicated not only to the retail but also to the
entertainment, education and social spheres. Further, in an effort to attract potential
custom, retailers incorporated aspects of other public spaces – the exhibitions and
expositions, museums, the school room, the huge railway stations and the fairground
– into the consumer space. In turn, these changes introduced diversity into the retail
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Chapter II: The Development of Retail Spaces in Eighteenth and Nineteenth-Century Britain, France and America
space. They introduced a continual updating and revamping of the consumer space
in an effort to continue to attract the potential customer.
However, these were not the only strategies introduced to attract potential customers
into the store. During this period, department store managers strove to make the
consumer space a place where shoppers would and could spend their full day in the
store. By the 1870s, 1880s and 1890s, shopping manners changed. Innovative
merchants realised the advantages that lay in ‘courting’ women customers by settings
that played upon fantasies of luxury (Porter Benson, 1986:20; Miller, 1978:150-151).
European stores provided facilities such as reading rooms that held newspapers and
journals of the day, buffet rooms with luxurious furnishings, salons where paintings
were exhibited free of charge and, of course, the department stores always contained
large and comfortable powder rooms. In fact, the facilities provided by department
store managers for their customers’ service were endless. As Harris argues of the Bon
Marché, if customers ‘needed a place to leave their aged parents or restless children, a
place to meet friends or to arrange rendezvous, or simply a place to repose and
prepare themselves for a return to the galleries, the House was willing to provide
these needs’ (Harris, 1981:186).
Across the Atlantic, department stores also boasted amenities such as ‘reading and
sitting rooms, wheel chairs for old or infirm customers, “dark rooms” lit so women
could examine gowns to see how they’d look under dim ballroom gaslight, tables
where customers could sit and sample food, and even “silence rooms” for “nervefrazzled shoppers”. Wannamaker’s also offered a free sick room with a doctor in
attendance.’ (Hendrickson, 1979:46)
Daniel Casey argued in 1908 that public amenities were provided by department
store management:
for purposes wholly apart from buying. They [department stores] spend
thousands of dollars yearly for a purpose that has no apparent connection with
the selling of goods. Their object is to get people in the store and surround them
with subtle influences that will metamorphose visitors into customers. For the
shopping, bargaining instinct is substituted for a friendly confidence more
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Chapter II: The Development of Retail Spaces in Eighteenth and Nineteenth-Century Britain, France and America
valuable to the store than if all customers had come with a definite purpose of
purchasing. (Casey, 1908:461)
In particular, department stores lent themselves to be used by women as social sites
where they could:
relax in a restaurant to the music of live musicians, refresh themselves with a
hot bath, or distract themselves by attending a lecture, viewing an art exhibition,
or planning a vacation at the travel bureau…Indoor playgrounds amused their
children with such distractions as miniature zoos and fish ponds with
mechanical boats. Rooms were also made available free of charge at different city
stores to women’s organisations for their meetings.23 (Porter Benson, 1986:
85: DGE 64, May 1910:39)
The reasoning behind the marketing strategy is extremely interesting. Paul Nystrom
argues that leisure, entertainment and the provision of non-retail amenities continued
to be used by department stores in Europe, America and Australia as a tactical
strategy ‘to attract people to the store, and to get them into the habit of coming’
(Nystrom, 1919: 250, 251).
In conclusion, department stores built upon earlier merchandising mechanisms to
become the most popular form of retailing in the nineteenth century. They continued
to dominate the retail sphere in their size, scale and popularity during the first three
decades of the twentieth century for three reasons. First, the pedagogic functions
incorporated in their display techniques developed over the 200 years not only
encouraged immediate sales, but also encouraged future sales by stimulating desires.
Second, the incorporation of leisure facilities and amenities within the consumer
space developed consumer loyalty. Third, and most importantly, no other single
building type – apart from the glazed shopping arcade (the development of which
had come to an abrupt halt in the early years of the twentieth century) – had
succeeded in capturing the public’s imagination. No other single building type shifted
the function of the consumer space away from an environment that ‘existed solely to
fulfil customers’ needs’ to one ‘designed and planned to attract new customers and
create new wants’ and new needs (Leach, 1989:116-117). Moreover, no other single
building type was successful in taking on economic and cultural characteristics so
that they were both places ‘to visit’ and places ‘to purchase goods’.
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Chapter II: The Development of Retail Spaces in Eighteenth and Nineteenth-Century Britain, France and America
Notes
1 Miller’s The Bon Marché is a typical example. He argues that, previous to the advent of the
department store, no attempt was made to make shopping a pleasurable activity.
2 Dorothy Davis has argued of the eighteenth-century retail space that it ‘does not sound as though
shelves and cupboards were plentiful; it is more suggestive of brown-paper parcels heaped in back
rooms and attics’ (Davis, 1966:193).
3 Defoe estimated the cost of fitting out a brazier’s shop at £500, a pastry cook's at £300. See Mui
and Mui (1989:22).
4 It is interesting to note that Defoe groups the makers of various forms of goods with the owners of
shops. When Defoe made this comment, manufacturers often had store frontages to market their
goods that they sold at very reasonable prices. Like various storeowners, these manufacturers
made use of innovative retailing techniques.
5
The term ‘ready money’ was used to refer to cash payment as opposed to instalments. It was
often the custom for goods to be purchased on a promissory note and shopkeepers often had
problems in receiving monies owed to them. See Chapter 12 of Mui and Mui (1989).
6 For an excellent discussion of this point see McKendrick et al (1982, chapter 3).
7 One of the commonly held beliefs in recent literature on the nineteenth-century consumer space
is that shopping as a social activity did not exist before the advent of the department store (Walsh,
1999:58). Yet, as has been discussed above, window shopping was a common occupation in
London streets from the early 1700s. Other diary entries from the 1800s define the typical middle class social activities as ‘shopping in Hackney or other coaches in the morning, Visits, Music or
Reading, occupying the space from Breakfast .till four, five or six o’clock’ (Malcolm, 1808:133).
8 At the same time, by changing the consumer space from a space purely concerned with the
exchange of goods to a space that combined shopping with leisure and entertainment, the leisure
principle allowed shopkeepers to display goods in an atmosphere not purely associated with basic
needs, but rather with wants and desires.
9 For a discussion of the role object lessons, see Simon Bronner (1989:217-255).
10 Strict rules applied to all tenants as to their behaviour, dress and attendance of their stalls. For
example, stall-holders were expected, ‘under penalty of One Shilling’, to be on the premises by
eight o’clock in the morning so that all stalls were ‘properly set by half past nine’ (cited in
Adburgham, 1964:19).
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Chapter II: The Development of Retail Spaces in Eighteenth and Nineteenth-Century Britain, France and America
11 Altick defines a diorama as 'a flat picture with an illusion of depth and, most important, capable
of changes in lighting so dramatic as to alter its whole aspect' (Altick, 1978:163).
12 Davis and Hower point out that the Quakers in England also introduced a fixed pricing policy in
England as early as the seventeenth century. See Davis (1966:152-513) and (Hower, 1964:89).
13 Note here that Geist is referring to the retail arcade. The first retail arcades were not developed
until after 1822 (Benjamin, 1969:157). Of course, the arcades existed as early as 1786-88 (Geist,
1983:66) and there are several detailed social histories of the arcade describing this time period.
But it was not until the development of glass and steel, that provided a totally weather-proof cover
to the space, and the discovery of the educational benefits of providing public spaces that permitted
undisturbed public promenading, that the retail arcades were used by retailers as a means of
educating the public in modes of consumption. The differences in the retail arcade before 1820 and
those developed after this period, for example, were vast. The arcades constructed previous to
1820 (six in Paris, two in London and one in Brussels) suffered from inferior lighting, a lack of allweather protection and allowed fewer than 3 metres width for public promenading. The retail
ventures housed within the pre-1820s arcades, because they mainly consisted of open booths, also
suffered from inferior merchandising techniques and were not as popular as the shops housed in
later developments (Kolloff, 1849:113-114; Geist, 1983:68).
14 This point will be discussed in more detail below, particularly the benefits of restricting the
movement of consumers through a transitionary space, that were soon recognised and adopted to
suit other forms of urban retailing, such as the department store.
15 Geist has argued that in England the bazaar was a more popular than the arcade in Britain for
consumer spaces during the early nineteenth century.
16 See Michael Miller (1981:206-09) for an excellent discussion of competition between different
retail forms during this period especially note 36.
17 Both Rachel Bowlby and Michael Miller have commented on the pervasive impact of 'the new' in
stimulating trade. Bowlby, for example, argues:’The introduction of the nouveaute as a value marks
the transition from the commercial order based on the supplying of regular, constant demand, to
one largely based on saleability: on presenting an object in a novel, desirable light irrespective on
any pre-existing need’ (Bowlby, 1985:67,68).
Similarly, Michael Miller has commented with regard to merchandising strategies introduced by the
proprietor of the Bon Marché, that we witnessed, 'with the coming of the new – perhaps one of the
first instances in what was to become the most powerful urge behind the culture of consumption –
the belief that new meant better, and hence indispensable' (Miller, 1981:185,186).
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Chapter II: The Development of Retail Spaces in Eighteenth and Nineteenth-Century Britain, France and America
Here, Bowlby and Miller claim developments within the French retailing system were responsible for
the introduction and promotion of 'the new' as a means of stimulating trade. The English examples
of retailing entrepreneurship discussed in Chapter II bring into question Bowlby's and Miller's
reliance upon the French model. As discussed above, the quote from The London Tradesman, in its
catalogue of 'all the trades', recognised the pervasive impact of new fashions on the most diverse
employment as early as 1747. By 1770, the pervasive impact of the new had certainly affected
English manufacturing and retailing systems. Changes in fashion had accelerated to such a rate
that modes of fashion changed annually rather than lasting ten to twelve years as had previously
been the case. Further, advertisements highlighting the fact that speciality stores sold the latest
novelty items and fashionable goods were a common merchandising strategy of English retailers by
1800.
18 In particular, note his comments on page 11 that the 'United States was the first country in the
world to have an economy devoted to mass production, and it was the first to create the mass
consumer institutions' (Leach, 1993:11).
19 Visual evidence from eighteenth-century trade cards demonstrates that shopkeepers made use
of the atria to highlight goods via natural lighting (Heal, 1925).
20 Zola wrote 'women are dazzled by the accumulation of merchandise. This is what has made the
success of the grand magasins' (cited in Miller, 1981:167).
21 For an excellent discussion of the role of consumer goods as object lessons in this period, see
Simon Bronner (1989: 217-254).
22 See Porter Benson (1988:14-16) for an elaboration of this point.
23 The Dry Goods Economist (DGE) notes that in Providence, one department store set aside
space for one women's organisation’s food sales (DGE 64, May 1910:39).
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Chapter III: The Selling Machines: From Department Store
to Department Store Mall, 1900 – 1980
Chapter III: The Selling Machines: From Department Store to Department Store Mall, 1900 – 1980
Introduction
The tensions between the economic and the social, moral and educative role of
consumer spaces are further examined in this chapter. The work of Philp (1866),
Perry (1924), Casson (1928), Stein and Bauer (1928), Nichols (1945), Baker & Funaro
(1950), Jefferys (1954), Gruen (1973), Griffin (1977), Shaffer (1982), Gillette (1985)
Rowe (1991) and others is called upon to chart the shifts that occurred in the
development of consumer spaces between 1920 and late 1960s. It is argued that,
between 1920 and 1940, shifts in patterns of urban development in America
contributed to the development of a new form of consumer space — the suburban
shopping centre. The development of the suburban shopping centre in America
proved to be highly successful. Its development resulted in a series of different forms
of shopping centres evolving between 1920 and today. The most popular of these
was the introvert centre or enclosed shopping mall designed by Victor Gruen. In the
twenty years between 1950 and 1970, introvert shopping centres became highly
popular with the consuming public, shopping centre developers and designers. This
resulted in variations of the model being adapted and transplanted in different
suburbs and cities throughout the world. The development of shopping centres and,
in particular, the development of the introvert shopping mall is traced in this
chapter.. In so doing, the continuities in retailing methods, display techniques and
design methods that exist between nineteenth- and twentieth-century retailing are
mapped.
Two quite distinct approaches to the development of shopping centres in early
twentieth-century literature discussing the development of consumer spaces are
located in this chapter. The first stemmed from an urban planning perspective. It was
influenced by the Greenfield communities developed by the New Deals’
Resettlement Administration (Stein & Bauer 1934; Stein, 1971; Schaffer, 1982:160161; Gillette, 1985:450) and by the development of the neighbourhood-planning
concept in the 1920s and 1930s. The second approach stemmed from a developerdriven perspective that was mainly concerned with build shopping centres that
maximised profitability. Here, developers were not concerned with including
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Chapter III: The Selling Machines: From Department Store to Department Store Mall, 1900 – 1980
amenities in shopping centres to improve upon civic or social fabric of the
community-life but were rather concerned purely with profit maximisation.
Alongside these two distinct development approaches, two different development
rhetorics can be located existing side by side in the period between 1920 and 1960.
The chapter points to the fact that by the mid-1960s only one development logic
motivated by purely commercial reasons had survived. Further, the chapter flags the
fact that while a ‘developer speak’ can still be located within the literature produced
by developers in post 1960 shopping centre industry literature, most of the
development that has made any linkage between the commercial and civic or public
space in shopping centres since the late 1960s has largely been motivated by purely
commercial reasons.
At this point, the chapter maps the ways in which shopping centre developers
became increasingly dependant upon market surveys to ascertain what type of
facilities would be most profitable for an area. The chapter examines the interaction
between market analysis, merchandising and the streamlining of the shopping centre
from 1940 to 1960. It argues that from the 1950s, that, rather than an interest in
contributing to, and improving upon the civic or social fabric of community life, it
was market analysis and profit motives that influenced the development of the
shopping centre form. The next section of this chapter charts these events.
1900 to 1940: Strategies of Enticement and the Dominance of the
Department Store
By the first half of the twentieth century, the principle of free entry had become so
widespread within the retail sphere that it was taken for granted. Similarly, the
practices of a fixed pricing policy, comparison-shopping, the exchange of goods and
money-back guarantees were so ubiquitous that few questioned their history. At the
same time, while all forms of consumer space adopted the principles of free entry,
the beginnings of a pecking order of consumer spaces had developed that not only
affected the ways in which different types of consumer space functioned but also
affected the location, layout, design and the types of services they offered to the
public. This pecking order was (and still is) both hierarchical and function-based. It
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Chapter III: The Selling Machines: From Department Store to Department Store Mall, 1900 – 1980
was (and still is) divided into functional categories or sub-groups with components
such as the corner shop and supermarkets occupying the lower and more mundane
levels associated with ‘needs-based’ shopping; while department stores occupied the
higher levels associated with pleasure, ‘wants and desires’. Further, because this
pecking order was organised functionally, the department store form remained the
dominant leisure-based consumer space well into the late 1950s.
Several factors contributed to the dominance of the department store form as the
most thought-of and most used consumer space for leisure-based purposes during
this era. The first relates to the fact that, between 1900 and 1930, the various forms
of consumer space, such as the cooperatives in England, and the chain stores or
variety stores in America and Australia, simply did not offer the same range of goods
─ nor did they display the goods they stocked as effectively ─ as their counterparts
the department stores. As James Jefferys argues with regard to English department
stores: ‘The wide range of goods they stocked, the effective display of these goods
and, particularly in the inter-war years, the freedom of customers to inspect without
obligation to buy, remained major attractions of department stores.’ (Jefferys
1954:59) Moreover, as Paul Nystrom had argued in 1919, advantages of the
department store in competition were ‘its convenience for shoppers, the many lines
under one roof, the special services that are so attractive to many people, and the
display of goods on all sides of the many different lanes’(Nystrom, 1919:259).
Further, as outlined by Nystrom and suggested in the previous chapter, department
store display methods gave them a competitive edge because they actually stimulated
new demand by showing to customers things about which they might not know
anything (Nystrom, 1919:259). Like their nineteenth-century counterparts, twentiethcentury department store managers did this by thematising the consumer space.
Consumer goods were placed in a setting that demonstrated how and in what
manner or circumstances goods should be used. In this sense, then, department store
windows not only thematically set the scenes for their displays by providing the exact
environment in which they should be used, but also placed emphasis on using the
correct accessories with clothing for different occasions.
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Chapter III: The Selling Machines: From Department Store to Department Store Mall, 1900 – 1980
While thematic displays continued to be used by department store managers to both
educate consumers and stimulate trade, leisure, entertainment and amenities were
also used by department stores in Europe, Britain, America and Australia as a tactical
strategy 'to attract people to the store, and to get them into the habit of coming'1
(Nystrom, 1919:250, 251). Here department stores ─ ‘under the guise of public
service institutions’ ─ came to be viewed as club houses and meeting places. They
often contained ‘rest rooms, silence rooms for nerve-tired shoppers, reading and
writing rooms, restaurants, information bureaus, post-offices, telephone booths, and
telegraph stations for the unrestricted use of all’ (Nystrom, 1919:250-251). Moreover,
these facilities were usually provided free of charge in an attempt to create customer
loyalty.
The third, and most important, reason for the continued dominance of the
department store form in the first half of the twentieth century lies in the fact that no
other single building type — apart from the glazed shopping arcade (the
development of which had come to an abrupt halt in the early years of the twentieth
century) — had succeeded in capturing the public’s imagination. No other single
building type shifted the function of the consumer space away from an environment
that ‘existed solely to fulfil customers’ needs’ to one ‘designed and planned to attract
new customers and create new wants’. Moreover, no other single building type was
successful in taking on economic and cultural characteristics so that they were both
places ‘to visit’ and places ‘to purchase goods’.
Several attempts were made in America in the period between 1900 and 1950 to
develop integrated shopping districts that not only serviced consumer needs but also
catered to the public's social, educational and entertainment needs. But these were
not entirely successful. The next section of this chapter examines these
developments.
Shopping Towns USA, 1908 – 1950: The Strategic Linking of Civic
and Consumer Spaces
The earliest American shopping centre developments were designed to service
existing suburban communities. They were simply retail strips, containing needs79
Chapter III: The Selling Machines: From Department Store to Department Store Mall, 1900 – 1980
based shops such as a grocery store, a hardware store, dry cleaners and vegetable
markets. Parking facilities were placed either at the front or back of the stores,
depending on the centre’s street location. This form of shopping centre dates back as
far as 1908 to Baltimore’s Roland Park (Gillette, 1985; Mckever & Griffin, 1977,
Rowe, 1991:110-115). However, various forms of the retail strip are still in existence
today in America and in Australia.
The first planned integrated shopping centre – Market Square, Lake Forest, Illinois –
differed from the early strip centres in that it was strategically planned not simply to
be used as a convenient place to stop and shop, but also to be used as a meeting
place. Here designers and urban planners included civic space in the form of the
market square in the hope that it would be used as a site of congregation for the
surrounding population. Like its name suggests, the centre was designed so that the
shops faced a central court, or market square. The footpaths, like the central square,
were tree-lined, providing a tranquil atmosphere for shoppers.
The growth of this type of centre was modest in the 1920s and 1930s, when only a
few centres were opened ─ notably Upper Darby Centre in Philadelphia (1927),
Highland Park in Dallas (1931), and River Oaks centre in Houston (1937) (Hoyt,
1960). However, shopping centres continued to receive growing attention in the
building of new towns in America, starting with Radburn, New Jersey in 1928 and
continuing in the 1930s with the three Greenfield communities developed by the
New Deals’ Resettlement Administration (Stein & Bauer 1934; Stein, 1971; Schaffer,
1982:160-161; Gillette, 1985:450). The development of the neighbourhood-planning
concept in the 1920s and 1930s ─ an attempt to instil civic pride through physical
design ─ encouraged planners to place the shopping centre alongside the school and
the playground. Clarence Perry, the chief figure behind the movement, claimed that a
planned neighbourhood district:
with its physical demarcation, its planned recreational activities, its accessible
shopping centres, and its convenient circulatory system ─ all integrated and
harmonized by artistic designing ─ would furnish the kind of environment
where vigorous health, a rich social life, civic efficiency, and a progressive
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Chapter III: The Selling Machines: From Department Store to Department Store Mall, 1900 – 1980
community consciousness would spontaneously develop and permanently flourish.
(Perry, 1924:421 in Gillette, 1985:450)
The developments of the 1920s and 1930s then, included civic spaces and public
amenities such as libraries, community centres and galleries to improve upon the
quality of urban life.2
More ambitious, and ultimately more influential, was J.C. Nichols’ Country Club
Plaza in Kansas City, Missouri, that aimed to build a whole town around the Plaza
shopping centre. Believing that increased trade would help build up a town centre,
Nichols borrowed from the English garden city ideal in designing the Plaza. In
particular, Nichols borrowed its effort to integrate residential development with
environmental amenities by lavishing his centre with features previously reserved for
the biggest and most dominant of downtown department stores. These included art
objects, small parks, benches and fountains, and a variety of community activities,
from an annual Spanish Fiesta to free bridge lessons, dog shows and an outdoor art
fair (Gillette, 1985; Baker & Funaro, 1950; Nichols 1945; National Real Estate Journal,
February 1939).
Following Nichols’ example, and taking advantage of the post-war demand for
housing, developers in America built other planned developments around central
shopping facilities in the 1940s. These included Park Forest, Illinois and Levittown,
New York. Described by one source as ‘a modern version of the town green’, the
central store group in Levittown included a playground and a nursery (Baker &
Funaro, 1950; Gillette, 1985). During this period, businessmen were using shopping
facilities as strategic elements in their development strategies while, at the same time,
urban theorists began to conceive shopping centres as a vehicle for social and civic
reform.
Like many newly constructed European central business districts, the late 1940s
American shopping centre designs were also influenced by Le Corbusier’s 1945 plan
for the reconstruction of Saint-De, that organised the retail function of the city so
that consumer spaces were accommodated in a single building block that, along with
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Chapter III: The Selling Machines: From Department Store to Department Store Mall, 1900 – 1980
those for other designated uses of the central area ─ culture administration, sport
and so on ─ sat on an open pedestrian podium (Maitland, 1988:7).
Le Corbusier’s model opened up the consumer space and effectively reversed the
pattern of solid and void in the traditional city (Maitland, 1988:7). The openness of
Le Corbusier’s 1945 model meant that, rather than act as transitory consumer spaces
that directed movement in certain ways (and, in so doing, also directed the visitor's
attention to window displays in a sequential manner) the plan encouraged disruption
in the shopper’s route. Because of this, the plan also effectively blocked store
managers from linking consumer spaces thematically. Further, although the new
centres incorporated entertainment and leisure pursuits into the consumer space,
they did not introduce it in the same sense as their counterparts, the department
stores. While entertainment and leisure were introduced into the twentieth-century
consumer space so the type of entertainment first introduced into the early shopping
form acted as a distraction to the act of purchasing goods. It was not linked to the
stores or the goods they had on display, but rather was there purely to entertain the
public and to prolong the shopping expedition.
Due to the factors outlined above, the earliest attempts at producing an integrated
shopping atmosphere failed to produce a consumer space that both catered to
consumer needs and, at the same time, worked to create new wants and desires.
However, they were never meant to do so. In Centres for the Urban Environment: Survival
of Our Cities, Victor Gruen argues that there were two distinct approaches to
shopping centre development co-existing in the 1950s and 1960s. The first argued
that ‘shopping centres should be scientifically designed ‘machines for selling’, and
that everything that distracts the shopper from ‘doing his duty’ in making the cash
register ring as often as possible should be discouraged’ (Gruen, 1973:22). While the
second approach argued that it was more profitable to the merchant and beneficial to
the shopper, if the retail function is located alongside as many non-retail functions as
possible. ‘This conviction expresses itself in the inclusion of as many non-retail urban
functions within the centre as feasible, in creating opportunities for cultural, artistic,
and social events and in striving for an environmental climate and atmosphere that in
itself becomes an attraction for the inhabitants of a region’ (Gruen, 1973:22).
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The early American shopping centre developments, then, were not intended to be
‘pure selling machines’. The fact that the early shopping centre developments were
not solely developed for profit becomes particularly apparent when surveying not
only the open plans of the early centres, but also the way in which they sought to
include as many facilities as possible – such as libraries, sports centres, theatres and
even club houses – to enhance the quality of urban life.
However, while the pre-1950s shopping centres were not designed as pure selling
machines, their development created suburban modes of consumption and modes of
travelling that were highly influential in the development of shopping centres
designed purely for the retail function. These were the regional centres. Regional
centres were first described by planners and architects as ‘one-stop shopping
centers’. They were first developed in America in the mid 1950s in response to a
boom in suburban spending, changes in retailing and population trends and the
growing use of the automobile (Baker & Funaro, 1951:4; Harris, 1975; Gruen 1973;
Gillette, 1985:450; Maitland, 1988:11, Rowe, 1991: 118-123). During this period,
market analysts utilised the 1950 census data to emphasise the fact that there was ‘an
even sharper suburban movement than business had expected. Suburban populations
were up 70 percent in some districts, compared to gains as low as 2 percent inside
some big U.S. cities.’ (Gruen, 1973: 20) What was of even greater relevance to
developers and department store owners was the fact that it was middle- and upperincome families who had moved to the suburbs. Furthermore, census findings on
retail sales indicated that these families were also spending their disposable incomes
in the suburbs. In 1948, ‘suburban retail sales were up 227 percent over 1939 figures
as compared to a rise of 177 percent for stores inside the 32 biggest U.S. cities’
(Gruen, 1973:20).
Other data pointed to the fact that the shift away from public transport to the use of
private automobiles had also affected shopping patterns so that custom was moving
away from the city centres to the suburbs. In Los Angeles for example, 33 percent of
the total sales were completed in the downtown stores in 1929. By 1949 the latter
captured only 12.5 percent of the total retail sales. Experts pointed to the fact that:
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Chapter III: The Selling Machines: From Department Store to Department Store Mall, 1900 – 1980
[t]he automobile has become the preferred method of transportation. Drive-in
movie theatres are now commonplace features of the landscape everywhere in the
US. In Texas, this has been carried one stage further – a drive-in concert. In
Hollywood (that of course is in the stage beyond Texas) there is a drive-in
church. And in White Plains, a New York suburb, they are trying out
mailboxes that may be used by motorists without dismounting. (Baker &
Funaro 1951: 6,7)
The growing dependence upon the car and use of ‘one-stop’ suburban sites of
leisure, worship and business pursuits, together with statistical evidence that pointed
to a strong suburban market, thus motivated American merchants to develop a ‘onestop’ shopping environment. In 1954, the Architectural Forum argued that these new
centres would manage the demands of vehicular traffic, parking and shopping in a
way that downtown retail districts were unable to do.
This introduces another influential factor in the shift from inner city to suburban
retail development. It relates to the inability of downtown retail districts to cope with
the demands of heavy traffic, parking and pedestrian shopping networks. This crisis
became increasingly apparent in America during the mid-1940s when, following the
success of petrol stations, ‘who were the first to realise the possibilities of running
after their customers on the highway by setting up stations outside the towns’ (Baker
& Funaro, 1951:10, Rowe, 1991:110-115), retail businesses began moving out of the
central business districts to less expensive sites along the highway. In retrospect,
Victor Gruen – the designer of the first fully enclosed, climate-controlled shopping
centre – argues that:
At first hesitantly, then in droves, the merchants followed their customers to the
suburbs. They settled along arterial roads in endless rows in order to catch the
eye and the pocket book of their potential customers as they drove on their way
between their home and work. (Gruen, 1973:19)
These strip centres became popularly known as ‘miracle miles’. Here, huge neon
signs competed for the attention of potential customers driving past on their way
home from work. However, the ‘miracle miles’ proved less than miraculous. They
were unable to fulfil two completely opposing functions: that of facilitating the
movement of thousands of automobiles and that of stopping people in order to
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Chapter III: The Selling Machines: From Department Store to Department Store Mall, 1900 – 1980
induce them to buy. The Architectural Forum of 1950 described, ‘highway strip
development where parking shoppers and road crossing shoppers mixed to make a
first rate traffic hazard’ (Architectural Forum, August, 1950). Moreover, because the
only parking facilities provided at these sites were situated at the back of the stores,
customers often used back entrances (Architectural Forum, August 1950; Gruen, 1973:
18-19).
Because of this, the elaborate window displays were often wasted on busy shoppers,
and window-shopping became impossible due to the dangers associated with traffic
congestion. The strip centres were therefore not only inadequate from a marketing
perspective, but they also proved to be a safety problem. Roads were hopelessly
congested by those who parked at the curb side, by pedestrians crossing from stores
on one side of the street to those located on the other side, and by trucks delivering
and collecting goods (see Baker & Funaro, 1951; Gruen & Smith, 1954; Gruen, 1973,
Rowe 1991:112). Thus, as Gruen argues:
The same hostile public environment, that triggered off the development of the
nineteenth-century arcade, repeated itself. 3 The time was ripe for a new idea, for
a new concept, for a new type of common effort by merchants to assure their
continued existence by establishing a superior environment for their shoppers.
(Gruen 1973:19)
Twentieth-century merchants, like their nineteenth-century counterparts, therefore
tactically developed a new concept in retailing ─ the ‘one stop’ or regional shopping
centre. According to geographer Peter Muller, the development of regional shopping
centres represented a shift in retailing from passively following a dispersing
population to actively shaping the outer metropolitan regions around retailing centres
(Muller, 1981:122; Gillette, 1985:450). It also denotes a shift away from a system
interested in providing consumer spaces alongside other civic and social amenities to
a developer-driven model interested in creating a consumer space designed to
actively create the desire for goods. As Gruen argues of the time:
With few exceptions, the developers’ motives changed. Those who planned
shopping centres were no longer owners of department stores anxious to enhance
the reputations of their family empires and earnestly responsible toward future
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Chapter III: The Selling Machines: From Department Store to Department Store Mall, 1900 – 1980
generations, but anonymous real estate entrepreneurs who in the best cases were
responsible professionals and in the worst promoters and speculators who just
wanted to make a fast buck. The idea of serving the needs of an established
neighbourhood was supplanted by the belief that if one could build a shopping
machine large and powerful enough it could be located almost anywhere, on the
cheapest land available, and because of its gigantic scale people would flock to it
even if they were forced to travel dozens of miles. (Gruen, 1978:351)
Here, Gruen flags another important difference in the logic behind the development
of the regional centres and the development of earlier strip centres. Regional centres
were not simply designed to attract the attention of the passer by. Rather, developers
intended that they become an attraction in themselves. Like their counterparts, the
department stores, that provided amenities in the hope of developing ‘the habit of
visiting the store’, the new regional centres hoped to establish the habit of visiting the
shopping centre. Gruen further argued:
They will welcome the hordes of automobiles that approach them, providing easy
access and ample free parking space. They will offer restfulness, safety, and
aesthetic values. They can become places where suburbanites will visit for a short
shopping trip, and also centres where they will want to congregate for many
hours ─both days and evenings. (Gruen, 1978:351)
It seems paradoxical that Gruen was heavily involved in the development of these
centres when today he is one of their most ardent critics. However, even in the
period when Gruen was responsible for the development of new techniques in
shopping centre design, he did not encourage the building of centres solely dedicated
to retail. In his 1943 plans published in Architectural Forum, Gruen envisaged
shopping centres as containing a community centre within the retail space. His initial
plans stated:
All necessities of day-to-day living can be found in the shopping centre: post
office, circulating library, doctors’ and dentists’ offices, and rooms for club
activities, in addition to the usual retail facilities. Shopping thus becomes a
pleasure, recreation instead of a chore.
Larger centres could be based on the same principle, covering several blocks.
Automobile traffic could be diverted around such centres or if necessary, under
them. (Gruen 1943:25)
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Gruen continued to argue for the social role of the shopping centre form. Ten years
later, in 1952, he perceived shopping centres as:
a new outlet for that primary human instinct to mingle with other humans ─
to have social meetings, to relax together, to enjoy art, music, concert activities,
the theatre, films, good food, and entertainment in the company of others.
(Gruen & Smith, 1952:68)
In order for the new centres to be used in this way, Gruen argued that they should
include such features as ‘greenhouses, play areas, band shells, outdoor theatres,
outdoor fashion shows, miniature zoos, outdoor shows of painting or sculpture,
flower shows and picnic grounds’ (Gruen & Smith, 1952:68). While Gruen stressed
the civic benefits of including these types of amenities within the consumer space, he
was also very much aware the economic benefit of prolonging the time consumers
spent in the retail space. He states:
That this is a thoroughly practical concept becomes obvious if one considers that
a shopping centre that is a civic, cultural, and social centre will develop magnetic
powers to attract more people and hold them for a longer time than if it were
only a commercial centre. More people ─ for more hours ─ means cash registers
ringing more often and for longer periods. (Gruen & Smith, 1952:68)
Clearly Gruen argued for the inclusion of civic, cultural and social spaces with the
retail sphere as a tactical manoeuvre not only to increase the centres’ powers to
attract custom, but also to keep that custom within the consumer space for a longer
duration. Here, then, it is possible to see the ways in which the economic benefits of
including civic, cultural and social amenities appealed to the two quite distinct
philosophical approaches to shopping centre development. It appealed to the first
approach from the perspective of improving the quality of urban life while it
appealed to the second approach from a purely economic perspective.
An important difference to note between the two approaches, and, correspondingly,
the quite distinct shopping centre developments, however, was that from the 1950s it
is economic reasons rather than philanthropic or civic values that have been the main
factor affecting the design of the shopping centre form. In the course of their
development, shopping centres became increasingly selective in the type of amenities
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and facilities they provided free of charge within the retail space. Gruen’s ideas that
shopping centres should include civic spaces and public amenities were not fulfilled
in the years between 1950 and 1970. In fact, they have never been realised to
complete fruition.
Instead, the new 'one-stop' centres were increasingly based upon purely commercial
criteria. They included only those facilities that were considered as magnets to the
surrounding populations. Northgate in Seattle, Washington provided a children's
playground that boasted ‘a carnival atmosphere’ (Gruen & Smith, 1952:70) for its
customers, while Stones Town Centre in San Francisco included an office building, a
restaurant and community centre.4 In this instance a children's playground was
considered necessary because it enabled the mother to shop without the distraction
of young ones and would therefore act as incentive to prolong the time spent within
the consumer space. After all, as Gruen and Smith argued, the more people and the
longer their shopping visit the greater chance of more money being spent (Gruen &
Smith, 1952:68).
By the early 1950s decisions about the types of facilities that should be included
within new centres were heavily influenced by the growing professions of market
analysis and merchandising. Decisions regarding the type of facilities that would draw
custom were based upon market research into the needs of an area. This information
then fed into a merchandising plan for the new centres. The next section of this
chapter examines this process.
Market Research, Merchandising and Streamlining Shopping
Centres to Maximise Profit
Market research, or the concern with measuring the influences that stimulated
‘consumer demand,’ had steadily been utilised within the retail sphere in the period
between 1900 and 1950.5 During this period, it is possible to locate a growing
awareness of the need to measure, classify, and quantify markets and market
potential. This is accompanied by the development of data that monitor the sales of
goods, demographic trends, and household expenditure with ‘consumer engineering’.
In Australia, ‘the vocabulary of sales experts included by the late 1920s such concepts
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as market analysis, believed to be the scientific study of desires and habits of the
female consumer, and market promotion’ (Reekie, 1993:106). Similar trends are
apparent in America, where by 1919 the term ‘consumer demand’ was increasingly
used among producers and advertisers (Nystrom, 1919:43).
A common theme dominates the literature dealing with consumer statistics in the
early 1900s. It is exemplified in a 1928 handbook, entitled The Art of Customer-Finding:
The hunt for new customers! This is the new idea that is now coming to the
front of business. Customer-finding! Every new customer means a new job. It
means increasing the sales of our shops and the output of our factories.
We must now become keenly interested in the people who do not buy from us.
We must study their wishes and their buying habits. This applies, as you can
see, to the smallest retail shop and the largest factory alike. Buyers must be
sought out. (Casson, 1928:13)
Implicit within Casson's reference is the concept of the potential customer and,
indeed an expandable market that, he argues on the previous page, can be developed
by… ‘Market Research! The hunt for possible customers! [that is ] ...the new idea
that is coming to the front of business’(Casson, 1928:12). Further, Casson suggests
that if shopkeepers are to increase their custom, they must study the wishes and the
shopping habits of the people who ‘do not buy from us’.
The principles of Casson’s concept of customer finding were not new. Similar
sentiments regarding the importance of researching the needs of the marketplace are
expressed in an 1866 publication entitled The Handybook of Shopkeeping, that states:
Capitalists, large or small, when they contemplate going into business, should
consider well the nature of the trade they propose to carry on; the population,
wants, and habits of the locality; and the extent to which they are already
supplied. (Philp, 1866:8)
An understanding of the population’s wants and habits and the location of potential
customers, was considered good retail practice well before Casson penned The Art of
Customer Finding. Many retailers and manufacturers carried out these principles as
early as the eighteenth century (see Chin & Sheth, 1985; Fullerton & Nevitt, 1986;
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Hollander, 1986; Fraser, 1981). However, the growing professionalisation of market
research was new, and this together with the growing availability of literature dealing
with the economics of retailing, impacted upon the development of the twentiethcentury retail space to such an extent that by the 1930s many decisions relating to the
design, location and the type of goods sold within the consumer space were heavily
influenced by statistics. In Australia, for example, C. J. Coles conducted market
research in Melbourne’s suburbs in the 1930s to determine whether or not there was
a large enough population base and consumer interest in variety stores before
developing in that area.
By the mid-1940s, it was common practice for ‘economic analysts’ to work with retail
developers. As Baker and Funaro (1950) argued of the time: more realistic estimates
of the number, sizes and types of stores required for a given community may now be
arrived at through the experience of economic analysts working for private
promoters.’ (Baker & Funaro, 1950:6) This was especially so with regard to the
development of the regional shopping centre.
Gruen stated that: ‘The beginning of the planning process is the economic analysis.’
Economic analysis entailed measuring the size of the current population of the area
planned for development, its expected population growth, and the income and
purchasing power of the current and future population, as well as looking at the type
of stores and services already provided in the area.
James Rouse used market research at the early planning stages of the Mondawin
Centre in Baltimore.6 One of these research projects provided some fascinating
information concerning the shopping habits of 507 Baltimoreans and pointed to the
type of shops that would be profitable in the area (Gruen and Smith, 1952:84-88).
Here, we find the introduction of what shopping centre developers term
‘merchandising principles’. Merchandising is another tactic used by developers to get
the best possible revenue from their centres. It involves, as stated above, market
research to uncover the types of stores and goods most needed and most suitable to
the market. Then, as Gruen and Smith argue: ‘after the economic analysis has been
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made and the land-use plan developed, the centre is “merchandised” and the
merchandising plan is made. Its purpose is to create, by proper store location, the
highest overall sales per square foot’ (Gruen & Smith, 1952:86).
Merchandising strategies achieve this aim by placing the ‘traffic generators’ ─ that are
the major department stores, food stores, and other major tenants ─ in such a
manner as to direct the flow of traffic by the doorways of smaller tenants’ (Gruen &
Smith, 1952:86). Here, it is possible to locate the same principles that motivated the
organisation of goods within department stores. As Nystrom argued in 1919: ‘when
we come to allocating goods, the departments must be allocated so as to attract
trade. The goods that sell themselves must be located where they will help attract
attention to other goods.’ (Gruen & Smith, 1952: 211) Similarly, the tactics regarding
the ‘Advantages of Clustering’ outlined by Nystrom in 1919 argue:
the possibility of drawing trade from customers who had planned on going
directly to some one of the competitors. Such customers may be frequently
induced to enter other stores by attractive window displays, and whether they do
or do not buy the goods they had planned to buy from the competitor, perhaps,
seeing the displays, they will buy other goods they had not bought before. In this
way the competitors help each other to some extent. (Nystrom 1919:195)
At the same time, Nystrom argues that:
A location next to a large, old, well advertised, well known, and popular store
is always valuable for another store dealing either in complementary or
competitive lines of goods. Out of the crowds who gather to the latter, many can
be attracted. The advertising value of the big store is shared to a certain extent
by the smaller and newer store next door. (Nystrom 1919:196)
The merchandising methods introduced within the shopping centre form operated
upon the same principles. One of the reasons for the similarity is outlined by Gruen:
Determination of the size, number, and arrangement of tenants in a shopping
centre is not an exact science. It takes a certain amount of ‘playing by ear’.
[T]he key is set by a number of factors, primarily by existing business districts
on conventional street patterns. This is because existing business districts are the
result of competition. They were born in competition, have lived in competition,
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and still exist there. It is reasonable to conclude, the same relationship should be
maintained to a certain degree when placing these tenants in an integrated
shopping centre. (Gruen & Smith, 1952:86)
Clearly, then, the merchandising logic used in shopping centres of placing smaller
and less popular stores close to more popular ones within the shopping centre form
was influenced by already established practice. To maximise these effects, however, it
was also important to place the exact mix and type of retail outlets within the centre:
‘There [was] no vague “Let’s -see-who-we-can-get-to-rent-a-space” attitude.’ Rather,
the aim was ‘[t]o get the best of those who compete with us downtown’ (Architectural
Forum, 1953:127). In this way developers were not only sure of the goods and retail
services most needed in an area, but also eliminated competition at the same time.
Once developers were sure that they had ‘the best of their competitors’ as tenants,
the merchandising process organised these tenants so as to generate the highest
overall sales per square foot by placing the ‘traffic generators’ ─ that are the major
department stores, food stores, and other major tenants ─ in such a manner as to
direct the flow of traffic by the doorways of smaller tenants’ (Architectural Forum,
1953:127). The Northland Centre (designed by Walter Gruen for Hudson
Department Store Company) achieved this by organising its retail outlets around a
central core, with the department store positioned at the furthest point from the car
park: ‘It therefore perform[ed] the role of magnet, ensuring that the visitors of the
centre pass other stores before they reach the department store.’ (Gruen, 1972:27,
28)
Several layout designs were developed that used the pull of department stores to
draw customers past as many shops as possible. Merchandising worked hand in hand
with the design process to maximise customer circulation within the centres. At the
same time, in order to reduce visitor fatigue and boredom, shopping centre design
needed to produce an environment that contained compact transitory spaces.
Developers argued that ideal design allowed all parts of the shopping centre to be
covered by one expedition and ‘pause points’ needed to be skilfully sited to allow this
(Architectural Forum, 1952:125; Beddington, 1982:6).
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The open-air centres had difficulty in achieving this aim since they were not
hermetically sealed units but linked speciality retail, department stores and food
outlets through a series of open pedestrian networks. The size of the central court
ways presented another limitation to the centres, as they were not compact enough
to continuously direct the shoppers’ attention to the store windows and therefore to
maintain consumer attention for long periods of time. The open-air centres also had
several entrances/exits that acted as a pull out of the centres. It was not until the
introduction of fully enclosed shopping centres that designers were able to introduce
malls as transitory spaces. The next section of this chapter tracs the development of
enclosed shopping malls.
The Birth of the Introvert Centres and the Return to the
Architectural Principles of the Arcade Form
The first fully enclosed, climate controlled regional shopping centre, Southdale,
opened in Rochester, Minnesota in 1956. Designed by Victor Gruen for the Dayton
Company, Southdale represented a dramatic shift both in style and concept from
previous shopping centre developments in America, Europe, Australia and the
United Kingdom. Southdale’s design was highly successful. It proved more popular
to the public than other centres designed during the same time period. There was
good reason for this. As the first introvert shopping centre, Southdale’s reintroduced
the architectural principles of the arcade form into the twentieth-century retail space
(Gruen, 1973:36).
Introvert centres are adaptations of the arcade system where shops face inwards to
an enclosed mall and thereby become much more closely knit, from an operative
point of view, than the open street plan. Gruen describes the process that led to the
design of a fully enclosed, climatised centre as relating to producing a shopping
environment that would produce the best possible all-year conditions in a location
that had both freezing winters and very hot summers. The whole of his argument is
included below since it relates Gruen’s personal motives and experience:
I had the opportunity of visiting with the Daytons in connection with the
Rochester store and with the suburban expansion project at various seasons.
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Whenever I got there it was either freezingly cold with snow masses covering the
streets and countryside, or it was unbearably hot. From these personal
experiences, under that I suffered greatly, I came to the conclusion that a
shopping centre patterned after Northland would never do. I concluded that
open pedestrian areas in a climate of extremes, that is typical for the Minnesota
area, could not be a total success. So I carefully prepared the Daytons for the
shocking idea of establishing completely weather protected, covered and
climatised public areas, referring to such examples as the Galleria Vittorio
Emanuele in Milan and many of the nineteenth century arcades. The Daytons
reacted with enthusiasm, but it was obvious to all of us that new concepts would
have to be arrived at in order to achieve an economically possible solution.
(Gruen, 1973:33)
Certain parallels can be drawn here with nineteenth-century retailers in the
development of new forms of retail space. From the above comments, it is possible
to see the ways in which, as a designer, Gruen was simply trying to create the most
suitable shopping centre environment for that area. He was not consciously striving
towards the creation of a new consumer space, but was rather making a series of
decisions aimed at improving upon previous models. Like nineteenth-century
merchants, he was simply making a series of tactical decisions for the immediate
health of the developer’s businesses. At the same time, in making these tactical
design decisions, Gruen introduced new techniques that drastically changed the
twentieth-century consumer space.
Like the French retailers who moved their premises into the arcades, Gruen’s design
produced a consumer space that stimulated consumer demand by allowing retailers
to show and sell. However, it is debatable whether Gruen introduced these
architectural principles purely for these reasons. There is no doubt that he was well
aware that, in adopting the same architectural principles as the arcade form, his
design would capture the public’s imagination. Not only had he personally visited
many European arcades, but he was also an admirer of Frederick Giest’s seminal
work on arcades. Gruen referred to Geist’s theory throughout his 1973 book, Centres
for the Urban Environment.7 At the same time, as an avid follower of Geist, and as a
lover of the European shopping arcades, Gruen was no doubt very much aware of
the way in which the public responded to the arcade as both a social space and as a
consumer space. It was from the perspective that the new introvert centres were
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ideally suited for both civic and retail functions ─ together with the fact that they
provided year-round all-weather protection – that appealed to Gruen.8
Gruen hoped to include amenities within his centres that were not solely dedicated to
retail, but which would also enhance the quality of urban life. However, this has not
eventuated. At least, it has not eventuated in the ways in which Gruen envisaged it
would. Instead of becoming a prototypical model for shopping centres designed as
civic, cultural, social and consumer spaces, Southdale became the prototypical model
for centres that were scientifically designed as ‘machines for selling’.
Southdale proved to be very popular and highly successful and was quickly copied
and adapted to different cities in America and in other countries throughout the
world.9 In part, this is due to Gruen’s successful incorporation of the same
architectural principles as the nineteenth-century shopping arcade. But there was
more to it than that. Gruen did not simply reproduce the nineteenth-century arcade
space. The added cost of enclosing shopping centres, and not only making them
completely weatherproof but also air-conditioning and lighting them, placed pressure
on Gruen to ensure that his design was as compact as possible. Here, Gruen’s main
concerns were cost and efficiency. However, in making the centres compact, Gruen’s
design produced the side-effect of streamlining the consumer space so that
everything within the shopping centre environment was designed to enhance the
shopping act.
Several strategies were involved in this process. Like earlier shopping centre
developments, introvert centres made use of merchandising principles aimed at
producing the highest overall sales per square foot (Gruen & Smith, 1952:86). This
involved, as mentioned above with regard to earlier shopping centres, in-depth
market research in the areas where new developments were to take place so that the
best possible blend of retail outlets for an area was included in each new
development.
However, Gruen also argues that more than just the inclusion of amenities was
needed to produce a ‘superior shopping environment’. Because this excerpt explains
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Gruen’s motives in designing the introvert centres and gives other background
information to their development, it is cited in full below:
But beyond that, the shoperess also expects consideration of her senses: seeing,
hearing, smelling and touching. The eye of the shopper reacts negatively to
disorder, litter, dirt, and visual confusion created through the profusion of signs,
advertising and other expressions of visual pollution. The eye reacts positively to
a skilful combination of quietude and pleasant stimulation. The sense of
calmness can be created by architectural unity, by introduction of expressions of
nature ─ trees, bushes, flowers ─ and by employing those colors which, by
association are concerned with the greenery of forests, the cool blueness of water,
and the beige of sand and dunes. Stimulation on the other hand, is achieved by
sparing use of colors that we associate with fire and light, such as yellow, orange
and red.
Similar protection is necessary as far as the sense of smell is concerned. All
those smells which are created by cooking and baking facilities must be isolated
and eliminated by special ventilation arrangements. The sense of touch has to be
considered specifically with regard to pavements. Here exists a connection with
the sense of hearing. Very hard pavements are unpleasant to walk on and
create noise of clicking heels. Any type of pavement suitable for rubber tyres is
not conducive to the satisfaction of the sense of touch within the walking areas of
a centre. (Gruen and Smith, 1952: 75)
Clearly, then, shopping centre developers considered every design aspect, from the
elimination of cooking odours and litter, to the provision of floor coverings for
pathways which would be kind to their customers’ feet. Moreover, all of these
considerations were made in an effort to attract as many customers into their centres
as possible.
Other strategies, designed both to induce sales and to relieve shopper fatigue, were
incorporated into the introvert centres. The width of malls, for example, was
designed to allow window shoppers to pause while also allowing sufficient room for
crowd circulation. At the same time, it was felt that excessive widths would deter
shoppers from crossing from one side of the arcade to another, as well as inhibit the
shoppers’ view of shop windows on either side of the arcade. Thus a minimum width
for minor malls was considered to be between 5 and 6 metres. The main malls, on
the other hand, needed a width of between 13 and 15 metres to allow for ‘central
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features, pause areas, with seating, planting, kiosks, play sculptures’ (Beddington,
1982:20). All of the structures placed within the main malls needed to comply with
regulations regarding circulation routes. Designers argued that ‘if malls became either
too wide or too obscured, that shoppers would use one side only to the detriment of
traders on the other’ (Beddington, 1982:20). Careful balance was therefore needed in
designing the walkways so to maximise the shopper’s view of both sides of the
arcade.
Similarly, careful consideration was needed with regard to placement of entrances
(which are also exits):
If too prominent and inviting they might sweep the unsuspected shopper from the
centre and so must be carefully arranged as a background rather than a focus.
(Beddington, 1982:27)
However, while entrances needed to be unobtrusive to shoppers once inside the
centre, the reverse was so outside shopping centres. Here entrances needed strong
external demarcation so that they would ‘pull-in the public’ (Beddington, 1982:27).
Once custom was ‘pulled’ inside the consumer space, walkways and malls acted as
transitory spaces directing movement in certain ways. Again, this effect was achieved
by tactically placing the magnets so that visitors passed as many retail and variety
stores as possible. As Barry Maitland argues, certain rules were developed during this
period to maximise these effects:
The rules which governed the mall form of the [introvert centre] were generally
held to include a simplicity, even rigidity of alignment, in order that shop-fronts
should be clearly visible to the greatest number of passing shoppers as possible.
Coupled with this was the need to articulate the length of the mall, to sustain
the interest and hence extend the flow of visitors. It was widely considered that
magnet stores should not be located more than 200 metres apart, or else flow
would break down into separate circuits, and squares or courts were often
introduced into public spaces at similar intervals to relieve the visual monotony
of the uninterrupted mall perspective. (Maitland, 1988:13)
While a degree of physical integration was achieved in the shopping centres of the
1950s and 1960s, the mall remained a parallel-sided, arcaded street. It was not until
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the 1970s and the introduction of the department store mall that ‘the mall, now
labyrinthine and complex, now monumental and vast acted as a “core” organising
element of a single “department” centre’ (Maitland, 1988:23; Gruen, & Smith,
1960:80). The next chapter traces the development of these centres, paying particular
attention to the ways in which they incorporated the architectural principles and
display techniques of nineteenth-century arcades and department stores.
Conclusion
Several points have emerged from this chapter. The first concerns the fact that, in its
earliest years of development in America, civic and social planning values were
influential factors in the design of suburban shopping centres. This was particularly
the case with the development of the neighbourhood centres. Between 1920 and
1930 planners in America were encouraged to adopt the neighbourhood-planning
concept in the design of new areas. Within this planning framework, shopping
centres were built alongside other civic spaces and public amenities such as libraries,
community centres and galleries to improve upon the quality of urban life.10
At the same time, however, developers realised the trade potential in building a
whole town around the shopping centre. The Country Club Plaza in Kansas City,
Missouri, Park Forest in Illinois and Levittown in New York were all designed to
either include, or placed alongside, civic amenities (Baker & Funaro, 1950; Gillette,
1985). During this period, businessmen were using shopping facilities as strategic
elements in their development strategies while, at the same time, urban theorists
began to conceive shopping centres as a vehicle for social and civic reform.
At this point in the development of the shopping centre form the two quite different
philosophies regarding shopping centre development worked together to their
mutual benefit. By the 1950s, and the development of the regional shopping centres,
however, it is possible to see a movement away from a development logic interested
in the development of shopping centres as a vehicle for social and civic reform to a
development logic interested in streamlining the consumer space to be as profitable
as possible. While, as Victor Gruen has argued, the two development logics co98
Chapter III: The Selling Machines: From Department Store to Department Store Mall, 1900 – 1980
existed in the marketplace for some time, the idea of serving the needs of an
established neighbourhood by linking the retail space with civic and social amenities
was beginning to be displaced by a developer driven model (Gruen, 1978:351).
Moreover, the developer-driven model has actively adopted some of the ideas of the
social and civic reform model. Here, developers include social, cultural and
educational amenities in the design of shopping centres as purely a means of
improving their position in the marketplace. The chapter flags the fact that while a
‘developer speak’ can be located within the literature produced by developers in post
1960 shopping centre industry literature. Further, this developer speak reveals that
most of the development that has made any linkage between the commercial and
civic or public space in shopping centres since the late 1960s has largely been
motivated by purely commercial reasons.
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Notes
1
Here, when referring to ‘the habit of coming’ Nystrom is alluding to customer loyalty. Department
Store managers wanted to create a sense of belonging between the customer and ‘the store.’ In so
doing, Department Store managers hoped to develop a customer base that would value their store
above others.
2 These centres were classed as 'neighbourhood centres' because, while thought of as pivotal to
both urban design and community life, they were limited in practice to their immediate vicinity
usually an area containing no more than several thousand people.
3 Gruen also cites as examples 'the open markets of antiquity, the agora of Athens, the Roman
forums, the bazaars in the cities of the Orient, and in the nineteenth-century great arcades and
galleries. All witnesses of the necessity of an unattractive "hostile public environment."’ (1973:1314)
4 However, like their nineteenth-century counterparts, the department stores, all of the new centres
provided public places ─ such as centre courts ─ where social and cultural activities could take
place. One of Gruen's developments, for example, Northland, regularly held public events such as
circuses, fashion parades and concerts in its central court.
5 In his 1919 edition of The Economics of Retailing, Nystrom argued that 'consumer demand is a
term that has recently come into use among producers who are national advertisers. It is used in
contradistinction to “dealer demand”. The meanings are obvious.’ See Nystrom, 1919: 43, note 2.
6 Rouse is currently one of the most successful shopping centre developers in America.
7 In fact, I first came upon Giest's work on arcades because of Gruen's reference to Geist in
Centres for the Urban Environment.
8 I believe this to be the case after reading Gruen’s comments in both Centres for the Environment
and The Sad Story of Shopping Centres where Gruen argues that shopping centres purely devoted
to the retail function is single function-ghettos. In both pieces, Gruen is adamant that shopping
centres should include or be placed against cultural, social and civic spaces.
9
Surprisingly, the introvert shopping mall was slower to develop in the UK and some older
European countries.
10 These centres were classed as 'neighbourhood centres' because, while thought of as pivotal to
both urban design and community life, they were limited in practice to their immediate vicinity
usually an area containing no more than several thousand people.
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Chapter IV: The Department Store Mall and the Return of the Atrium Space
Chapter IV: The Department Store Mall and the Return of
the Atrium Space
[image removed]
Figure 4.1: The Canberra Centre, Australian Capital Territory. Photographed July
2003 by Peter Roberts
Chapter IV: The Department Store Mall and the Return of the Atrium Space
Introduction
The subject of this chapter is the development of the department store mall. The
discussion of the department store mall1 within the chapter is taken from a
perspective that looks at the development of this particular mall type as one of the
most successful and popular forms of mall designs in the history of shopping malls
(Beddington, 1991; Maitland, 1985 & 1990). Since its advent, aspects of the
department store mall have been copied in other mall forms such as the mega,
regional, and leisure-based inner-city malls. The extent to which aspects of
departments store malls are used in other types of mall varies according to market
segments as well as the size and the type of mall itself (Goss, 1993, Maitland 1985 &
1990). However, as the subject of other chapters in this thesis highlights, most forms
of malls developed since the mid 1970s incorporate aspects of the department store
mall type in order to improve their market appeal and the merchandising strategy.
The ways in which the development of the 1970s version of the department store
mall made use of many of the design and merchandising characteristics of
nineteenth-century and early twentieth-century consumer spaces is also discussed in
this chapter. In particular, the ways in which developers of the department store mall
type incorporated and improved upon the themed environment, the use of skylights
and, in later years, and the use of atrium space in its design are examined. The fact
that developers of the department store mall not only incorporated the architectural
design principles, but also merchandised this particular form of mall according to the
same principles as their counterparts, the department stores, is highlighted. In so
doing, emphasis is placed upon the continuities in retailing and design methods that
can be charted from the nineteenth to the twentieth centuries.
The reasoning behind the inclusion of earlier retailing methods into the design of
department store malls of the 1970s is also examined. The principal argument
proposed in the chapter is that the inclusion of the architectural features of
nineteenth-century consumer spaces came about in an attempt to overcome many of
the merchandising problems encountered by previous models of the shopping centre
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Chapter IV: The Department Store Mall and the Return of the Atrium Space
form (Maitland, 1985). Here, the fact that continuity within retailing practices is often
linked to an ongoing process of retail development where successful elements of
previous forms are often adopted to make the best of, or improve upon a new
model, is highlighted. It is argued that the major reason for the incorporation of
previous architectural and marketing techniques relates to a need to improve upon
the unsuccessful features of the malls of the mid-twentieth century.
During the discussion of the development of the department store mall, Barry
Maitland’s (1985) and Wosterski Kowinski’s (1985) analysis of the 1970s mall space is
introduced. These arguments are introduced in order to compare the reasoning of
two quite different schools of thought ⎯ the former architectural, the latter cultural
theory ⎯ on the changes happening within the consumer space between 1970 and
1980.
Here, the common argument regarding the introduction of theatrical
techniques into mall architecture and interior design is surveyed. At this point,
comparisons are also made with Fredrick Geist’s seminal work on nineteenth-century
arcades.
The chapter then introduces another dimension to these analyses of the development
of consumer spaces in the 1970s. It looks at the introduction of architectural and
design techniques such as various forms of ‘fun house’ architecture introduced in the
retail space in the early 1970s. As its name suggests ‘fun house’ architecture uses the
same techniques as a fun house, where ‘scale, orientation, and overall representation
is rendered uncertain’ (Herman, 2001:404-406). Fun house architecture ‘uses
sequential
juxtaposition
of
spatial
difference-expansion
and
contradiction,
vertiginous balconies and claustrophobic corridors — to achieve this effect’
(Herman, 2001:405).
The chapter argues that fun house architecture was used
alongside and integrated within some of the design of the department store malls of
the early 1970s and, as a result, was subsequently expanded upon in the design of
festive marketplaces, mega-malls, mixed-use developments and other forms of
entertainment-based consumer spaces in the marketplace in the late 1970s and early
1980s.
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Chapter IV: The Department Store Mall and the Return of the Atrium Space
The Birth of the Department Store Mall
It was recognized early on that the very notion of a purpose-built shopping centre
was analogous to that of a department store. (Gruen & Smith, 1960:80)
The period between 1970 and 1980 witnessed dramatic changes in the planning,
design and logic of the shopping centre form. These changes were introduced in
order to overcome the problems that shopping centres of the 1950s and 1960s faced
in uniting the mall as a unit or whole. As discussed in the previous chapter, shopping
centres of the 1950s and 1960s were unable to successfully link the various sections
— or malls — of their centres, and thus remained parallel-sided, arcaded streets. The
main reason for introvert centres remaining arcaded streets was that developers were
influenced, and abided by, a number of design rules. In particular, the ‘maximum
visibility rule’ prevented developers linking separate parts of the 1950s and 1960s
shopping centres as a united whole. The maximum visibility rule was rigid. It
governed the length and width of the mall so that shop fronts were ‘clearly visible to
the greatest number of passing shoppers as possible’ (Maitland, 1985:13).
The new department store malls of the 1970s overcame the problem of being unable
to link various sections to the central core by abandoning the maximum visibility
rule.2 Designed in the shape of a figure eight or in an S shape, the new centres
produced a circular rather than a linear route, and thus not only linked the various
malls so that they became part of the whole shopping centre but also radically
changed the distance shoppers needed to travel before reaching the centre’s key
anchors.
However, it was not simply the fact that the shopping centres of the 1970s changed
the shopping excursion from a linear to a circular expedition that proved so
successful. It was also the way in which developers streamlined the department store
mall type to create a shopping experience that would both develop consumer loyalty
and encourage shoppers to stay in the centres for longer. This streamlining included
a return to nineteenth-century architectural principles and the incorporation of the
social functions of the department store form.
In particular, it included the
reintroduction of the themed environment, the use of skylights and, in later years, the
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Chapter IV: The Department Store Mall and the Return of the Atrium Space
use of atrium spaces to link the various sections to the central core by producing a
narrative or theme.3
One of the first department store malls to successfully link the whole mall by
theming various sections of the mall or courts and incorporating skylights was
Sherway Gardens.4 Sherway Gardens is an extremely interesting development
because it exemplifies the way in which natural light from above (produced from the
inclusion of skylights at the entrances to each courtyard) acted both as a guide and an
encouragement for shoppers to go beyond their normal range of vision.5 The design
makes use of the natural light from above that draws the shopper’s vision and
attention to some point of interest deeper within the mall. The filtered sunlight acts
as a spotlight to ‘pick up’ and emphasise the identifying characteristics of the smaller
squares formed at these points.
Sherway Gardens was one of the first department store malls to successfully achieve
this effect.
Since then, it has become a standard feature in several types of
department store mall. The mega-mall is a particular case where atria are used in this
way. The MetroCentre in Gateshead, England, pictured below, uses natural light to
flood the spacious walkways (MetroCentre Information Sheet, 1988:3).
[image removed]
Figure 4-2 Skylit Mall of Metro Centre, MetroCentre Information Sheet, 1988:3.
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Chapter IV: The Department Store Mall and the Return of the Atrium Space
The other successful design feature of the department store mall type is located in
the way that it was able to successfully link various sections of the mall or courts to
the whole mall by theming each court. Sherway Gardens, one of the earliest
department store malls did this. It featured malls themed as ‘Desert Garden’,
Aquarium Garden’, ‘Japanese Garden’ and ‘Clock Court’. Maitland argues that
theming malls in this way allowed developers and centre managers to merchandise
the centre in a way the signalled to the shopper where certain goods or services
would be housed (Maitland, 1985:25). In this way, developers of department store
malls, like their counterparts the department stores, strategically placed retail outlets
in areas that would signal to the shopper where the goods they required were sold.
A related benefit of grouping stores in this way became apparent to designers and
merchandisers of the 1970s department mall.
Here, developers realized the
profitability of adapting the well-known marketing principle discussed in Chapter 3,
of placing less popular shops or newer shops to an area next to the older, better
established and popular stores in order to attract some of the passing custom. In a
similar manner, department store mall merchandisers used this principle to attract
custom both to less popular stores and to less popular areas of the mall.
Another merchandising tactic introduced to draw shoppers deeper into the
department store mall is connected to the ways in which the streamlined departmentstore mall’s design incorporated a narrative that linked each separate component of
the consumer space to a central core (Maitland, 1985; Goss, 1993). In the case of
Sherway Gardens, this was achieved by introducing a series of themes such as the
‘garden theme’ that led the shopper into a series of courts and finally into the central
square. However, not all shopping centres utilised a series of themes to link various
malls to the central core. Goss cites the recent example of Pier 39 in San Francisco
where signs describing the history of construction of the mall are strategically placed
to pulll shoppers deeper into the centre (Goss, 1993:33). An earlier example of where
this strategy is utilised to pull shoppers deeper into the mall space is The Old
Chicago shopping centre.6 Here, developers made use a single theme or narrative of a
world fair or exposition. The whole centre was modelled after the 1893 Columbian
exposition held in Chicago. The mall’s entertainment events were also linked to the
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Chapter IV: The Department Store Mall and the Return of the Atrium Space
theme of an amusement park or fair. Singing security guards, Dixieland bands,
ragtime pianists, magicians, pantomimists, gymnasts and puppet acts gave the centre
a fairground atmosphere. The centre also housed an amusement park boasting 31
rides and a 300-seat theatre that featured vaudeville acts six times daily, as well as 200
retail stores and fast food outlets. Here, the whole environment told a story that was
thematically linked and the retail space took on the characteristics of a nineteenthcentury pleasure ground (Nicholls & Jones, 1976:2).
Other department store malls followed Old Chicago’s example by making use of the
themed shopping environment to link various parts of the consumer space together
and attract custom. The Woodfield centre situated near Schaunberg, Illinois, utilised
artworks to thematically link the various malls within what was in 1974 the largest
shopping centre in the world. Two- and three-storey sculptures by Kenneth Snelson,
Robinson Fredenthal, Robert Engman and Ernest Trova introduced an aesthetically
pleasing atmosphere into the consumer space. Like Old Chicago, Woodfield
provided an entertainment program that complemented its cultural theme. In 1974, a
variety of internationally and locally famous dancers, bands, choral groups, musicians
and actors performed in the Greek amphitheatre built and designed to complement
the shopping experience. In the same year, the Chicago Symphony performed for an
audience of approximately 50,000 shoppers (Nicholls & Jones, 1976:2).
The themed environment became an integral part of the design and logic of the
department store mall, and correspondingly in the creation of the shopping
experience. Department store malls increasingly relied upon entertainment and
themed environments and utilised the same architectural methods and display
techniques as heritage villages, some social history museums and theme parks to link
various parts of the consumer space and to provide their customers’ with a unique
shopping experience that places them ahead of their competitors. As mentioned
above, Old Chicago took on the architectural and entertainment themes of a
nineteenth-century exposition while Woodfield thematically adopted the role of a
nineteenth-century department store in that it provided both works of art and
‘cultural’ events for its customers benefit.7 In a similar vein, Woodfield provided
living room areas as ‘rest and relaxation spaces’ that were reminiscent of the 'silence
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Chapter IV: The Department Store Mall and the Return of the Atrium Space
rooms' for 'nerve-frazzled shoppers' introduced in the American department stores
during the late 1800s (Hendrickson, 1979:46).8
Both Old Chicago and Woodfield introduced spectacle and drama into the mall
space as an merchandising mechanism to increase custom and keep as many
customers as possible moving through as much as the mall space as possible. Both
malls also made use of atria and natural light as a spotlight to direct the consumer's
attention and movement to the smaller courts and malls within the shopping centres.
Like the use of thematic spaces, the use of natural light in this way is a key function
of the department store mall because it acts as an organising principle or idea that
unites the separate spheres so that they became part of ‘the mall’. In so doing, atrium
spaces not only serve to encourage traffic flow and movement within the centres —
to continually direct shoppers to interesting spaces ahead of them — but the natural
light also works in a similar manner to stage lighting.
Kowinski analyses this effect in The Malling of America, where he describes the
architecture of ‘the mall’ at night as having a direct theatrical effect. He argues:
The mall is a theatre. For theatre, after all, is largely a matter of light and
darkness. The mall at night suggests this most strongly. The idea is to darken
all distractions and to focus audience attention with light. (Kowinski, 1985:
61-62)
It is interesting to compare Kowinski's description of department store malls with
Michael Miller’s description of the French department stores. Miller argued that their
design belied their commercial nature. This was particularly so of Rue de Sèvres.
Monumental and ornate, it rose the entire height of the building and was ‘seated
under a cupola, crowned with a pediment, conceived as an archway for the first two
stories, and decorated with caryatids and reclining statues of gods’ (Miller, 1981:167).
Miller argues that the effect was that of entering a temple or theatre. These theatrical
effects continued inside the spatial design of the building. Built mainly of steel and
glass, Miller argues that it provided a sense of ‘space, openness and light’ (Miller,
1981:168).
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Chapter IV: The Department Store Mall and the Return of the Atrium Space
It is also interesting to compare Kowinski’s analogy with Geist’s analysis of the
architectural techniques employed in the design of arcades. Here, it is possible to see
the ways in which the department store mall’s employment of filtered light from
above does indeed act as a theatrical spotlight. As mentioned in Chapter 2, Geist
argued that the employment of the atrium space in the nineteenth-century retail
arcades and department stores as a source of lighting from above had the effect of
isolating space from its natural environment preventing other perspectives and
distractions. In so doing, it created a space for directing the consumer’s attention to
the goods on display. Moreover, Geist argued that atria created spaces that were not
only perfect for exhibiting goods via the production of studio lighting, but which,
when used alongside the use of the exterior facade, allowed developers to thematise
both the consumer space itself and the goods on display and therefore encourage
future sales.
Other similarities can be found between Kowinski’s work on shopping malls and
Geist’s study of nineteenth-century arcades. In describing his own experience and
interpretation of the effects of the design techniques used within the mall space,
Kowinski argues ‘all the elements that didn’t seem to belong together were here,
nevertheless in a kind of harmony, with a strange feeling — perhaps inevitable in the
emptiness of the night — of magic’ (Kowinski, 1985:59-60). Here Kowinski
underlines the key effects of the introvert centres as not only isolating space from the
outside world but of ‘creating a special domain’ by bringing architectural features of
the outside inside. However, while Kowinski argues that this design technique gives
the mall some sort of ‘magic’, Geist’s work underlines the fact that it is not magical at
all. Rather, as with the nineteenth-century arcades, it is a strategic attempt on the part
of architects, investors and retailers to produce a consumer space that stimulates
consumer demand by allowing merchants to show and sell. (Geist, 1969:63). Maitland
describes the process at Sherway Gardens as ‘carefully controlled and highly
dramatic’ and consisting of two stages. These comprise of the ‘first isolating the
outside world and introducing the internal organisation and the second repeating the
progression of the first but at a larger and more dramatic scale’ (Maitland, 1985:26).
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Chapter IV: The Department Store Mall and the Return of the Atrium Space
In describing the ‘highly controlled and tightly orchestrated’ way in which the
architecture of the mall directs the shopper’s route, Maitland introduces another
aspect of the design techniques introduced in early department store malls that was
to be copied in varying degrees in future years in several shopping mall types.
Woodfield Mall9 at Schaumburg, northwest of Chicago, for example, introduced the
use of long subterranean walkways that opened up onto galleries leading to huge
central spaces lit by overhead atria. In his discussion of Woodfield, Maitland
describes the architecture of the centre as having a ‘geological evocation’ with a
particular ‘emphasis upon the creation of a plausible internal, even subterranean
world, full of visual interest and variety, in which one is tempted, not simply to pass
through, but to stay.’ (Maitland, 1985:29).
At the time of writing Maitland’s chapter on department store malls, this form of
architecture had not been classified. Since then, however, the architectural style has
recently been coined ‘fun house architecture’. As mentioned in the introduction of
this chapter, Herman argues that fun house architecture ‘uses sequential juxtaposition
of spatial difference-expansion and contradiction, vertiginous balconies and
claustrophobic corridors (Herman in Koolhass et al, 2001:405).
Regardless of when ‘fun house architecture’ was classified, Maitland identified its
existence in the design of some of the department store malls developed in the early
1970s. As a result of its success in prolonging the time consumers spent in the mall
space, the architectural style has been utilised to varying degrees in later years in
festive marketplaces, mega-malls, mixed-use developments and other forms of
entertainment-based consumer spaces in the marketplace in the late 1970s, early
1980s and 1990s.
In light of the discussion so far, it can be argued that the development of the
department store mall made use of, and improved upon merchandising techniques
developed in earlier forms of retailing in an attempt to overcome problems
encountered with the designs of the early introvert shopping malls. In this process of
adaptation, developers, managers and owners of shopping malls continually looked
for ways of increasing the market share by creating a unique shopping experience
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Chapter IV: The Department Store Mall and the Return of the Atrium Space
that would encourage shoppers to return to one particular mall in preference to
another. Goss (1993) has argued, ‘shopping centres profit from an internalisation of
externalities; that is by ensuring strict complementarity of retail service and functions
through an appropriate tenant mix’. Goss further argues that ‘while individual
retailers may pursue their own strategies for profit within limited bounds, the centre
operates as a whole to maximise “foot traffic” by attracting target consumers and
keeping them on the premises for as long as possible’ (Goss, 1993:22). With this
point in mind, the next section of this chapter surveys the ways in which developers
merchandised department store malls to prolong the shopping experience.
Merchandising the Department Store Mall: Developer ‘Speak’ and
the Retail Drama
In The Malling of America, Kowinski refers to the creation of a unique shopping
experience as the Retail Drama. He states that:
The Retail Drama is a term actually used by trade magazines to describe what
the mall is doing. The Retail Drama is a responsibility of the mall itself, not
just of the stores, because the mall provides the basic environment that can
attract customers, keep them shopping, and bring them back again.
(Kowinski, 1985:75)
Since the Retail Drama is a terminology currently used by trade magazines and retail
managers, this thesis has included it to as an example of what the thesis refers to in
Chapter III as ‘developer speak’ to describe the creation of the architectural and
developer driven discourse that describes the way in which department store malls
are both merchandised and designed to produce a ‘unique shopping experience’.
The role of the Retail Drama is complex. It has two complementary functions. On
the one hand, it works in the same way as did early merchandising mechanisms used
by the shopping towns and the introvert centres of the 1950s and 1960s to provide
the right retail mix for an area. At the same time, the Retail Drama differs from early
merchandising techniques in that it signals to the shopper the various consumer and
functional uses of the centre via the use of themed malls. These principles are used
to varying degrees in all the different types of malls and shopping centres — from
regional centres to the mega-malls to leisure-based centres such as the Edmonton
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Chapter IV: The Department Store Mall and the Return of the Atrium Space
Mall. However, while regional malls often incorporate a series of garden themes and
courts as did one of the earliest centres — Sherway Gardens — the mega-malls and
leisure-based malls often include themed villages in their designs. The MetroCentre
in the northeast of England, for example, organises its retailers around several village
themes.10 If, for example, shoppers at the centre were interested in purchasing
antiques or collectables, they would head for the Antique Village as the name
signifies to the shopper where goods are housed.
Themed malls are thus used in the department store mall type as a means of
merchandising the mall and of signalling to the shopper where certain goods will be
sold (Goss, 1993, Maitland, 1995 & 1990, Beddington, 1991). The second
component of the Retail Drama is equally important to the success of the
contemporary shopping mall. Here, the Retail Drama works to make each centre
different and somehow special — not simply from a retailing perspective but also in
relation to the social, leisure and entertainment needs of the area it services. Here,
developers make use of the concept of the local community and of the creation of a
space that encourages social cohesion to market their particular mall as the preferred
place to visit above other shopping malls in the area. The MetroCentre’s information
sheet is a good example of this form of ‘developer speak’. It states:
Rather than being led by the needs of the developer, architect or even retailer, the
whole scheme was based on the point of view of the customer. As a result, the
MetroCentre would become more than bricks and mortar, it would be part of
the social fabric of the surrounding area. Re-instating traditional values of the
market-place — where people used to go to meet as well as shop — in order to
fulfil the needs of the age with increasing time for leisure. (MetroCentre
Information Sheet, 1988:2)
In line with this strategy to position their particular mall as part of ‘the community’,
mall management will often produce a newspaper.11 Besides being an ideal
opportunity for advertising, these newspapers often comprise of articles describing
community events sponsored by, or held in the mall as well as other pieces of local
news. These newspapers are chatty and confined to the local thus giving the mall a
standing as a purveyor of local news.
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Chapter IV: The Department Store Mall and the Return of the Atrium Space
Another tactic used by developers to create a sense of community or civic space
relates to the naming and design of various sections of the mall itself. The
MetroCentre’s ‘tradititional values of the marketplace’ are signified to the shopper by
evoking a sense of these values in the names of the Roman Forum, the
Mediterranean Village and the Garden Court. The names of all four malls are
evocative of spaces where shoppers can gather together for social and market
purposes. Here, then is an example of Goss’s argument regarding aspects of the
built environment functioning as ‘culturally determined systems of association’ as
‘texts which communicate social meaning to acculturated readers’ (Goss, 1993: 36).
[image removed]
Figure 4-3 Linear Atrium, Eaton Centre Toronto, Maitland, 1985:62.
The sense of civic and community space evoked in the theming and naming of these
malls is further emphasised in the design of the department store malls by the
strategic placement of atria. Atria create a space associated with public spaces such as
railways stations, expositions and arcades.
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Chapter IV: The Department Store Mall and the Return of the Atrium Space
The Re-Introduction of the Atrium Space
Another organising principle of the department store mall and a component of the
Retail Drama concerns the reintroduction of the atrium space.12 In the 50 years
between 1914 and 1964, the development of the atrium space or arcade form
virtually disappeared. The skyscraper in North America and the modern architecture
in Europe replaced it. Only a few architects — for example, Frank Lloyd Wright,
Alvar Aalto and Owen Williams — made use of the atrium space to introduce
filtered light into their building designs (Saxon, 1990:12-17).
However, after a period of almost 50 years of dormancy, the atrium space came back
into vogue in the design of the twentieth-century consumer spaces. Several factors
contributed to this resurgence of popularity. With regard to its development in the
shopping centre form, the dramatic rise of energy costs in the early 1970s introduced
a new imperative in the appraisal of successful building design. In an analysis of the
energy usage of a typical American shopping mall, it was found that 70 percent of all
energy consumed was attributed to artificial lighting, with heating, ventilation and air
conditioning accounting for 28 percent and miscellaneous items such as lifts and
escalators accounting for the remaining 2 percent (Maitland, 1985:38). The
substitution of natural lighting via the use of atria in mall areas resolved this energy
problem, yielding dramatic benefits to shopping centre developers in terms of energy
usage. In fact, Dahlia’s 1980 study revealed that the use of ‘atriums or courts
designed with a capacity of redirecting light’ resulted in a 40 percent reduction in
yearly lighting power demand (Maitland, 1985:38).
From these comments, it is possible to see the ways in which the reintroduction of
the atrium space stemmed from a need to conserve energy and to reduce the costs
incurred in lighting enclosed shopping centres. However, other benefits soon became
apparent to designers and developers. Like the nineteenth-century arcades, atria both
stimulated and maintained customer interest by providing spaces that allowed
visibility from above and below, thus providing the ideal space where shoppers could
both see and be seen. David Jenkin, manager of Melbourne Central, claimed that the
success of the atrium balconies in the centre lay in the fact that they provided a
wonderful opportunity for people to watch people (Jenkin, 1992:10).13
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Chapter IV: The Department Store Mall and the Return of the Atrium Space
Another effect of this type of atrium is that of drawing the customer’s eyes upwards.
Lysette Foster, marketing manager for Melbourne Central, argues that this ‘keeps
people moving up and through the vast complex[es]’ (Lester, 1991:72). Like the
galleries introduced into the department store form to direct the visitor’s attention to
displays in a sequential manner, the incorporation of atria within the departmentstore mall directs consumers to various sections of the malls. However, unlike the
department store, where galleries were incorporated as part of the pedagogic
functions of the consumer space, the primary function of atria within the post-1970s
department store malls is to direct consumer traffic to the least used parts of the mall
such as the uppermost level. The linear atrium in the Eaton Centre Toronto, pictured
in Figure 4-2, has this effect. Here the atrium space is used as a transitory space to
direct movement upwards towards the least-used sections of the mall.
In summary, it has been argued that the streamlining of the design of the department
store mall in the 1970s, with its architectural use of atria and of vast central spaces,
and its emphasis upon the themed environment, represents a return to the
architectural discourse of nineteenth-century arcades, bazaars and department stores.
It was argued that correlations could also be located in their social functions of the
department store malls and their nineteenth-century counterparts. Like the
nineteenth-century department stores, arcades and bazaars, that were thought of as
‘social centres’, the department-store mall type has increasingly become linked to
entertainment, leisure and shopping for pleasure. It was also argued that the design
of the department store mall type, with its adaptation of nineteenth-century
architectural principles, and its incorporation of the pedagogic and social functions
of the department store form, was based upon a series of tactical manoeuvres to
make the consumer space more appealing to shoppers — to pull them in, keep them
there and make them want to come back. Moreover, these strategies are working. It
is their continued success, together with the fact that no other single building type
has succeeded in capturing the public's imagination, that accounts for their popularity
in the marketplace, the preference for the department store mall type by developers,
and for the ever-increasing development of variations of the department store malls
worldwide.
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Chapter IV: The Department Store Mall and the Return of the Atrium Space
However, several problems exist with the continued development of this form of
consumer space. Koolhaas et al. (2001) outline some quite serious effects of the
incorporation of these design mechanisms in the post 1970s consumer space. These
include a malling of other spaces such as airports, train and bus stations and a
globalisation of the retail space so that no matter where an individual is
internationally, shopping centres contain the same design principles, display
techniques and also stock the same kind of goods. The other, more interesting
criticism of shopping centre development is made by Herman (2001). Herman
argues that mall designs incorporated a ‘fun-house’ logic (Herman, 2001:403). This
architectural style has recently been attributed to the highly successful American
shopping mall designer and developer, Jon Jerde. Herman has coined this
architectural style as ‘the Jerde transfer’, describing its characteristics as, ‘countless
turns and counterturns, unlikely ramps stuck to soffits, thresholds over thresholds
that dislodge the visitor of certainty, sending the “keyed- up” over the top into a
drone state of consumption. In the Jerde transfer architecture is pulled from the
depths
of
formal
obsolescence
only
to
be
resuscitated
as
“trivialized
bombardment.”’(Herman in Koolhass et al, 2001: 403)
The next part of this thesis consists of four chapters organised around examples of
different genres of the contemporary shopping centre form. It examines the
differences in their developmental logic, the different types of facilities they offer to
consumers and the various ways in which consumers themselves make use of each
type of consumer space as a means of introducing problems associated with the
current developer driven model.
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Notes
1
The term ‘department store mall’ was coined in the 1970s in America. It was given to the new
developments because they organised various sections of the mall according to the same principles
as department stores. For example, just as department stores placed all goods associated with
cooking and eating needs in a kitchen department, department store malls organised all shops
catering to cooking and eating needs in one section. This would be themed around kitchen and
dining goods. The organising principles behind this merchandising strategy was also similar to that
of the department store in that the customer would easily be able to find the section they were
interested in according to the type of goods and also it allowed the shopkeepers and the mall
developers to theme both the shops and the section of the mall itself according to the function of
the goods sold in that area. For an excellent description of this process see Maitland (1988).
2 As its name suggests, the maximum visibility rule was based on the premise that the shopper's
field of sight should include the maximum number of shops.
3 Atriums reappeared in the design of shopping centres in the late 1970s.
4 Situated west of Toronto, Canada, Sherway Gardens opened in 1971.
5 Maitland describes this process as ‘carefully controlled and highly dramatic.’ (Maitland 1988:26)
6 Old Chicago opened in 1975 and was 35 miles south-west of Chicago.
7 At the same time, however, Woodfield incorporated popular cultural events and entertainment
into the consumer space. The centre housed not only two movie theatres and a huge ice-skating
rink, but it also made use of the medium of television to promote both the centre and the shopping
experience. The Grand Court, for example, was often used as a set where debates by local
university forensic groups were televised. Here shoppers simultaneously watched the mechanics of
television production while becoming part of the show itself (Nicholls & Jones, 1976:2).
8
It is also important to note the similarities between the department store malls and the
nineteenth-century department stores here. Like their counterparts, the department stores, that
provided amenities in the hope of developing 'the habit of visiting the store', department store malls
provided amenities and introduced entertainment via the themed environment as a tactical strategy
to encourage the habit of visiting the mall.
9
Woodfield opened one year after Sherway Gardens and is another early example of the
department store mall type (Maitland, 1985:25, 26).
10 At the time of researching this chapter, the MetroCentre was Europe's largest leisure-based
shopping centre.
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11
I make this comment from personal analysis of several mall newspapers. It has been a related
interest of mine to collect these forms of local news produced by shopping malls. I have a full series
of the newspaper produced by the developers of Sanctuary Cove, as well as several copies from
the MetroCentre, the Logan Hyperdome and Pacific Fair.
12 The modern atrium is known in other forms as a galleria, an arcade or a wintergarden. The
most precise distinction is that 'atria' are static, arrival places with, if anything, a vertical emphasis;
and 'galleria' are linear route ways passing through a building. The 'linear atrium' is not a
contradiction in terms. It may look like a galleria, but it is an arrival point, not a through route. The
term 'arcade', when used to describe a glass-roofed street, is synonymous with a galleria. Atria
have a covered central court that is covered and around which the building is focused. They lend
themselves to the concept of vertical retailing, with the shops being located on several levels
around the central court (Flannigan, 1991:37).
13 Melbourne Central is located in one of Australia's largest city centres.
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and Amusement Grounds within the Retail Space
[image removed]
Figure 5-1 Large Atrium Space and Water Park, West Edmonton Mall,
West Edmonton Mall Information Brochure, cover page.
Chapter V: The Birth of the Mega-Malls, The Tourist, the Consumer,
Hyper-Reality and the Function of Theme Parks
and Amusement Grounds within the Retail Space
Introduction
Three quite distinct trends in leisure retailing developed between 1970 and 1990. The
first concerns the redevelopment of decaying inner city and harbour side factories
and warehouses as specialty, festival-retailing centres such as Boston’s Faneuil Hall
Marketplace and the development of themed retail streets usually linked to areas of
historical significance such as the Rocks in Sydney. The second concerns the
increased emphasis upon the inclusion of leisure and entertainment facilities within
the regional and inner city malls in the late 1980s. The third concerns the
development of the mega-mall type. The subjects of the first two trends are
discussed in Chapter VI and VII respectively, while the subject of this chapter is
wholly concerned with the mega-mall.
The major reason that the discussion of this chapter is wholly concerned with an
analysis of the merchandising and design techniques of the mega-mall is related to
the continuum of theming techniques within the design of various types of
department store malls alluded to in Chapter IV. The excessiveness of theming in
mega-malls, together with the incorporation of huge atrium spaces to bring an
increased sense of public space into the mall and the large sale of the centres
demonstrates the extreme end of this continuum. The exaggerated nature of other
aspects of the mega-malls’ merchandising strategies also facilitates an analysis that
demonstrates the extreme end of the continuum in other areas of mall development.
The developmental emphasis upon the mega-mall’s role as public service institutions,
for example, serves to demonstrate the way in which mall developers use the values
of ‘public service’ and the notion community outreach programs as a marketing tool.
In order to demonstrate these points, the remainder of this chapter is divided into
four sections. The first provides a definition of the mega-mall type as well as a brief
background to this form of development. The second, builds upon the discussion of
the department store malls developed in the early 1970s to demonstrate the ways in
which mega-malls link all the successful features of department store malls with
those of the theme park and amusement ground. Particular attention is given in this
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section to the ways in which the mega-mall type has been affected by what many
urban geographers refer to as ‘Disneyfication’ or ‘Disneylandization’. These terms are
used to describe the expansion and the application of the hyper-reality principle
beyond the boundaries of theme parks. Further, special emphasis is placed on the
application of the theme park model. The theme park model is apparent in the
themed streets of many revitalised inner-city centres, shopping malls and tourist
resorts. It is particularly apparent in the mega-mall type.
In the third section, attention is paid to the way in which mega-malls utilised and
built upon the marketing strategies and design techniques of department stores in an
attempt to capture both the regional and local markets. Particular attention is paid to
ways in which the mega-malls’ role as public service institutions has been exaggerated
and used by developers as a marketing tool to increase their market position.
Continuities between nineteenth century marketing techniques and those used in
mega-malls are also identified in this section. The fourth section summarises the
findings of the chapter and looks at their implications for future research.
A Brief Background to the Birth of the Mega-Mall
The developers of the West Edmonton Mall in Canada coined the title of mega-mall
in the early 1980s. Since then, developers of other, similarly scaled and merchandised
malls, have adopted this self-ascribed title as a marketing tool. The title has also
since gained currency elsewhere. For example, it is used as a key word in many search
engines to locate both academic and marketing information on this particular form
of mall on the World Wide Web. It is also used to differentiate these malls for other
forms in academic literature (Weiver and Oppermann, 2000; Hopkins, 1990, Finn
and Rigby, 1987). However, the title mega-mall is not used in industry literature to
define the mega-mall as a separate category from other forms of shopping centres.
Rather, mega-malls are classified and defined within the category of super-regional
centres.1
For the purposes of this study, mega-malls are defined as hybrids of the department
store mall discussed in Chapter IV. Mega-malls differ from the large regional malls
in that they do not simply target the regional population but are specifically designed
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to attract, and have a merchandising strategy that highlights, their role in the region’s
tourism market. It is for this reason that most mega-malls house at least one hotel.
The main identifying characteristic of mega-malls is that they all define themselves as
such. Developers of mega-malls differentiate their mall type from other forms of
malls by emphasising their size, gigantic scale, through their use of hyperbole: and, by
adopting the title of mega-mall.
The mega-mall type first appeared on the retailing landscape in 1983 with the
completion of phase two of the West Edmonton Mall (WEM) in Alberta, Canada. In
the period between 1983 and 2000 several mega-malls have been developed
throughout the world. Each of these has been designed and built to serve the dual
purpose of a tourist site and shopping mall. Each has been developed on a grand
scale. WEM, for example, occupies a 110-acre site and measures some 5 million
square feet. This gigantic two-story mall was developed in three phases over a fifteen
year period by the Triple 5 Corporation Limited.2
WEM houses over 800 retail stores with 11 major department stores, over 150
restaurants, a wave pool, an amusement park, an NHL-size ice skating arena, four sea
worthy submarines, an exact replica of the Santa Maria ship, a dolphin show, worldclass aquarium facilities, an aviary, original artworks and artefacts, a 360-room hotel,
a golf course, nineteen movie theatres, a casino, a bingo hall and two themed streets
(WEM Fact sheet, 1993 & 2000). The mall has 58 entrances and parking facilities for
20,000 vehicles. The remaining mega-malls are not, as yet, as large as WEM.3
However, given the fact that WEM is considerably older, that each of the other
mega-malls is based upon the same principles as WEM — and, indeed, is competing
with the others as to size and the number of attractions — there is a strong
probability that each will continue to grow both in size and in the number of
amenities housed.
All mega-malls advertise their attractions in a similar way to circus and fairground
advertisements of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in offering the
public a chance to visit and see something unique. WEM, for example, promotes
itself as ‘the world’s largest mall’ and as ‘the world’s only fully self-contained indoor
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city’ (WEM Centre Management, 1993). In a similar vein, the Mall of America in
Bloomington, Minnesota, boasts that it houses America’s largest enclosed
amusement park, Knott’s Camp Snoopy, while the MetroCentre in Gateshead,
England boasts that it is Europe’s largest shopping mall.
The scale of the centre and the inclusion of the unique are an integral part of the
development, merchandising and the differentiation of the mega-mall type. However,
these are not the only factors that contribute to this particular type of shopping
mall’s popularity. In this chapter, it is argued that the reasons for mega-malls
remaining one of the most popular forms of leisure-based consumer space in
operation in the late twentieth century are not simply because mega-malls are larger
than most super-regional and regional shopping centres. Neither is it because they
offer a more diverse range of shopping and leisure options to the public than their
counterparts.
In the next two sections of this chapter, three factors that contribute to the success
and popularity of the mega-mall type are discussed. The first factor is concerned
with the fact that the mega-mall type has successfully introduced simulated
environments that play upon the nostalgia of ‘lost youth and innocent fun’ into the
retail space thus creating a space where the need for controlled spending is forgotten
(Goss, 1993:37). The second relates to the size, scale and uniqueness of these
simulated environments such as theme parks and amusement arcades. Here, the
sheer scale and uniqueness of the leisure facilities is important if developers are to
successfully create spatial spectacles that effectively key into the tourist gaze. The
third factor contributing to the success and popularity of the mega-mall type relates
to the role of ‘public service institution’ adopted by the mall developers in order to
improve the image of the consumer space. Both examples of the mega-mall type
discussed below demonstrate a historically well-practiced developer rhetoric that
aims at cleaning up the image of ‘the mall’ and mall owners from one associated with
greedy consumerism to one of good hearted community (Goss, 1993: 18-47).
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Mega-Malls as Tourist Sites: The Strategic Linking of the
Successful Elements of Theme Parks and Amusement Grounds
with the Successful Elements of The Department Store Mall.
The mega-mall type is an extreme example of the way in which mall developers have
linked all the successful features of the department store mall type with those of the
theme park and amusement ground. The introduction of these leisure facilities within
the retail sphere is symbiotic in that they complement and enhance the
merchandising techniques utilised in earlier forms of consumer space. Further, the
use of theme parks within the retail space not only reinforces the architectural
discourse of consumption but, because the architecture of theme parks embodies
certain specific philosophical frameworks, it also brings a new dimension to that
discourse. A selective history of theme parks’ ancestors exemplifies this process.4 The
design and structure of the seventeenth-century French gardens of Versailles and
Chantilly, for example, reveal not only the architectural and landscape concerns of
the period, but also demonstrate how a garden is conceived as complex social and
cultural symbolic space. They reflect Descartes’ Meditations, Pascal’s Pensees, the
power of Louis XIV and the new optical technique (Mitrasinovic, 1996:3; Weiss,
1995). In this sense, contemporary theme parks act as ‘mirrors of infinity’5 (such was
Disney-EPCOT in the 1960s), displaying images of the collective self that enable
man to reconstruct/reassume ‘his place in the universe’ (Weiss, 1995). It is the
simulation of various vistas evoking memories and values from other times and
places that validate to the individual various social and personal values (Baudrillard,
1983:23).
The Mall of America’s, Knott’s Camp Snoopy simultaneously evokes a series of
memories and values to the visitor. The title of this themed area of Mall of America
evokes memories to those who had the opportunity to take part in camps held in
school vacations. The Rock climb, pictured below, recaptures memories of vacation
camps where life-skills were developed via a series of endurance trials such as rock
climbing, orienteering and other survival techniques.
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[image removed]
Figure 5.2 Rock Climb, Camp Snoopy, MOA. Photo courtesy of Chris Gregerson,
http://www.phototour.minneapolis.mn.us
At the same time, an element of childhood fun, ‘the pleasure of innocence’ (Goss,
1993:37) is introduced in the title with the introduction of the cartoon characters of
Snoopy and Peanuts.
[image removed]
Figure 5.3 Ferris wheel, Camp Snoopy, MOA. Photo courtesy of Chris Gregerson,
http://www.phototour.minneapolis.mn.us
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The theme is carried out throughout the theme park with the representation of
various characters from the cartoon strip. Goss has argued that ‘the magic of the
commodity depends upon an innocence about the relations of production and the
social construction of consumption’ (Goss, 1993: 37). This pleasure of innocence is
reiterated throughout Camp Snoopy with its inclusion of a carousel, Ferris wheel and
other aspects of the fair.
The marketing logic behind the introduction of innocent fun and the ‘collective
nostalgia for lost innocence of youth’ is explained by Goss (1993). Goss argues that
‘the sense of innocent fun mitigates the guilt of conspicuous consumption and a
residual innocence may similarly attach itself to commodities’ (Goss, 1993:37). It is in
this sense then, that, by strategically placing these leisure spaces next to retail spaces,
developers get the benefits of spillage. Here, developers of the mega mall are
merchandising the theme parks in the same way as earlier shopping centres
merchandised department stores. They are used as key anchors whose custom also
benefits the not so popular stores. The major difference being that developers of the
mega-malls also realise, and key into, the benefits of the psychological effects that
encourage increased spending.
The gigantic scale of mega-malls provides a space that maximises the evocative
effects described above. Their mammoth size provides a space large enough to place
simulated streets, villages or other urban landscapes within the enclosed space of the
mega-mall. The utilisation of huge atriums reminiscent of nineteenth-century leisure
spaces such as The Crystal Palace to cover both the shopping streets and the
entertainment areas also facilitates the creation of these effects. Here developers of
the mega-malls have utilised techniques similar to those used in theme parks and
historic villages. Both the West Edmonton Mall and the Mall of America have
incorporated themed streets in the design. On the other hand, the MetroCentre in
the North of England organises its retailers around several village themes. Bourbon
Street in West Edmonton Mall is a good example of this process. The simulation of
Bourbon Street in West Edmonton Mall, pictured above, signifies ‘town glamorised
in festival form. It is the small town as population centre, liberated from cyclical time
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of holiday, a perennial celebration with sidewalk cafés and ambulating Dixie bands’
(Gottdiener, 1995:115).
Figure 5-4 Bourbon Street, West Edmonton Mall, Edmonton, Canada photographed by Barbara
Henderson-Smith, September 2000.
It is not only that the streetscape from New Orleans’ Bourbon Street that is
reproduced at WEM. Developers have complemented and extended this imagery by
placing the same entertainment facilities in the street that are available to tourists
visiting New Orleans. At the same time, special events resonating with the New
Orleans theme such as the Motor Cycle Mardi Gras are regular occurrences staged in
the Bourbon Street Mall. The aim of this merchandising strategy is to create a virtual
real-tourist experience that allows the visitor to see, feel, touch, smell, taste and listen
to the best of New Orleans without actually going there.
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It is here that an interesting relationship between the shopping experience and the
tourist experience within the mega-mall space becomes apparent. Visitors to these
mega-malls choose to visit the malls themselves, not the sites they replicate. They do
not visit the mega-malls as a means of seeing and experiencing sites they would
otherwise be unable to travel to. Similarly, it is not simply the leisure facilities that
draw visitors to the mega-malls, but rather that these different forms of leisure
activities are located within the mall space. Here visitors have the experience of
having ‘been to’ the world’s largest theme park housed in an enclosed shopping mall.
In this sense, then, mega-malls are spatial spectacles.
In creating shopping centres of such huge proportions, the designers of all three
mega-malls cited above have created tourist sites ⎯ unique objects designed not
simply for shopping, but also for the tourist gaze. In so doing they have utilised two
of the six different techniques for creation and sustainment of successful tourist
sites.6 First, they have keyed into the tourist’s desire to:
[see] a unique object, such as the Eiffel Tower, the Empire State Building,
Buckingham Palace, the Grand Canyon, or even on the very spot in Dallas
where President Kennedy was shot. These are absolutely distinct objects to be
gazed upon that everybody knows about. They are famous for being famous.
(Urry, 1990:12)
Second, developers have recognised and catered for the tourist’s desire to:
[carry] out familiar tasks or activities within an unusual environment.
Swimming and other sports, shopping, eating and drinking all have particular
significance if they take place against a distinctive visual backcloth. The visual
gaze renders extraordinary activities that otherwise would be mundane. (Urry,
1990:12)
Each of the mega-malls worldwide, both acts as spatial spectacles, and provides a
distinctive visual backdrop that renders both the consumer space and the act of
consumption extraordinary. The size and uniqueness of both the entertainment and
retail facilities is thus an important part of the mega-mall’s advertising and
merchandising strategies and, indeed, play an important role in attracting clientele
from all around the world.
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To maintain the continued success of the mega-malls other merchandising strategies
have been incorporated into the design of the mega-malls. Besides creating a
simulated reality within the retail space, the introduction of theme and amusement
parks within the mega-mall space has three functions. First, these leisure spaces are
used as merchandising mechanisms to attract potential consumers from a wide
geographical area, to create consumer loyalty, and to attract this custom not simply
for a few hours but rather for a few days and hopefully, a whole week. This strategy
has been highly successful on all levels. West Edmonton Mall, for example, takes in
20 million visitors a year — twice the number of Disneyland.7 Visitors travel from all
parts of Canada, the United States and overseas. The average duration of a tourist
visit to the West Edmonton Mall is three days (WEM information sheet, 1992 &
2000).
However, while mega-malls are interested in attracting visitors from as wide a
geographical area as possible, their marketing strategies are not limited to attracting
the tourist dollar. Marketing strategies are also aimed at local and regional patronage.
West Edmonton Mall draws visitors from the city Edmonton ‘as well as a large
portion of residents in north-west Edmonton, suggesting that it serves as an
important congregative place for the city as well as the suburbs’ (Hopkins, 1990:272).
More people claim to visit West Edmonton Mall one or more times a year than any
other retail area in Edmonton. West Edmonton Mall also has a higher number of
multiple visits than other malls in the Edmonton region, being the only mall to be
patronised three or more times a week. Moreover, the length of a visit to West
Edmonton Mall tends to be of a longer duration than visits to other regional malls in
the area. ‘Nearly 45 percent of WEM’s visitors stay in the centre three or more hours
in duration compared to 20 percent for other regional malls.’ (Hopkins, 1990:273)
Furthermore, West Edmonton Mall is used more as a social site than any of
Edmonton’s other regional malls. Weekends, late afternoons and evenings are the
most popular times to visit. The main reasons for visiting were associated with leisure
and entertainment, rather than just for shopping. Some 30.7 percent of local visitors
surveyed stated that the purpose of a trip to West Edmonton Mall was more likely to
be for a meal or light snack or recreation such as walking around, compared with 24
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percent who stated their trips were more likely to be associated with aimless
shopping (Edmonton Convention and Tourism Authority, 1987:149).
Within West Edmonton Mall, then, leisure facilities have been strategically linked
with the act of shopping as a tactical manoeuvre not only to increase the shopping
centre’s power to attract custom but also to keep that custom within the consumer
space for a longer duration. In fact, visitors are encouraged to stay in the mall after
the shops close. West Edmonton Mall, like other mega-malls, houses a 127 room
themed hotel — The Fantasyland hotel. In housing potential customers within the
shopping mall, marketing managers are applying Gruen’s argument that longer
duration spent in a consumer space relates to higher sales (Gruen and Smith,
1952:68).
Second, theme and amusement parks are placed within the mega-mall space as key
anchors that encourage potential shoppers to travel to areas of the mall that would
traditionally be considered low traffic areas. Here, entertainment facilities are used as
a merchandising strategy in the same way as department stores were used within the
department store mall type.8 Traffic is generated throughout the consumer space by
carefully placing entertainment facilities strategically within the consumer space as
places where potential consumers can be both tourist and consumer.
The inclusion of theme and amusement parks within the mega-mall space brings an
added dimension to the merchandising strategy of the 1970s. As such, it flags one of
the ways in which mega-malls are more reminiscent of arcades, bazaars, emporia and
department stores than other shopping centre types. As mentioned above,
nineteenth-century merchants brought entertainment facilities inside the consumer
space in order to change the shopping experience from one based upon utility and
work to one based upon leisure. Like their nineteenth-century counterparts, megamalls have turned the shopping experience into a tourist experience.
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[image removed]
Figure 5-5 Waterpark and Wave pool, West Edmonton Mall, Source: West Edmonton Mall Advertising
Brochure
The third function of theme and amusement parks within the mega-mall space
relates to the role of mega-malls as social centres that cater to whole families rather
than single members. Statistical evidence backs up this claim. Finn and Rigby’s 1987
study found that 43.9 percent of Edmontonians visiting WEM were accompanied by
two or more people. Only 20 percent visited the mall by themselves. Family
members and friends tend to make the majority of group visits by Edmontonians
(Finn and Rigby, 1987). The manager of West Edmonton Mall argues:
It’s a family place. When you come down here, you look around and you see the
families are all there together. In the old days you used to and shop
separately…there was nothing to do for the children. Today when they come
here, they come all together. There is something for child [ren]. They can go and
see Fantasy Land. The father and mother can go and visit one of the hundred
restaurants we have here. They can do their shopping. They can do their
entertainment, and so on and so forth. (Television interview, Malltime,
1992.)
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This statement is very interesting. Two points can be made from it. First, it
underlines the fact that the developers and managers of mega-malls see their market
base as whole families rather than a single gender clientele — be it male or female.
Second, it highlights the strategic imaging of the Edmonton Mall as a ‘family place’.
The above quote highlights the way in which developers are ‘imaging their mall’ as a
space that provides a harmonious environment catering to all family members. By
imaging the mega-mall as ‘family space’, the element of childhood fun ‘the pleasure
of innocence’ is reinforced. Not only are evocative memories of parents’ own
childhood brought to mind as they experience the theme parks, but the real life
childhood experience is played out during the family’s visit. This increases the
chances of slippage from the leisure space into the retail space described by Goss.
Another marketing benefit is gained from imaging the mall as a family space. This is
related to the way in which developers promote the malls’ role in providing a family
space from a public service perspective. The next section of this chapter looks at the
way in which developers have made use of the concept of ‘public service’ as a
marketing tool. Particular attention is paid to ways in which the mega-malls’ role as
public service institutions has been exaggerated and used by developers to increase
their market position.
Developer Speak and the Mall as Public Service Institution
Several factors have influenced the stress of the malls’ public service role by
developers and mall management. In many regional and super-regional malls, the
public service nature of providing facilities such as libraries, child-care facilities and
community rooms is often more to do with lobbying local governments to permit
construction on the desired scale (Goss, 1993:26). In other cases, it is not a case of
the mall management lobbying local government but of local government making
stipulations on mall developers to make improvements to roads, parking and, in the
inclusion of libraries and other facilities needed in an area before planning approval
for development is granted.
Yet other instances, highlight the public service role is taken up and emphasised as a
means of increasing trade and improving the market position of one mall above
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others with a similar retail mix. In these instances, increasing trade and improving
market position are contributory reasons for mall managers’ use of the public service
role as a marketing tool. This is the marketing strategy employed by West Edmonton
Mall. Advertising for the: ‘West Edmonton Mall recognizes its role in the community
and is dedicated to being a good neighbour’ (WEM Website, 1997).
A comment made by one of the developers of the mall in a documentary produced
by public broadcast television in 1992 further underlines this point. In describing the
types of leisure facilities housed in the centre and the ways in which these cater to
‘family’ needs, the developer stated, ‘ Today we have become the public servant…
We do things for the people because the more we see the people — that they are
happy, it makes us happy (Television interview in Malltime, 1992).
The perception of the mega-malls as being ‘public service institutions’ is also
reminiscent of the time when the role and function of department stores were
thought of in a similar manner and were often referred to as such. There are other
similarities in the services provided by the mega-malls and those of the nineteenthcentury department stores. Like their nineteenth-century counterparts, that often
provided libraries and educational programs as a service to the public, the mega-malls
provide educational programs and services for their visitors. An important role of the
Water Park at West Edmonton Mall, for example, is to take on the educational role
of a zoo, providing the region’s growing school districts with educational tours and
with pre-tour and post-tour information packages for use in the schoolroom. The
mall’s information blurb argues:
Edmonton has one of the largest and fastest growing school districts in Canada.
West Edmonton Mall provides a unique opportunity for these students to
experience and develop awareness about marine mammals, aquatic life and
habitat without the long and costly journey to coastal aquariums and marine
mammal facilities. Age-appropriate, interactive education programs are offered
for pre-school children through to grade 12 on weekday mornings or afternoons.
Teachers are provided with information packets that include pre-visit and postvisit suggestions and classroom exercises. (West Edmonton Mall Website,
1996)
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In providing this service to the Edmonton community, West Edmonton Mall is
reaffirming its role as a public service institution. The mega-malls provide other
services and facilities for the public that are reminiscent of those provided by
nineteenth-century department stores. The MetroCentre in Gateshead in the north of
England, for example, houses rooms to be used by various community groups. These
have all the facilities of meeting rooms and are serviced by the centre free of charge.
Furthermore, all of the three mega-malls analysed in this chapter provide
entertainment programs free of charge for their visitors, while the centre
management for the Mall of America, besides running the educational outreach
program similar to that mentioned above, often organizes fundraising events for
local charities — such as the benefit concert for the Muscular Dystrophy
Association.
Providing services for the public in this way promotes customer loyalty. As Paul
Nystrom argues with regard to the department store form, leisure, entertainment and
the provision of non-retail amenities were used as a tactical strategy ‘to attract people
to the store, and to get them into the habit of coming’ (Nystrom, 1919:250-251; see
Chapter 2). Like their predecessors, mega-malls successfully employ this marketing
strategy to get potential customers used to visiting the mall. West Edmonton Mall,
for example, has initiated a Seniors Day that takes place in the first week of every
month. The Seniors Day runs from ‘10.00 am to 4.00 pm with informal displays,
seminars, live entertainment and more’. To take advantage of the program the
promotion blurb encourages seniors to ‘become a member’ (WEM Website, 1997:1).
In this way, management of WEM is not only providing Edmonton senior citizens
within the community with a service, but they are also at creating a sense of
belonging to the mall within this particular age group.
The Mall of America runs a similar program every Tuesday for children and
teenagers. Most of these events are free of charge and are staged in Camp Snoopy.
The mall’s website states:
Every Tuesday has been declared Family Fun day! Sponsored by Filene’s
Basement and BOBFM New Country Radio, there are special events, 2-for-1
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Theme Parks and Amusement Grounds Within the Retail Space
offers, and kids eat free at specified restaurants for lunch or dinner. (Mall of
America website, accessed 1996)
By running this program, MOM has developed a strategy to get ‘mom or dad and the
kids’ to visit the mall at least once a week — to get families into the habit of visiting
the mall. At the same time, this marketing strategy provides the mall with a positive
image.
Conclusions
The mega-mall type was analysed in this chapter to demonstrate the four main
points. First, it demonstrated the ways in which mall developers have introduced the
simulated environment within the retail space to create an atmosphere that masks the
negative implications of consumerism. The example of Knotts’ Camp Snoopy was
demonstrated the ways in which simulated environments play upon the nostalgia of
‘lost youth and innocent fun’ and thus creating a space where the need for controlled
spending is forgotten (Goss, 1993:37). The second point related to the size, scale and
uniqueness of these simulated environments such as theme parks and amusement
arcades introduced within mega-malls. Here, it was argued that the sheer scale and
uniqueness of the leisure facilities is important if developers are to successfully create
spatial spectacles that effectively key into the tourist gaze. The third point related to
the role of ‘public service institution’ adopted by the mall developers in order to
improve the image of the consumer space. Both the Mall of America and West
Edmonton Mall made use of a historically well-practiced developer rhetoric aimed at
cleaning up the image of ‘the mall’ and mall owners from one associated with greedy
consumerism to one of good hearted community (Goss, 1993: 18-47). The fourth
point related to the continuities that could be located in both the design and
merchandising technique of the mega-mall and earlier forms of retailing. All of these
merchandising, design and marketing techniques utilised in mega-malls are used in
other forms of malls to varying degrees depending upon market segmentation and
the function of the mall. They are also found in consumer spaces that do not come
under the design criteria of the department store mall such as themed streets, festive
marketplaces and heritage sites that have been re-developed as part of revitalisation
projects.
These
issues
are
surveyed
in
the
following
chapter.
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Theme Parks and Amusement Grounds Within the Retail Space
Notes
1
Interview with Adam Crowe of the Builders, Owners and Managers Association, Sydney on 3
September 2003.
2
Triple 5 is a family-owned company known for aggressive and innovative business dealings.
3
I have taken this to be the case as only WEM advertises that it is the largest mega-mall in the
world. Other mega-malls, such as the Mall of America advertise themselves as the largest in the
country. This together with statistics on size, leasing space and facilities of each centre, suggests
that WEM remains the largest mega-mall in the world.
4 Michael Sorkin argues that the precedents of contemporary theme parks are respectively:
circuses, festivals, World Fairs and Ebenezer Howard’s Garden City (Sorkin, 1992). In general, the
roots of the amusement parks could be traced back to medieval Europe (ca. sixteenth century)
when pleasure gardens featuring live entertainment, fireworks, dancing and primitive amusement
rides were introduced on the outskirts of European cities (McCullough, 1976).
5
Allen Weiss uses this term in describing the French formal garden related to 17th-century
metaphysics (Weiss, 1995).
6
For a discussion of all six techniques see Urry, J. (1990) The Tourist Gaze: Leisure and Travel in
Contemporary Societies, London: Sage.
7 Given the fact that Edmonton has less than 800,000 people in its metropolitan area this figure is
outstanding.
8 Mega-malls also use department and chain stores to encourage traffic flow to traditionally low
traffic areas.
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Merchandising for the Tourist Dollar
[image removed]
Figure 6.1: Costumed ‘Freedom Foundation Player, Freedom Trail, Freedom Trail Website.
Chapter VI: Shopping to a Theme — Marketing and Merchandising for the Tourist Dollar
Introduction
Several forms of consumer spaces that do not come under the design umbrella of the
introvert centres or enclosed shopping malls are surveyed in this chapter. These
include, retail centres in resort communities, themed streets and festive marketplaces.
These forms of consumer space are examined for two reasons. First, to demonstrate
that the themed streets, festive marketplaces and heritage sites that have been redeveloped as part of revitalisation projects make use of the same marketing
techniques as regional shopping centres and mega-malls and therefore point to the
correlations that exist between quite diverse forms of consumer spaces no matter
what their architectural design may be. Second, and most importantly, to examine the
potential for conflict between the competing aims of establishing an effective
consumer facility and the cultural, heritage, or ‘lifestyle’ themes that are often used to
market an attractive tourist destination.
In order to survey these issues, an examination of three forms of tourism retailing is
undertaken in this chapter. ‘Tourism retailing’ is a term used in this chapter to
identify those enterprises that are primarily or significantly of a retailing nature and
use their special attributes as a tourist destination to attract custom. Three examples
dealing with retailing in resort communities, themed streets and heritage listed
buildings, and festive marketplaces form the basis of this chapter. In particular, the
ways in which all forms have keyed into ‘tourist gaze’ (Urry, 1990:11) is examined. It
is argued that, in the examples discussed developers have made use of the tourist
gaze by creating a space that is out of the ordinary and everyday and by providing
mega entertainment events to attract custom.
Shopping and tourism are inextricably linked. Indeed, as discussed in Chapter II of
this thesis, consumer spaces were merchandised as tourist sites in the late eighteenth
and early nineteenth centuries. Similarly, in the beginning of the twenty-first century,
shopping centres are being developed in resorts all over the world to attract the
tourist dollar. Whether these centres are designed as enclosed malls or as shopping
strips, all share similar characteristics and marketing principles. They typically provide
an intimate, distinct atmosphere and a strong pedestrian character. They offer a
unique experience to the tourist while, at the same time, increasing the lifestyle
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appeal of the particular community. These centres usually lack traditional anchor
tenants. However, they do include logo or merchandise shops with commemorative
or iconic appeal. They offer ongoing special events and activities, and a variety of
eating and drinking places that create a social ambience. Most importantly, they have
a distinctive architectural design that is consistently carried out throughout the resort.
[image removed]
Figure 6 -2 Pacific Fair, Gold Coast, Queensland: A Regional Centre Making Use of its Resort Base to
Capture the Tourist Dollar, Front Cover of Marketing Flyer, Pacific Fair Marketing Department.
Tourism destinations depend on the special attributes of their locations. They often
promote the unique historic and cultural characteristics of their surrounding
community. The Urban Land Institute argues that for a community to effectively
capture its share of visitor spending, it must balance natural, historic and cultural
resources with the right mix of manufactured attractions, including retail. They
suggest that there are four principles that can help identify the right mix of services,
facilities and tenants in a tourist-based retail centre. First, as mentioned above, the
retail centre should build on the attributes of the surrounding area. Second, the retail
centre wishing to attract tourist business should have a year-round and diverse
appeal. Third, cluster retailing near the town centre is important to the continued
economic success of tourism retailing. The appeal of tourism-based retail is increased
when a wide variety of shops are clustered around each other and near local services.
Fourth, local services should include visitor information, post office, library, medical
centre, banks, realtors, conference and lodging facilities. These services provide spin136
Chapter VI: Shopping to a Theme — Marketing and Merchandising for the Tourist Dollar
off for local retailers and build a sense of community (Urban Land Institute, web
page, accessed, July, 2001).
The mix of retail, restaurants and entertainment should reflect the needs and interests
of the primary market segments. In the twenty-first century, tourist destinations
provide a variety of retail and services beyond souvenirs and fast food (Urban Land
Institute, web page, accessed, July, 2001). Developers of retail centres in resort
communities usually build on these special attributes to achieve a unified theme that
complements the surrounding area. What have been termed as festive marketplaces
often key into the unique historic and cultural characteristics of the surrounding
community to achieve their particular narrative of consumption. Themed streets, on
the other hand, often call upon techniques utilised in historic villages, theme parks
and shopping malls. Whereas regional malls developed in coastal or tourist resorts
usually adopt the themes of sand, sun and surf.
Retailing in Resort Communities: The Case of Sanctuary Cove
The first of the examples of tourism retailing highlights the two issues identified at
the beginning of this Chapter. As well, it surveys the ways in which the up-market
and elitist aspects of the Marine Village at Sanctuary Cove have been utilised by
developers to attract the ‘tourist dollar’ by creating ‘a basic binary division between
the ordinary/everyday (as in Australian ‘Ockerism’ with shorts and singlet) and the
extraordinary’ (as in an elitism that markets the rich and famous) via the staging of
hallmark events (Urry, 1990:11).
The developers of the commercial hub of Sanctuary Cove marketed the unique
character of the elite residential community in several ways. First, they magnified the
division between the elite residential community and the average Australian who can
feel free to visit the shopping centre for a day out. Unlike many of the regional
centres discussed in Chapter IX, there are no social negatives for people to dress
extremely casually. Entry is permitted to those wearing only shorts, singlets and
thongs in the hope that they will spend money.
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[image removed]
Figure 6-3 Marine Village Sanctuary Cove, The Ultimate Day, Holiday or Life: Sanctuary Cove, 1999:8
Built on a harbour front around the theme of a ‘traditional maritime village’
(Sanctuary Cove Marketing Department, 1988:2), the retail centre features:
More than 100 specialist tenancies including marine services and boat
brokerages, restaurants, resort stores and boutiques, cottage industries, a
market building, professional suites convenience stores, brewery, [theatre] and a
community hall.
The colonial architectural theme of a traditional maritime village is enhanced by
the creation of a vibrant marketplace atmosphere with brightly coloured exterior
finishes and signage. (Sanctuary Cove Marketing Department, 1988:2)
Figure 6.3 aptly demonstrates Sanctuary Cove’s Marine Village is designed to
enhance the natural attributes of its harbour setting. However, it is not simply the
‘magnificent’ landscape, the architectural theme nor a ‘vibrant’ marketplace that is
used as a marketing tool to draw the tourist dollar to Sanctuary Cove. Rather, it is the
elite lifestyle of the surrounding resort community and of its residents. It is the
unique opportunity (for a day at least) to be part of a lifestyle dedicated to
conspicuous consumption and the pursuit of leisure that is promoted by the
developers of Sanctuary Cove to attract the tourist dollar.
The residential estate, the marina, golf course, five-star hotel and the Marine Village
at Sanctuary Cove were developed in 1985 and opened in 1988 by Michael Gore,
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who was, at the time, a self-made millionaire. All were developed to facilitate the
creation of ‘the ultimate’ lifestyle. Michael Gore stated at the time:
What we are doing at Sanctuary Cove is creating a new lifestyle based on
quality. Nobody in Australia has ever been able to live like this before, no
matter how rich they were. American millionaires will visit Sanctuary Cove and
envy the people who have chosen to make their homes here. (Michael Gore,
1988, Sanctuary Cove Brochure)
All the facilities at Sanctuary Cove incorporated ⎯ and to this day still incorporate
⎯ high quality goods and services designed to cater to the whims and fancies of the
rich and famous who choose to live, holiday or visit there. It is the upmarket
attributes of the resort community and its rich and famous guests that are utilised by
the managers of the Marine Village as a marketing tool to draw the tourist dollar to
Sanctuary Cove. A day out at the Marine Village at Sanctuary Cove is promoted as
providing a voyeuristic opportunity to see and be seen shopping with the rich and
famous.
Here, Mike Gore and his management team built upon what are commonly
associated with negative aspects of conspicuous consumption. Rather than masking
the phenomenon by promoting the public service aspect of the centre, or introducing
aspects of the ‘pleasure of innocence’ discussed in Chapter V, Sanctuary Cove’s main
marketing theme is based on the promotion of conspicuous consumption.
Moreover, it keys into the voyeuristic by offering to all who visit the opportunity to
watch the ‘rich and famous’ spend and play.
The elite attributes of the surrounding resort community are merchandised by the
shopping centre’s developers from the very point of entry. Merchandising the retail
centre begins with the journey into the ‘village’ itself. There are two ways to access
the Marine Village at Sanctuary Cove. The first is by sea. Here, visitors enter the retail
village via a marina filled with expensive yachts and motor cruisers. Visitors pass the
yacht club, the marina, bar and several restaurants before crossing the promenade
lined with various street cafés to enter the heart of the retail centre itself.
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[image removed]
Figure 6-4 Aerial View of Marina, Sanctuary Cove Queensland, The Ultimate Day, Holiday or Life:
Sanctuary Cove Brochure , 1999:6
The second way to access the marine village is by land. Here, developers have placed
emphasis upon two facets of the retail centre’s surrounding resort community. The
first is exclusivity and privacy. Developers have achieved this effect by placing a
roundabout at the land-based entrance to the development. Signs direct incoming
traffic in two directions. Residents are directed to the right and visitors are directed
to the left. Security guards are housed in the middle of the roundabout to enforce the
safety and privacy of residents. However, there is little chance of visitors mistakenly
entering the residential community as a brick wall with iron gates at its entrance
surrounds it. Only those who own electronic access cards can open these gates. The
security guards, then, act to reinforce the exclusivity and privacy of the residential
estate.
The second facet of the resort community that is merchandised by developers on the
journey to the retail centre is its hedonistic pursuit of leisure. For several kilometres
of the land-based entrance to the Marine Village, the exclusive Sanctuary Cove Golf
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Course flanks the palm-lined paved driveway on both sides. Once at the Marine
Village, visitors park in an area that again signifies luxury, leisure and conspicuous
consumption. The resort community’s golf course, the Hyatt Resort Hotel, the
marina and the Marine Village surround the visitors’ car park. All give the visitor a
sense of entering a millionaire’s playground. All denote luxury, leisure and
conspicuous consumption.
Figure 6-5 Road Access to Sanctuary Cove Marine Village photographed by Barbara Henderson-Smith,
April 1999
At the same time, the resort is typically Australian ⎯ advertising an egalitarianism
that encompasses the retail village, the golf course and the Hyatt Resort Hotel. The
development’s information booklet states:
Sanctuary Cove is unlike anywhere else in Australia. It’s an exciting and
sophisticated resort where every Australian is welcome to enjoy world class sport
and leisure facilities.
It is an elegant, uniquely Australian experience for travellers. And, at the same
time, it is also Australia’s most exclusive, most civilised and most private
residential [resort] community. (Sanctuary Cove Marketing Department,
1988:1)
In fact, a large part of the attraction of visiting the Marine Village at Sanctuary Cove
is the fact that you might see ⎯ or, more importantly ⎯ that you might be seen with
someone rich or famous. The wide streets at the marine village are designed to
facilitate this voyeuristic experience.
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[image removed]
Figure 6-6: Streets at Sanctuary Cove Designed for Promenading and People Watching, Spirit of
Sanctuary Cove, June/July 1988:2.
Moreover, they often provide spaces that encourage visitors to stop, sit, relax and
watch the passing crowds. The Promenade (Figure 6.6) is a good example. As the
street’s name suggests, the Promenade is designed for strolling and for people
watching. In fact, most of the streets of Sanctuary Cove have been designed to
include ‘viewing points’. The two-storey buildings have wide verandas on both levels
to encourage the crowds to gather and watch the street scenes. The pathways are also
wide encouraging heavy pedestrian traffic flow. The large stone steps, designed as
seating, separate the footpath from the main traffic area. The streetscape is designed
to encourage residents, guests and day-trippers mingle incognito while watching the
spectacle before them. Besides having access to the regular and special entertainment
events, street entertainers including mimes, musicians, barbershop quartets, and
street theatre also entertain visitors in the Marine Village. These forms of
entertainment are commonly used by retail managers in the promotion of other form
of leisure-based shopping including regional malls and festive marketplaces.
The other characteristic of the surrounding residential resort community utilised by
developers to promote the Marine Village is that it is a community based upon the
pursuit of leisure. Once again, though, it is not ordinary everyday leisure pursuits.
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Rather, it is the leisure pursuits of the rich and famous including world-class sailing,
golf and tennis. The promotion brochure states:
Sanctuary Cove is about quality of life. Whether you’re enjoying an Australian
classic meal of fish ‘n’ chips harbour side, or living in a million dollar home on
the private residential areas. This is what makes Sanctuary Cove the ultimate
experience (as a day out for the family, a holiday destination or a permanent
address. (Sanctuary Cove Marketing Department, 1988:1)
Central to the attraction for visitors to Sanctuary Cove, then, is that they can be part
of Australia’s most exclusive, most civilised and most private residential resort
community.
In merchandising Sanctuary Cove as Australia’s most exclusive and prestigious
community, developers have keyed into what Urry (1990) refers to as the tourist
gaze. Urry argues that:
Tourism results from a basic binary division between the ordinary/everyday and
the extraordinary. Tourist experiences involve some aspect or element that
induces pleasurable experiences that are, by comparison with the everyday, out of
the ordinary. Potential objects of the tourist gaze must be different in some way
or other. (Urry, 1990:11)
The marketing of Sanctuary Cove is built upon the binary opposition between elitism
and egalitarianism. The Village makes use of the binary opposition of the ‘ocker’
Australian; and, while the centre promotes itself as typically Australian, the attraction
of this Centre above others in the Gold Coast region is it’s very exclusivity.
Event Tourism
From its inception in 1988, the management at Sanctuary Cove were highly
conscious of the competition from the entertainment and retail venues at the nearby
Gold Coast. With this in mind, they launched a high profile events calendar starting
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[image removed]
Figure 6-7: Fireworks at the ‘Ultimate’ Opening Event, Sanctuary Cove, February 1988, Spirit of
Sanctuary Cove, May 1988:2.
with the ‘Ultimate Event’ that lasted for five days and nights. The opening of
Sanctuary Cove consisted of a free concert, starring: Frank Sinatra, Peter Allen, Clive
James, Julie Anthony, James Morrison, Whitney Houston and many other Australian
musicians and artists. Other events held by Sanctuary Cove have included triathlons,
the regular yacht shows, wine launches, concerts, tennis and golfing tournaments.
From its inception, the management of Sanctuary Cove built upon the attributes of
the elite residential resort community to attract the tourist dollar. They held special
events throughout the year. In line with the theme of leisure, the marine village
offered a variety of entertainment venues and events ⎯ from jazz ballet to boxing
lessons, from wine auctions to bridge classes, from listening to pop music in the
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[image removed]
Figure 6-8 Athletes Gathering at the Promenade, Sanctuary Cove for Special Event, July, Spirit of
Sanctuary Cove, August 1988:2.
waterfront tavern to watching a special viewing of a television episode of Batman in
the village cinema. Special events are also organised at the Marine Village both to
attract the tourist dollar and for resident’s entertainment. Here, the management of
Sanctuary Cove has keyed into another important marketing mechanism used by
retailers from the nineteenth century onwards. This is the hosting of entertainment,
educational, cultural or sporting events within the retail space free of charge to the
public as drawcards.
In recent years, these events have been coined ‘hallmark tourist’, ‘mega’ or ‘special’
events (Hall, 1992). These are defined as ‘festivals, expositions, cultural and sporting
events that are held on a regular or one-off basis’ (Hall, 1992:197). The developers
of Sanctuary Cove have made use of the tourist gaze and of hallmark events to
promote the retail village. The commercial centre was promoted as an unusual and
upmarket blend of specialty retailing that was not offered in the area at the time of
development. Further, the distinct and elite attributes of the area were promoted
alongside its magnificent scenery and ideal Queensland weather conditions to entice
both the long stay holidaymakers and day-trippers to visit Sanctuary Cove.
The Sanctuary Cove example exhibits several of the marketing techniques that this
thesis has identified in other consumer spaces. It also demonstrates a series of
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architectural techniques, even though they are applied to the specific context of this
waterfront site, that are evident in other consumer sites. With regards to the potential
for conflict between the aims of the tourist theme and its effectiveness as a
marketing facility, there appears to be very little conflict at all.
This is hardly
surprising as the lifestyle theme that is at the heart of its attractiveness to the tourist,
conspicuous consumption, is quite compatible with the marketing themes of the
consumer space itself.
The next section of this chapter considers the way in which heritage sites are
marketed to attract the tourist dollar.
Themed Streets and Heritage Listed Buildings: The Rocks, Sydney,
Australia
The second of the examples of tourism retailing discussed in this chapter examines
the potential for conflict between the competing aims of establishing a vibrant retail
district and the cultural and heritage themes that are often used to market an
attractive tourist destination. In particular, the questions surrounding the impacts of
applying a heritage theme specific to an area as marketing tool to promote the area as
retail and leisure tourist destination is examined. Hewison has discussed these issues
in The Heritage Industry: Britain in a Climate of Decline. In this study, Hewison critiques
the tendency in Britain’s industrial towns and cities (that have lost their major
sources manufacturing income) to turn the history of the area into an industry base
capable of generating prosperity to the area. During the 1980s, through the process
of ‘industrialising’ heritage, many British towns allowed their history to become that
of theme parks. Hewison argues of the British example, the ‘museums [have turned]
into theatres for the re-enactment of the past’ (Hewison, 1987:83).
In the instances cited by Hewison the importance of the heritage aspects and history
of the area is often oversimplified and themed in a nostalgic, reminiscent sense rather
than in a rigorous, academic sense usually associated with social history and history
museums. Hewison argues that the danger in this form of heritage production is that
it becomes a pastiche ‘which deliberately falsifies authentic memory into an enhanced
version of itself’ (Hewison, 1987:134). Here then, the conflict of using the heritage
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of an area to promote itself as a tourist destination arises when the actual history of
the area is deliberately ‘falsified’ into a version that would be more appealing to the
tourist/visitor is highlighted.
The issues raised by Hewison regarding interpretation and the heritage industries are
continuing to be debated in the museum and heritage community (Hooper-Greenhill,
2000; Beck and Cable, 1998; Roth, 1998). The interpretative techniques employed in
the social history museums housed in the Rocks are not the subject of this chapter.
They are too broad to be discussed here and will form the basis of a future paper.1
However, the associated issues surrounding the impacts of local councils applying a
heritage theme specific to an area as marketing tool to promote the area as retail and
leisure tourist destination do co come under the scope of this thesis. Therefore, The
next section comprises of an analysis of the Rocks, Sydney as an Australian example
of the tensions at play when local authorities make use of the heritage buildings and
the areas’ past history to promote itself as a retail tourist destination. The example of
the Rocks lends itself to this sort of investigation. The area is also interesting for its
approach to the restoration of the many heritage buildings the area contains and for
the changes in developmental approach that have occurred in the past thirty years.
The Rocks is an area in central Sydney, Australia that is marketed for its links to
Aboriginal, convict and early immigrant settlement. The area comprises of
approximately five main streets located within walking distance of the city’s two most
recognisable landmarks, the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Sydney Opera House.
The development is mixed-use, containing hotels, restaurants, galleries, social history
museums and speciality retail shops. The area also houses open-air markets. These
operate on Friday evenings and weekends. The development extends from the
harbour in the north and east, to Kent Street in the west, and Grosvenor Street in the
south.
One of the major tensions with the preservation of many of the historic buildings in
the Rocks area is related to it geographic position. The Rocks’ close proximity to
both Sydney Harbour and the Central Business District has made the area one of the
‘choicest pieces of real estate in Sydney’ (Vines, 1993:208). The close proximity of
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the precinct to the Sydney’s Central Business District and the harbour has meant it
has often been far more profitable to the local authority to sell some of the historic
properties as redevelopment sites rather than restore the often-derelict buildings on
those sites. In the early years of ‘redevelopment’, many of the historic buildings were
destroyed and replaced with hotels and offices buildings designed in modern style
(Frith, 1992:8;Vines, 1993:208).
The Rocks Authority ‘originally advocated keeping only nine historic buildings in its
fiefdom, and the multiplicity of historic structures now remaining are largely due to
the Green Bans and not to the Authority’s wisdom’ (Frith, 1992:8). The Builders
Labourers Federation Green Bans effectively stopped further demolition. Ironically,
the Green bans were designed to protect the local community then living in the
historic buildings. Three decades later, the heritage buildings have survived but
effects of gentrification has meant that their 1970s occupants have moved elsewhere.
However, between 1980 and 1985 several other buildings were sold and sites
redeveloped with ‘little respect for the cultural significance of individual sites’. A
particular example that still has urban planning and heritage implications is the
Lilyvale site that was partially redeveloped to house a multi-storey hotel next to an
original building. Elizabeth Vines points to a paradox resulting from these years of
‘redevelopment’. Vines states, ‘it was this period of redevelopment that generated
the financial resources which now allow heritage conservation and urban design
improvement to be concentrated on: the Lilyvale Hotel development site alone
cancelled the $100 million debt of the Authority’ (Vines, 1993:208).
Stephen Firth, who was also writing about the Lilyvale Development shortly after its
completion, is not as forgiving of the urban planning decisions made by the Sydney
Cove Redevelopment Authority at the time. Firth argues that in approving the
design of the Lilyvale project, the ‘Authority appear not to have gone far enough in
separating the historical section of the site from the hotel development’ and that the
‘juxtaposition of the remnants of the old block next to the new tower is an
absurdity’. Adding that ‘Lilyvale has to be one of the saddest little tarted up buildings
in the whole of the city’ (Frith, 1992: 8&10).
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Since both Vines and Firth penned these articles in the early 1990s the Sydney Cove
Redevelopment Authority changed both its name and its charter. Redevelopment
has been removed from its title and its aims. The existing management approach
takes into consideration the requirements of the Burra Charter2 is its restoration and
development of the Rocks area.
Whether or not the changes in the Authority’s developmental approach was a direct
effect of becoming financially self-sufficient or more of a result of critical feedback
received from this community after such mistakes as the Lilyvale project cited above
is debatable. Other factors, such as the Australian Heritage Commission Act of 1975
and the adoption of the Burra Charter should also be considered when analysing the
changes in development policies and the implications to the development of the
Rocks.
There is another factor that influenced a change of development and revitalization
directions of the Authority in the years approaching the Australian Bicentenary. An
examination of the Authority’s Annual Reports from its inception3 reveals that the
heritage aspects of the Authority’s charter increased from around 1983. The Annual
Report of that year stressed the need to ‘achieve maximum renovation and
redevelopment by the time of the Bicentennial in 1988’ (Annual Report, 1983:3).
There is also a strong theme within the early annual reports that links the heritage
aims of the SCRA to national pride that gains increased emphasis in the Annual
Reports between 1983 and 1987. These concerns continued after the Bicentennial.
When the history behind the redevelopment of the Rocks is taken into consideration,
it can be argued that a number of factors led to the shift in the Sydney Cove
Authority’s developmental emphasis. This shift also had positive effects upon the
Authorities approach to preservation and restoration of its historic sites. In 1991, $15
million was spent on capital works including building restoration and heritage
specialists consultation fees. In addition, a considerable proportion of the operating
budget was allocated for specialist staff including a Manager, Architecture and
Heritage and a support team of five professionals. Commitment was made in the
early 1990s to the conservation principles of the Burra Charter and to the
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preparation of conservation plans before restoration of any heritage sites in the
Rocks was undertaken (Vines, 1993:208).
Many of the original buildings have been preserved so that they now exist in the state
that they were originally designed. While facadism occurred under the original
charter, there is no ‘facadism’ in recent restorations. The post 1990s restored
buildings at the rocks are not empty shells — they are not simply fronts for an
‘Australian’ theme — they are the Australian theme: and this is what is marketed.
The next section comprises of an analysis of the Rocks’ marketing strategy.
Merchandising and Marketing the Rocks
The restoration and attention to historic detail of the Rocks is marketed by the
Sydney Cove Authority as giving the area a ‘unique ambience’ resulting from a
mixture of modern restaurants, ‘unique shopping, and many heritage-listed buildings
against a magnificent Sydney Harbour’.4 The fact that the area is the ‘oldest’ in
Sydney is also used as a marketing technique to promote the centre. As the Sydney
Cove Authority states:
The Rocks is the oldest area of Sydney and has recently undergone an amazing
metamorphosis, the old district being transformed into a vibrant pocket of cafes
and restaurants and interesting tourist shops and stalls (Sydney Cove
Authority Website, December, 2002).
The Authority also cite its ‘sensitive conservation plan’ as a point of interest to the
visitor/tourist/shopper, stating:
Sydney's town planners have put in place a sensitive conservation program that
has preserved the heritage and character of The Rocks and brought about an
interesting fusion of modern amenities in an old and valued setting (Sydney
Cove Authority Website, December, 2002).
At the same time, the history of the area is marketed as a point of interest to tourists.
Susannah Place for example, is marketed as providing ‘an insight into the richness of
community life that existed in The Rocks in the 19th century. Its modest interiors
and rear yards illustrate the restrictions of l9th century inner city life. The original
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brick privies and open laundries are some of the earliest surviving washing and
sanitary amenities remaining in Sydney’ (Sydney Harbour Authority, Brochure, 2002).
[image removed]
Figure 6-9 Susannah Place, The Rocks, Sydney, The Rocks Chamber of Commerce, Website accessed
November 2002
There is also a recreated a turn-of the-century corner store and sells goods from that
era. As the illustration below highlights, the shop is a recreation of Australian life at
the turn of the century. It provides the visitor with a visual reference to the sorts of
consumer goods Australians could purchase in the years between 1900 and 1920.
Conservation work, research and interpretation on this historic establishment is still
in process. However, The Harbour Authority argues that even in its unfinished state
‘the museum offers an opportunity for visitors to learn and participate’ (Sydney
Harbour Authority, Brochure, 2002). Visitors are given a guided tour and can also
explore re-created interiors from different periods. There is also an introductory
video for those who are interested.
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[image removed]
Figure 6-10 Interior of Restored Shop, Susannah Place, The Rocks, Sydney, The Rocks Chamber of
Commerce, Website accessed November 2002.
The type of history presented in Susannah Place is typical of that offered elsewhere
in the area. Articles on display are, in the main, original artefacts and objects from the
late nineteenth and early twentieth century Sydney. Most have been found on many
of the archaeological digs that have taken place in the area (Karskens, 1999:75-100).
The narrative presented through the video and various signs at the museum is also a
close representation of the everyday lives of suburban Australians at the turn of the
century. It is the result of thorough research carried out by various historians and
archaeologists (Karskens, 1999:75-186).
Both the museum and the video talk do represent ‘the way we were’ (Hewison,
1987:16). In this sense, the museum is an example of Hewison’s argument regarding
the commodification of heritage earlier in the chapter. However, the museum is not
an extreme case, it is not a pastiche. Neither has it deliberately falsified authentic
memory into an enhanced version of itself (Hewison, 1987:134).
The ninety-minute walking tour of the area is another matter. While it provides a
well-researched history of the buildings and the life-style of their inhabitants, the
narrative does have a tendency to exaggerate the ‘colourful’ and more entertaining
aspects to appeal to tourists. The Authority’s advertising brochure highlights the tour
as giving visitors the opportunity to see ‘the haunts of soldiers, sailors, convicts and
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merchants, as well as view some of Sydney's historic buildings (the lovely courtyards
and cottages are a must-see), while being entertained with the true tales of Sydney's
colourful past’ (Sydney Harbour Authority, Brochure, 2002). Here, Hewison’s
argument regarding the conflict of using the heritage of an area to promote itself as a
tourist destination is evident. In this instance, the actual history of the area is
deliberately exaggerated into a version that is more appealing to the tourist/visitor.
The walking tours are also used as a means of introducing visitors to the retail and
café areas of the Rocks. Here, visitors are invited to ‘enjoy tales tall and true as you
visit historic pubs, colonial cottages, archaeological dig sites, a quaint corner store, a
Gothic church, cobblestone lane ways and leafy courtyards’ (Darling Harbour
Authority, Web, accessed November 2002). Here the narrative of history of the area
has been themed to encourage custom to the retail segment. In so doing, the
developers of the retail area are using the same marketing techniques as are used in
consumer spaces internationally. The next section examines the blending of the retail
district with heritage in an effort to gain the tourist dollar.
Blending, Speciality Retail, Heritage and Cultural Sites and Special
Events for the Tourist Dollar
[image removed]
Figure 6-11: Outdoor Cafes in Restored Heritage Listed Buildings, The Rocks, Sydney, The Rocks
Chamber of Commerce, Website accessed November 2002.
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In the promotional material issued, there is an attempt to list exhaustively all the
facilities available to the tourist and to link these, somewhat breathlessly, with the
heritage flavour of the facility. Here, visitors are invited to:
Browse through the charming streets of The Rocks and discover dozens of
specialty stores, galleries and boutiques with everything from hand-made puppets
to Aboriginal artefacts. At many stores in The Rocks, you can meet artists and
craftspeople face to face. See glass engravers, clothing designers, painters and
jewellery-makers at work. There are antiques, old wares and a vintage button
store alongside shops offering a range of modern products using native
Australian materials such as lambs’ wool and native timbers. (Darling
Harbour Authority, Web, accessed November 2002)
[image removed]
Figure 6. 12 Canopies at the Rocks Market, Photographed by Peter Roberts, April 2002.
The Rocks Market is also a popular venue. Located at the northern end of George
Street, close to Sydney Harbour, it is held every weekend. More than 170 stalls
feature exotic crafts, home wares, jewellery and Australian-designed goods, all under
a unique sail-like canopy.
Besides holding the markets, historic tours, art and craft displays, The Rocks features
numerous regular cultural events at the many galleries and historic sites located in
The Rocks. Regular concerts are also held at the evening markets, featuring wellknown Australian artists. In addition, like the marketing technique used in Sanctuary
Cove, holds special events slinked to Australia Day and other commemorative
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Australian ceremonies. The re-enactment of the first fleet into Sydney Harbour and
the Bi-Centennial Celebrations were one example.
In summary, the Rocks demonstrates most of the marketing techniques that this
thesis has identified in other consumer spaces. Despite the heritage origins of the
site, the retailing components demonstrate architectural techniques recognisable in
other consumer sites. Looking at the potential for conflict between the aims of the
tourist theme and its effectiveness as a marketing facility, the Rocks appears to
present a different picture than Sanctuary Cove. The SCRA aims include the very
noble objective of ‘undertaking worthwhile preservation’. However, it could be
argued that the Rocks has merely succeeded in creating another, albeit very attractive,
shopping precinct.
In terms of the conflict of purpose, the Rocks may well work as a consumer
enterprise, but its credibility in reflecting the historical and cultural aspirations of
Australians is debatable. As discussed above, the history presented through the
video and various signs at the museum, and through the guided tours is an
exaggeration of the lives of suburban Australians at the turn of the century
(Hewison, 1987:16). In this sense, the way in which the heritage aspects of the Rocks
are ‘packaged’ for the tourist is representative of Hewison’s argument regarding the
commodification of history.
However, The Rocks’ representation of history is not an extreme case of theming, it
is not a pastiche (Hewison, 1987:134).
In fact, when reviewing the Rocks’
interpretation of history for use as a tourist attraction, it becomes apparent that there
is a spectrum ranging from a genuine attempt to interpret history as accurately and
neutrally as possible to an over dramatisation of historical events and subordination
of historical accuracy and neutrality in the interests of attracting tourists.
In
comparison with other, international examples, it could be argued that the Rocks is
towards the lower end of the spectrum that uses bona fide histiographical
methodologies and places emphasis upon conservation and heritage management
issues.
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The next section comprises of an analysis of the ways in which history and heritage is
marketed at Faneuil Hall in Boston as a point of comparison to The Rocks example.
[image removed]
Figure 6.13: Freedom Trail Players, Faneuil Hall, Freedom Trail Website.
Festive Market Places and History as Pastiche: The Case of Faneuil
Hall, Boston, Massachusetts
The third example of tourism retailing discussed in this chapter builds upon the
arguments presented in the discussion of The Rocks, above. The conflict between
tourism retailing where dramatisation of historical events and subordination of
historical accuracy and neutrality is employed in the interests of attracting tourists is
discussed in this section. The type of tourism retailing used to demonstrate these
points is the Festive Marketplace. The Rouse Development Company first developed
Festive Marketplaces in the 1980s. The Company defines this particular form of
retailing as destinations, typically in an urban setting, that combine exciting shopping,
dining and entertainment activities in a distinctive, often heritage site.
Since the 1980s, festive marketplaces have been developed in most countries
throughout the world. For the purposes of this chapter, the analysis contained in the
remainder of this section however, concentrates upon Boston’s Faneuil Hall
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Marketplace. Faneuil Hall Marketplace was one of the first festive marketplaces to
be developed by The Rouse Company in the 1980s. Since then, it has been cited as a
successful example of tourism retailing (Black, 1983). It is renowned for its festive
atmosphere and its year-round street performer program as well as a series of ‘funfilled events for all age groups’ (Faneuil Hall web page accessed December 8, 2002).
The Marketplace consists of speciality shops, food stores and restaurants designed to
attract office workers, residents and tourists. The work of local artisans and
entrepreneurs is featured in the Bull Market Pushcart Program, the first of its kind in
the United States. Many of America's most famous stores, such as Crate & Barrel and
Warner Brothers Studio Store are featured along with smaller, local merchants.
Similarly, dining options range from elegant full-service dining to a huge selection of
ethnic food items in the Quincy Market Building.
The Market Place is owned by the Boston Redevelopment Company who leases the
property to the developer, the Rouse Company. At its time of development, the
marketplace was the centrepiece of revitalisation and development in downtown
Boston. Prior to the redevelopment and the opening of the first part of the project,
the marketplace consisted of a number of decrepit old buildings that 'blighted the
downtown area and limited access to the waterfront' (Black, 1983:50). However, a
number of projects were developed in conjunction with, and in some cases prior to,
the market place project, that improved the market place's image and strengthened its
chances of success. These projects included a new city hall and government complex,
new office tower development in the downtown area, and development along the
waterfront, including the conversion of the historic wharf building to housing, retail
and office uses, a new public aquarium and waterfront park, and a new high-rise
residential construction (Black, 1983:50 -55).
The initial motivation for the development came from the Boston Redevelopment
Authority (BRA). The Authority sought to redevelop the marketplace as a retail
centre. Substantial public funding was used for the development of the marketplace
in return for the city's share in the overall profits. Federal funds paid for public
improvements in the market place area including the upgrading of streets, sewers and
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other utilities. Ownership and ultimate control of the marketplace remained with the
BRA who leased the buildings for $1,000 per year for 99 years. The Rouse Company
manages all day-to-day aspects of the market place via a management corporation
staffed by Rouse Company personnel (Black, 1983:50).
Because the Rouse Company has significant expertise in the management of
shopping centres, the management team of Faneuil Hall have applied many of the
same management and marketing techniques employed in regional and superregional malls. These include a merchandising policy designed to capture both the
local and tourist markets. While the Marketplace has been designed as a tourist
destination, it is ideally located to capture the large concentration of office workers in
the adjacent financial district. Downtown Boston has a daytime worker population of
almost 240,000. There are an estimated 95,000 workers within one-quarter mile of
Faneuil Hall Marketplace. Seventy percent of all adults in the Boston area visited
Faneuil Hall Marketplace in the past year, with an average frequency of once every
two months. The Marketplace also works well as a tourist attraction. More than 11
million people visit Boston annually, with close to 45 percent of domestic visitors
actually stopping at Faneuil Hall Marketplace during their stay (Rouse Company
website, accessed December 2001).
A major difference between regional and super-regional shopping malls and Faneuil
Hall Marketplace is located in the emphasis placed upon regional and national history
by developers and local organisations to promote the centre as a tourist attraction.
Like the Australian example of the Rocks, the area surrounding the marketplace has a
rich history. It is adjacent to the historic building from which Samuel Adams rallied
the citizens of Boston to the cause of independence. It is a focal point along Boston's
famed Freedom Trail. The Marketplace itself is housed in three renovated
eighteenth-century buildings including the renowned Quincy Market situated on a
6.5-acre site.
The managers of the Faneuil Hall market the area’s rich history to promote the area
as ‘a unique blend of old, historic Boston while fulfilling current shopping and dining
needs and desires’ (Faneuil Hall web page accessed December 8, 2002).
The
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managers of Faneuil Hall also make use of two other assets of the area to promote
their centre as a tourist attraction. Theses are the Freedom Trail and the Freedom
Trail Foundation.
Local journalist William Schofield established the Freedom Trail Foundation in 1951.
The Foundation works to preserve and promote the heritage sites and to make them
more accessible to residents and visitors. The Foundation was incorporated as a
non-profit organisation in 1964. Since then, strong public/private partnerships have
since advanced the Foundation’s work. Both the National Park Service and the City
of Boston have worked closely with the Foundation to preserve and promote the
Trail. The National Park Service, for example, has infused over $50 million in capital
improvements to sites along the Trail. It has also provided interpretive services,
collaborating on educational programming and conducting free guided tours along
the Trail.
In addition to the National Park Service’s contribution to the Freedom Trail, the City
of Boston has contributed over $1 million for capital improvements including bronze
medallion markers, information kiosks, upgraded pedestrian ramps and the
replacement of the red painted line along the Freedom Trail with a red brick line.
The Freedom Trail is a two and one-half mile red brick line ‘that tells a story over
two centuries old’ (Freedom Trail Website, September 2002).
[image removed]
Figure 6.14: Marching Down the Red Brick Line, Freedom
Trail, Faneuil Hall, Freedom Trail Website.
As indicated by the map below, Faneuil Hall and Quincy’s Market are located on the
inner-city section
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Chapter VI: Shopping to a Theme — Marketing and Merchandising for the Tourist Dollar
[image removed]
Figure 6.15: Freedom Trail and Map of Boston Harbour Region, Faneuil Hall, Freedom Trail Website.
of the Heritage trail within close proximity to New City Hall. Nevertheless, the
history of the Marketplace is intrinsically linked with the other thirteen historic sites
along the trail and it is this history that is used by the developers to market the centre
as a tourist attraction.
As mentioned above, it is the Freedom Trail Foundation — not the management of
Faneuil Hall — that provides the history and the historic tours of the Freedom Trail.
Both the Foundation’s Charter to preserve, promote and to make the heritage sites
more accessible to residents and visitors and the fact that it is local history group is
seen as giving the history produced a credence and respectability and truth. As the
Foundation says of the history it presents:
The stories of sixteen historic sites along the Trail are the dramatic history of
America’s birth. The sites along The Freedom Trail are not recreations or
adaptations. They are real. (Freedom Trail Website, September 2003)
However, while the heritage of the buildings is indisputable, the way in which their
histories are represented is not.
In an attempt to make the history lively and
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Chapter VI: Shopping to a Theme — Marketing and Merchandising for the Tourist Dollar
entertaining and as appealing to the tourist/visitor as possible, the Freedom Trail
Foundation
[image removed]
Figure 6.16: Costumed ‘Freedom Foundation Player, Freedom Trail, Freedom Trail Website.
‘tell’ an exaggerated and highly dramatised, re-enacted history. Costumed ‘Players’
‘tell stories about the people, the places the events and the drama of the American
Revolution, and share lively anecdotes about the vitality of contemporary Boston’
(Freedom Foundation website, September, 2003). Similarly, the guided walking tours
of the Freedom Trail with costumed characters representing famous patriots such as
James Otis, Abigail Adams and William Dawes lead visitors through the story of
America’s founding and the birth of our country’s freedom.
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Chapter VI: Shopping to a Theme — Marketing and Merchandising for the Tourist Dollar
[image removed]
Figure 6.17: Freedom Trail Volunteers as Costumed Tour Guides, Freedom T rail website
Even the audio tour provides a re-enactment of events. ‘Sound effects, character
voices, celebrities and historians can all be heard on this tour. Here then, historical
information about the Freedom Trail is flavoured with colourful commentary about
some of Boston's past since the Revolution, like the Molasses Flood, the Brinks
Robbery and the development of the City's famous North End’ (Freedom
Foundation website, September, 2003).
The type of history produced by the Freedom Foundation comes under that
described by Hewison. It has been deliberately exaggerated into a version that is
more appealing to the tourist/visitor. As discussed earlier in this chapter, Hewison
argues that the danger in this form of heritage production is that it becomes a
pastiche ‘which deliberately falsifies authentic memory into an enhanced version of
itself’ (Hewison, 1987:134).
The Faneuil Hall example, then, demonstrates the conflict of using the heritage of an
area to promote itself as a tourist destination. History of the area has been
exaggerated and thus ‘falsified’ into a version that would be more appealing to the
tourist/visitor.
Moreover, the type of history produced by the Freedom Trail
Foundation can be placed towards the higher end of the interpretative spectrum
because of its heavy theming, the dramatisation and over exaggeration of historic
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tales, the re-enactment of historical events and, by its employment of actors to ‘tell’
the story of history.
In conclusion, tourism and shopping are inextricably linked. It is for this reason that
several forms of consumer spaces catering to tourism retail have been developed
internationally in recent years. All forms of tourism retailing make use of the same
marketing techniques as regional shopping centres and mega-malls and therefore
underline the fact that correlations exist between quite diverse forms of consumer
spaces no matter what their architectural design may be. Whether these centres are
designed as enclosed malls or as shopping strips, all share similar characteristics and
marketing principles. They typically provide an intimate, distinct atmosphere and a
strong pedestrian character, offering a unique experience to the tourist. They offer
ongoing special events and activities, and a variety of eating and drinking places that
create a social ambience. Most importantly, they have a distinctive architectural
design that is consistently carried out throughout the resort.
It is here that the potential for conflict between the competing aims of establishing
an effective consumer facility and the cultural, heritage, or ‘lifestyle’ themes that are
often used to market an attractive tourist destination. When a consumer space
purports to have a higher aim, like being an historical or cultural icon, then the
question remains: Can these two functions credibly coexist?
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Notes
1
I am in the process of researching this paper that looks at the complex issues for managers of
museums and heritage sites of balancing the economic and political requirements of fulfilling visitor
quotas with the need to present a well-researched and accurate representation of history.
2
The Burra Charter produced by the Australian Branch of the International Council on Monuments
and Sites is internationally respected for providing some of the clearest guidelines on the
assessment and evaluation of heritage sites.
3
The Sydney Cove Redevelopment Authority (SCRA) was constituted by Act of Parliament Number
56 in 1968. SCRA began on 12 January 1970.
4
While these are not direct quotes, the inference comes fro the SCRA’s Annual reports and from
marketing blurbs given to me when spending time in the archives at the Darling Harbour Authority,
Sydney.
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Chapter VII: A Tale of Three Cities: Culture, Consumption
and Inner City Revitalisation
[image removed]
Princess Square Glasgow, Alfred Richter: http://www.alfredrichter.de/Photoalbum/Schottland-AlbumPhotos/shottland-photos_10.html
Chapter VII: A Tale of Three Cities: Culture, Consumption and Inner City Revitalisation
Introduction
The conditions that led to change of many inner city streets with the advent of the
department store mall type in the cityscape are outlined in this chapter.
A
retrospective analysis of the malling of three cities ⎯ Brisbane, Glasgow and
Melbourne ⎯ in the late 1980s and early 1990s forms the basis of this chapter. The
cities of Brisbane and Glasgow are of particular interest in the period as both were
preparing for major cultural events and were hoping to attract the tourist dollar.
Brisbane hosted World Expo in 1988 and Glasgow was nominated as the European
City of Culture in 1990. Melbourne is of interest to the chapter because of the city
council’s concern with a declining city centre due to transference of the developer
dollar and potential trade to the more popular regional and suburban centres. The
City Council’s 1985 City of Melbourne Strategy Plan and its 1999 Review of the Strategy Plan
is also of interest. Similarities with Glasgow’s strategy plan to revive its city heart can
be located both in these planning documents and in the revitalisation process itself.
Particular attention to the developmental rhetoric of city councils, planners and
developers in the revitalisation process is paid in this chapter. It is argued that the
redevelopment of consumer spaces was just as important an agenda ⎯ if not more
so ⎯ than the redevelopment of other cultural facilities within their city centres
during the late 1980s and early 1990s. An examination of the ways in which
consumer spaces were designed, developed and, in the case of existing consumer
spaces such as arcades or nineteenth-century department stores, restored as spatial
spectacles to attract the tourist dollar and to bring ‘the people’ back into the city
centre is also carried out in this chapter.
Finally, the successes and failures of this form of redevelopment are surveyed in the
chapter. The problems associated with the issue of economic viability, in particular,
are highlighted. It is argued that it is naive to rely upon the introduction of an innercity leisure-based mall, or a festive marketplace, as the panacea to inner-city decay.
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Chapter VII: A Tale of Three Cities: Culture, Consumption and Inner City Revitalisation
The need for local and state governments to develop an integrated policy for inner
city redevelopment that acknowledges the role of consumer spaces as cultural
resources is also raised.
A Tale of Three Cities
The inner city landscape changed dramatically in the mid-1980s in Australia and the
United Kingdom, and in the 1960s in America, with the development of the
department store mall type on many prime inner city properties. Critics of the mall
type were affronted that such a ‘contrived’ commercial form could appear amongst,
and compete with, what they considered to be the perfect blend of cultural, civic,
commercial and retail spaces. Department stores, arcades and specialty shops, such as
gents’ outfitters, were accepted as part of the cityscape because these consumer
spaces had traditionally been part of cities since the late eighteenth and early
nineteenth centuries. Chain stores, such as Woolworths and Coles in Australia, Marks
and Spencers in the United Kingdom and J.C. Penny in America, were accepted
because these had been part of the cityscape since the early twentieth century. These
forms of consumer spaces were thus always associated with the city heart. They were
ubiquitous ⎯ forming part of many childhood memories of the city’s festivities at
Christmas, Easter and other national holidays. For these reasons, both department
and chain stores were perceived, by urban planners and cultural critics alike, as
forming part of city cultures.
The appearance of the shopping mall type within the city heart in the mid twentieth
century, however, presented something foreign and distasteful amidst the cityscape.
It presented a space that was considered by social planners and cultural critics alike to
be and artificial and contrived.
It presented a space associated with the outer
suburbs, a lack of cultural capital and, at its lowest level, with mass consumerism.
Other concerns were voiced as reasons against the development of the department
store mall type in city centres. These included concerns over the divisions between
the public and private space and with access by all groups to these spaces; with the
creation of 'dead space' and a lack of late-night facilities upon the closure of many
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Chapter VII: A Tale of Three Cities: Culture, Consumption and Inner City Revitalisation
inner-city shopping precincts, and with the problem of gentrification. Why then,
considering the negative evaluations, are these consumer spaces continuing to be
developed on such a vast scale within city centres worldwide?
Historical evidence suggests that it was the success of the department store mall type
in the suburbs that initiated its introduction into the cityscape in the years between
1966 and 2000. As discussed in earlier chapters, department store malls were
designed to attract shoppers into the centres for as long a duration as possible. They
were also developed to create consumer loyalty, getting potential customers into the
habit of visiting the centres again and again. The suburban centres were highly
successful ⎯ working exactly as designed ⎯ and in so doing transferring consumer
loyalty away from the city centre and the department store ethos to the suburban
malls. 1
However, it was not simply consumer loyalty that was transferred to the suburbs.
Alongside this shift in consumer interest, it is also possible to see a process of 'retail
suburbanisation' (Jones, 1989:399).2
That is, there was a transference of the
developer dollar and retail interest away from the inner-city retail space to the more
popular regional and mega-malls. The loss of the developer dollar and potential
shoppers alike clearly concerned city planners, city councils and the retailers whose
stores were still located in the city heart. Of this period, Peter Jones argues that, in
the United Kingdom, ‘the town centre has lost its monopoly of comparison
shopping, [and] many local authorities were clearly worried about the possible longterm decline of traditional central shopping areas’ (Jones, 1989:399). Concerns like
those voiced by Jones are not limited to the United Kingdom. Similar trends have
occurred in America and were happening in Australia. Both Melbourne and Brisbane
have initiated strategies to revitalise their city centres and to reverse this trend.
During the 1980s Brisbane, like may other cities nationally and internationally, was
feeling the effects of retail suburbanisation. By 1986, retail trading in Brisbane’s
Central Business District (CBD) had diminished drastically. The role of a vibrant
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Chapter VII: A Tale of Three Cities: Culture, Consumption and Inner City Revitalisation
economic centre of the CBD had declined. The trading downturn in the city centre
had diminished to such a degree that, by the mid 1980s, many of the smaller
department stores such as Barry and Roberts had closed their doors — their
abandoned buildings echoing the emptiness of cash registers and of the lack of
animation in the once-thriving city streets.
Similar trends were happening in Melbourne. While the state of Victoria showed an
average sales turnover growth of 9.1 percent per annum, that was considerably higher
that the Australian average of 8.86 percent, the Central Activities District (CAD) of
its capital city did not reflect this trend. Its performance was considerably lower with
an average annual growth between 1979-80 and 1985-86 of 7.45 percent per annum.
By contrast, retailing in the outer suburbs of Melbourne grew by 12.05 percent
(Boesley, 1989:17). The 1985 City of Melbourne Strategy Plan was developed by
Melbourne City Council to reverse this trend. In 1991, The Review of Strategy Plan was
still clearly concerned with the loss of population and trade. It lamented the:
vacant office space, low retail turnover, hotel vacancy rates and little achievement
of desired residential population increases in the Central Administration
District If these trends continue a downward spiral could be created, with
increasingly vacant parts of the city, loss of service business and reduced numbers
of people. (City of Melbourne, 1991:55)
The Review asks: Who would want to visit a city with empty streets, shops and
offices? It argued:
Cities are about people, and their most important function is to provide a place
where people come together face to face. A city that fails to attract people fails to
survive. (City of Melbourne, 1991:55)
Defining one of the reasons for the failure of the city to attract people as being the
popularity of suburban shopping centres and malls, the review states:
Factors influencing these trends include the current economic situation and
development patterns of metropolitan Melbourne. Falling population rates in
the inner city, the outward spread of fringe suburbs and the growth and
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attraction of suburban district centres and shopping malls. (City of
Melbourne, 1991:55)
The Review further argued that the development of the department store mall type on
prime city land would be vital in attracting people back to the city centre and away
from the suburbs. Three major additions to the city’s retail floor space, the Sportsgirl
Centre, the Melbourne Central project and the Australia Centre were marketed as
giving the city an added market attraction over suburban outlets. It was argued that
the development of these shopping malls within the heart of the city centre would
attract potential shoppers away from the suburbs back to the city. In turn, it was
argued, this would reverse the downward trend in inner-city retail turnover and, in so
doing, encourage retail investors back into the city. Other facets of Melbourne’s
strategy plan included the opening of several major city hotels, the completion of the
Westgate Freeway and the Webb Dock railway in Port Melbourne, the construction
of the National Tennis Centre in Flinders Park and the relocation of the Museum
from Swanston Street to a site on Southbank were also flagged as future projects.
Future development included a new development on the Docklands and the possible
development of a casino (City of Melbourne, 1991:10).3 Strong emphasis was also
placed upon the development of dynamic cultural industries and a strong cultural
infrastructure to attract, support and sustain the interest of ‘the people’ in the city.
In this respect, Melbourne’s revitalisation strategy is similar to that of the city of
Glasgow in Scotland. The regeneration of Glasgow’s city centre occurred in the mid1980s and continued until 1990 with the celebration of Glasgow as the European
City of Culture (Glasgow District Council, 1990:2-7). During this period, Glasgow’s
image changed from being a centre of industrial production with a mainly workingclass population to be reborn as the cultural capital of the north with a middle-class
population (Ferguson, 1995: 21). This rebirthing process involved the reconstruction
of Glasgow’s cultural infrastructure. Glasgow has always had a rich cultural life ,
largely based in its working-class roots. This included ‘a worker’s theatre movement,
the Unity Theatre, a workers’ cinema movement, Dawn Cine, and a host of
cooperative camera clubs, music halls, pubs, clubs and libraries’ (Sawyer, 1992:70).
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The city also hosted a number of international exhibitions held in buildings designed
in the nineteenth century for the many expositions and exhibitions held in Glasgow.
The city also boasts a number of other nineteenth-century buildings rivalling the
architectural excellence of many European cities (Glasgow District Council, 1990:27). These positive aspects of Glasgow’s cultural past were reclaimed and linked to
new forms of cultural amenities. The building of the Royal Concert Hall, of a
modern and innovatively designed home for the Burrell Collection, and of the
Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre provided an excellent infrastructure for
the Scottish Opera, the Scottish Ballet, the Scottish National Orchestra and the
Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, that ‘made Glasgow their home’ (Glasgow
District Council, 1990:2).
The reconstruction of Glasgow’s cultural infrastructure was accompanied by the
redevelopment of other amenities, including the city’s shopping facilities, hotels,
restaurants and public houses and the building of an airport of international standard.
These amenities were considered necessary to support the influx of tourists
envisaged for 1990. Local government authorities and private-sector developers alike
argued that the designation of European City of Culture for 1990 would transform
Glasgow into the ‘the leisure capital of the north; a modern city of consumption’
(Ferguson, 1995: 21).
Robert Palmer, the Festival Director, argued:
Positioning Glasgow as a cultural destination for visitors will generate
important spin-offs in the hotel, catering and retail sectors servicing Glasgow’s
marketplace for leisure and tourism. (Palmer, 1990:7)
The idea of potential trade, then, not only stimulated development in Glasgow’s
cultural industries but also stimulated development in the retail and hospitality
sectors. Many of Glasgow’s older consumer spaces were refurbished and many new
spaces were developed in anticipation of the influx of visitors in 1990. In this respect,
Glasgow — like its Australian counterpart Melbourne — faced the challenge of retail
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suburbanisation by linking consumption with cultural, leisure and entertainment
facilities as a strategic spatial strategy to revive both the economic and the cultural
life of the city. Moreover, vibrant and successful consumer spaces such as the
department store mall type played a vital role in the redevelopment of the city centre
because they were perceived as the catalyst for drawing ‘the people’ into the city.
Department store malls were perceived as spaces that encourage social interaction
and cultural animation — and, of course, as spaces that stimulated trade. In fact, the
redevelopment of consumer spaces was just as — important an agenda to the local
government authorities as the redevelopment of other cultural facilities within their
city centres.
[image removed]
Figure 7-1 Advertisement for Lewis’s Department Store,
Glasgow 1990: The Book, 1990: Advertisement Section.
While not explicitly defined as cultural amenities by local government authorities,
consumer spaces — in various forms — were, and are still, being utilised — and
indeed advertised as such. The Victorian Arts Department’s Suggestions Towards a
Cultural Plan for Melbourne, for example, lists shopping centres as one of Melbourne’s
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cultural amenities alongside its heritage sites, museums and art galleries (1991:1). The
Melbourne Central project was expected to ‘change the retail axis of the central city;
boost shopping within the central city area [and] draw shoppers back to the city of
Melbourne’ (Boesley, 1989:39). Further, consumer spaces were, and still are,
advertised as tourist attractions in various advertising brochures, magazines and
television advertising campaigns. The advertisement for The Forge Shopping Centre
in the local government publication, Glasgow 1990 The Book: The Authorised Tour of the
Cultural Capital of Europe, for example, states:
Glasgow’s culture owes a great deal to an ever-improving quality of life. And
nowhere is that better demonstrated than in the Forge shopping centre
development.
A massive 450,000 square feet undercover centre, the Forge uniquely integrates
the best of nationally known stores with fresh ideas from new independents.
Every day, the Forge fulfils its cultural role in Glasgow. This year. Every year.
(Glasgow District Council, 1990)
In the same publication, an advertisement for Lewis’s department store endorses the
store’s role as a cultural amenity by linking the opening of its new store in Argyle
Street in 1989 with a statement that ‘Glasgow has already had a year of culture’ (see
Figure 7-1). In another instance, the architectural design and historic relevance of
Princess Square is brought to the fore, linking it with other restored heritage sites.
The advertisement states:
Princess Square occupies a beautifully restored listed building dating from 1841
that is now Scotland’s finest specialty shopping centre. The renaissance of
Glasgow has been widely recognised and Princess Square captures the essence of
the city’s enhanced image. (Glasgow District Council, 1990)
As the above examples demonstrate, consumer spaces are indeed cultural facilities
and clearly need to be acknowledged as such. They are being used by city councils,
local government authorities and retail development companies worldwide in the
promotion and redevelopment of inner-city centres. City councils use consumer
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spaces to ‘bring the people back to the city’ and to initiate/stimulate inner-city
property development via retail and commercial investment.
Further, the development of successful and vibrant consumer spaces is utilised by
city councils in an attempt to position themselves as tourist destinations both to the
local market, mainly comprised of ‘day trippers’, and to the wider tourist market
comprised of visitors from interstate and overseas. The city of Glasgow’s bid to
attract ‘visitors’ in 1990 as the European City of Culture is one example of this
process. In another instance, the Brisbane City Council utilised the development of
the Myer Centre and the revamping of the Queen Street Mall to attract the tourist
dollar during Expo 1988 (BCC, 1987; Interchase, 1986).
[image removed]
Figure 7-2 Aerial view of St Enoch Centre, Glasgow, Information Brochure,
St Enoch Shopping Centre 1989.
Targeting the Tourist Dollar
In order to be successful in attracting the tourist dollar, city councils and developers
alike have utilised, techniques that have proven successful in the creation and the
promotion of other tourist sites worldwide. This can be demonstrated by examining
the recent retail developments in Glasgow, Melbourne and Brisbane. The
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developments are quite different in architectural style. Yet all attract the ‘tourist gaze’
in one form or another.
In Glasgow, developers of the St Enoch Centre certainly designed something
different. They produced ‘a revolutionary new shopping centre designed for the
twenty-first century’. As the centre’s promotions material states:
The space frame design of St Enoch Centre, as well as providing Glasgow with
a shopping centre of truly spectacular proportions and style, offers shoppers and
retailers a unique experience…
Its visual transparency, inbuilt design flexibility and operational simplicity place
St Enoch Centre far in advance of any other centre north or south of the
Border. (St Enoch Centre Management: 1989:2 & 5)
Similarly, Melbourne Central was designed as a ‘Victorian/Australian landmark, and
as such a must destination for all Country, Melbourne, Victorian, Australian and
Overseas tourists’ (Boesley, 1989:28). Featuring a 20-storey high glass-glazed cone
over the internal atrium, Melbourne Central, at the time of its development, differed
from other malls in two ways.
First, developers endeavoured to move away from the enclosed mall form utilised
since the mid-1950s. As you can see from Figure 7-3, below, the centre does not
close in on itself but rather consists of several open gallerias.4 Each level overlooks
the open courtyard area designed for live entertainment and allows shoppers to both
see and be seen. In deliberately not designing the centre in the usual 'box'-style,
developers have enabled a larger proportion of the centre to be open in the evenings
and at weekends. Centre management encourages animation and activity in nontrading hours via its many restaurants and sidewalk cafes.
The second way in which Melbourne Central differed from many other Australian
malls lies in the fact that it is a mixed-use development project. The centre houses 55
floors of office space, a shopping complex that covers two blocks, several upmarket
restaurants as well as fast food facilities, a heritage building, one of Melbourne's
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largest railway stations and two exhibition areas. Here ballets are previewed and art
is exhibited. Again, this space can be seen in Figure 7.3, below. The exhibition space
is in the building at the front of the drawing, directly under the brick tower.
At the time of creation5, in creating shopping centres of such huge proportions —
totally enclosed in glass — the designers of St Enoch Centre and of Melbourne
Central created tourist sites: unique objects designed, not simply for shopping, but
also for the tourist gaze. In so doing, they have keyed into two of the six different
techniques for creation and sustainment of successful tourist sites outlined by John
[image removed]
Figure 7-3 Artist’s Representation of Melbourne Central, Publicity Brochure,
Melbourne Central Management, 1992: 3.
Urry. First, they have keyed into the tourist’s desire to:
[see] a unique object, such as the Eiffel Tower, the Empire State Building,
Buckingham Palace, the Grand Canyon, or even on the very spot in Dallas
where President Kennedy was shot. These are absolutely distinct objects to be
gazed upon that everybody knows about. They are famous for being famous.
Most people living in the West would hope to see some of these objects during
their lifetime. They entail a kind of pilgrimage to a sacred centre, that is often a
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capital or major city. (Urry, 1990:12)
Second, developers have keyed into the tourist’s desire to:
[carry] out familiar tasks or activities within an unusual environment.
Swimming and other sports, shopping, eating and drinking all have particular
significance if they take place against a distinctive visual backcloth. The visual
gaze renders extraordinary activities that otherwise would be mundane. (Urry,
1990:12)
The St Enoch Centre and Melbourne Central, then, both act as spatial spectacles and
provide a distinctive visual backdrop that renders both the consumer space and the
act of consumption extraordinary.
However, city officials and retail developers are not limited to the production of the
unique or spectacular in their attempts to attract the tourist gaze. Other techniques,
again described by Urry, have often been utilised in the development of inner-city
consumer spaces. The developers of Princess Square, Glasgow have also successfully
keyed into the tourist’s desire to:
see particular signs, such as the typical English village, the typical American
skyscraper, the typical German beer garden, the typical French chateau, and so
on. (Urry, 1990:12)
Princess Square represents a typical nineteenth-century consumer space. Having said
this, however, it is necessary to state that Glasgow’s revitalisation of its city centre is
not simply another case study that exemplifies the Disneyfication Thesis mentioned
in Chapter V. Neither the Glasgow city council nor the retail investors had any
intention of simply reproducing a clichéd themed environment in the revitalisation of
the city. Rather, they intended to produce spatial spectacles — monuments that both
validated Glasgow as truly a city of culture and, at the same time, keyed into the city’s
architectural tradition. Whenever possible, both local government authorities and
private developers alike made use of the historic buildings already in existence.
Further, new developments were designed to incorporate the same architectural style
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as their nineteenth-century counterparts. Princess Square is an example of this kind
[image removed]
Figure 7-4 Atrium and Escalators at Princess Square,
Glasgow photographed by John Johnstone, February 2000.
of developmental logic. Designed by contemporary architects George McKith and
Hugh Martin in the style of nineteenth-century Glaswegian architect Rennie
Mackintosh, the centre successfully recaptures the architectural style and the feeling
of light and space contained within nineteenth-century arcades and department
stores. The architects achieved this effect by literally turning several heritage-listed
buildings dating from the 1840s inside out — by enclosing the central courtyard at
the back of the buildings with a huge Victorian-style glass roof.
The repercussions of adopting this method of architecture are twofold. First (as the
Figure 7.4, above aptly demonstrates) by enclosing the external courtyard in this way,
designers have reproduced the same visual and spatial effects first utilised by the
nineteenth-century designers of the arcade and department store forms. The outside
is effectively brought inside, creating the same effect as methods of architectural
production developed in the nineteenth century to convert an exterior into an
interior (see Chapter II for a more detailed discussion of this process). The feeling of
entering a nineteenth-century department store is emphasised through the addition
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of a series of ornamental balconies and lifts to service the small specialty shops on
the three levels. The addition of a curved art deco staircase with wrought-iron
balustrades, strategically placed in the central well of the building, gives further
emphasis to the feeling of entering a nineteenth-century department store. At the
same time, the curved staircase adds a sense of grandeur to the space and is a
deliberate tactic to place emphasis upon the upmarket nature of the shops and
restaurants contained within the centre. It is here that the centre’s designers have
deliberately captured the feeling of entering a nineteenth-century arcade.
[image removed]
Figure 7-5 Art Deco Staircase, Princess Square, Glasgow,
Photographed by John Johnstone, February 2000.
Second, developers have successfully utilised one of the techniques for creation and
sustainment of successful tourist sites described by Urry. In designing Princess
Square as a representation of the nineteenth-century consumer space, architects were
acknowledging that visitors to the centre would have some form of prior knowledge
of the building type and would therefore be able to read the signs instilled within the
centre’s design. Again Urry argues with regard to the technique of representation and
the tourist gaze:
This mode of gazing shows how tourists are in a way semioticians, reading the
landscape for signifiers of certain pre-established notions or signs derived from
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various discourses of travel and tourism. (Urry, 1990:12)
In this instance, reading the pre-established notions or signs is derived from various
architectural discourses. In order to fully appreciate the upmarket nature of Princess
Square, visitors would have to be able to recognise the significance of the elegant
fittings within the centre and to read this as signifying the elegance of the early
department stores and arcades. They would have to recognise that the arcades
differed from department stores in two ways. The first would be that the arcades
differed from department stores in type of goods and stores they housed.
Traditionally arcades housed artisans and craftspeople selling handcrafted and unique
goods. Second, they would need to see that arcades differed from department stores
in that they housed a variety of additional amusements and attractions such as coffee
shops, cafes, restaurants and billiard rooms, as well as providing live entertainment
(Geist, 1983:39). They were designed as social spaces — as spaces to browse, to find
that special gift, to meet friends for coffee or simply to see and be seen.
Princess Square is designed for exactly the same purposes as its predecessors. It is
designed for visitors to:
revel in the array of highly individual shops plus themed wine bars, cafes and
restaurants browse through five levels of fashion, accessories, leather goods,
books hand-crafted designer jewelry, specialist gift boutiques with Scottish hand
crafted goods available from original craftcarts. Relax over a freshly brewed
coffee and enjoy a variety of entertainment regularly scheduled for Thursday and
Sunday afternoons with special events arranged almost daily. (Glasgow
District Council, 1990).
Potential shoppers and tourists alike visit the Princess Square because they recognise
the significance of the centre’s design displaying features of the arcade form and are
attracted to the historical and cultural associations as well as to the upmarket style of
shopping.
As the three instances cited above demonstrate, city councils and retail developers
utilise well-established techniques for attracting the tourist gaze in the promotion of
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inner-city consumer spaces. These techniques have proven successful not only in the
promotion of various retail sites but also in various cultural sites worldwide. The
Pompidou Centre and the Louvre in Paris for example, like the examples of
Melbourne Central, the St. Enoch Centre discussed above, and the mega-malls,
discussed in Chapter V, act both as spatial spectacles and provide a distinctive visual
backdrop that renders the act of consumption extraordinary.
In other instances, heritage buildings have been restored to reproduce the exact
atmosphere of historic times, places and people. The Queen Victoria Building
(Figures 7.6 &7.7) originally opened in Sydney in 1898, was restored to its original
grandeur in 1986. Great care was taken to restore all of the original artwork and
design principles, including the mosaic work around the central dome and the tiling
of ‘the Avenue’ that were considered to be the principal foci of the interior when the
building was originally developed.
Developers worked with local heritage groups to recreate the atmosphere and
character of the nineteenth-century Sydney arcade. Every detail, from the stained
glasswork in the doors of the shopfronts to the intricate plaster fretwork on the
ceilings were either painstakingly restored or replaced by their exact replicas.
At the same time, developers and local heritage groups were particular in their
selection of retail outlets to be housed in the restored arcade. Retailers selling
handcrafted and unique goods, unusual coffee shops, cafes and restaurants were
sought to fill the centre. Like Glasgow’s Princess Square, Sydney’s Queen Victoria
Building was re-stored as a heritage site. It was restored as a replica of a nineteenthcentury Australian arcade. It was also restored as a social space — a space to browse,
to find that special gift, to meet friends for coffee or simply to see and be seen.
Potential shoppers and tourist alike visit the Queen Victoria Building because they
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[image removed]
Figure 7-6 Central Dome, Queen Victoria Building, Sydney,
The Queen Victoria Building 1898-1986, 1987:133
appreciate the historical significance of the building design, displaying the original
features of the grand arcade. Further, this type of visitor/consumer is attracted to the
historical and cultural associations as well as to the upmarket style of shopping
The examples of the developmental logic of Glasgow’s Princess Square and Sydney’s
Queen Victoria Building demonstrate the ways in that the development of consumer
spaces is taking place alongside the development of cultural facilities. Here, it is
possible to locate the same developmental logic, the same architectural discourse and
the same marketing techniques being used in an endeavour to position inner-city
consumer spaces as tourist destinations, to initiate/stimulate inner-city property
development via investment and, most importantly, to ‘bring the people back to the
city’.
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[image removed]
Figure 7-7 Restored Tile Work Queen Victoria Building, Sydney,
The Queen Victoria Building 1898-1986, 1987:132.
While cultural amenities such as art galleries, museums and performing arts
complexes are vital assets in positioning cities as tourist destinations, as mentioned in
the opening paragraphs, it is the development of various forms of the department
store mall type in the city centre that acts as a drawcard to the suburban shopper. It
the late 1980s, for example, both the Brisbane City Council and property developers
argued that the mixture of themed entertainment, cafes, restaurants and retail outlets
in Brisbane’s Myer Centre would ‘draw whole groups of people away from the
suburban centres and in from outlying regions for shopping, for a day out’
(Interchase, 1988: 5).
In order to draw potential shoppers away from the attractions of suburban centres,
the developers of the late 1980s city malls made use of several merchandising
strategies to ensure that visiting the city malls was a unique and exciting experience.
Like their historical counterparts the department stores that distinguished city
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shopping from suburban shopping by promoting the cafes and restaurants in the
major city shops as popular rendezvous sites, the city malls developed in the late
1980s often provided leisure and entertainment facilities not found in the suburbs
(see Chapter III for a more comprehensive discussion of this merchandising
strategy). At the time of its development, Melbourne Central, for example, moved
away from the trend to include a large cinema and instead opted for the inclusion of
a venue that lends itself to the production of live theatre not provided within
suburban malls.6 Other inner city malls house upmarket restaurants, pubs and
nightclubs, sports facilities such as health clubs, ice skating rinks and, as in the
instance cited above with regard to Brisbane’s Myer Centre, fairgrounds complete
with roller coaster rides.7 Whatever the amenity included in the development of
inner-city malls, however, the merchandising strategy remains similar to that of that
of their historical counterparts. This strategy aims to provide facilities not otherwise
provided in the suburban centres and thus to give the inner-city malls a competitive
edge.
As the above paragraph demonstrates, developers are aware of the need for innercity malls to provide a point of difference to suburban malls. They are also aware that
it is vital that they maintain the role of the social centre adopted by their suburban
counterparts and by their historical precedents before them. Because of this need,
inner-city malls take on the role of community spaces — where people can sit and
congregate without necessarily wanting to purchase goods. The importance of
creating spaces conducive to these forms of activities is voiced in the developer’s
Brief for Melbourne Central. It argues:
It must be remembered that Melbourne Central will be the largest public airconditioned mall in the CBD. The interior theme and finishes therefore should
not just portray an aesthetically pleasing environment to shoppers, but an
environment that is conducive to office workers, RMIT students and the like to
come and sit, browse, dream, dose, and generally not be placed in a position
where the purpose of one’s visit must always be to shop.
Small dispersed alcove setting areas combined with leafy garden islands for
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example, will set an environment for these city workers to congregate in comfort
without the pressures of city shopping. This is probably more so during
Melbourne’s adverse weather conditions, hot or cold. (Boesley, 1989:55)
Besides providing physical spaces conducive to congregation, relaxation and people
watching, Melbourne Central also provides programs that place emphasis upon the
centre’s community and social role. For example, Centre Management designed a
program by which office workers, commuters and students can make use of the
centre in non-trading hours as a safe, clean and weather-controlled environment in
which they can either jog or, as has become a more common pastime, ‘mall-walk’.
Here, community groups are able to use the centre free of charge without any
obligation to purchase. In fact, because this recreation is carried out in the early
morning hours, there is absolutely no possibility of immediate trade from the
exercise jaunts of these groups. However, there is the possibility of potential trade.
As discussed in previous chapters, immediate sales are not the aim of these
marketing techniques. Like their historical counterparts, the owners of department
stores and the developers of earlier forms of the shopping centre type, developers of
inner-city malls in Europe, America and Australia include leisure, entertainment and
the provision of non-retail amenities within their centres as a tactical strategy ‘to
attract people to [their centres], and to get them into the habit of coming’ and
therefore to attract potential sales (Nystrom, 1919:250-251).
Other marketing techniques — aimed at creating a superior shopping environment
to the suburban malls — are adapted from the development, experience and
successes of the earlier designers and developers of the suburban mall type. Here the
developers pay attention to the most insignificant detail. Developers of inner-city
malls agree with the sentiments expressed by Victor Gruen, the designer of the first
fully enclosed shopping mall, that: ‘superior shopping centers should house every
convenience possible to make the shopping experience a pleasurable one’ (Gruen,
1973: 74).
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Similar sentiments can be found in the merchandising strategies of the inner-city
shopping malls developed since the 1980s. Extracts from the developer’s brief for
Melbourne Central, under the heading of Customer Services states:
Shopping Centres today are all about providing convenience, a minimum of
hassle and most importantly service. As such, the following is a list of typical
items/facilities of ‘service’ provide to their customers from within the common
area mall spaces.
…customer lockers:- not dissimilar to those seen at most airports. Extends the
customer’s shopping time, as opposed to leaving the centre early with heavy,
bulky parcels.
Courtesy umbrella racks located adjacent to main entrances. (Boesley,
1989:103)
Here, it is possible to argue that contemporary developers perceive and incorporate
amenities within the shopping centre environment in the same manner as their
historical counterparts — as a tactical strategy to attract as many potential customers
as they can to the centres, and to keep them there as long as possible.
Cultural and educational facilities and programs are also provided within the innercity malls as an incentive to draw potential shoppers away from the suburban centres
and to gain their continued custom. As mentioned earlier, Melbourne Central is an
example where ballet and theatre are performed in the exhibition rooms not simply
as a service to art buffs but to also educate the masses. Other examples are less
obvious attempts to provide ‘culture’ to the consuming public. Within Brisbane’s
Myer Centre, for example, special exhibits are staged in the Myer department store’s
Exhibition
Hall
that
link
consumer
goods
with
museum
pieces.
The
Lalique/Christofle exhibition, for example, keyed into established display techniques
utilised within the consumer space to increase the exhibition’s appeal — not simply
to a minority of art buffs but to the wider consuming public. Unlike the display
techniques employed within art galleries, the exhibition did not chronicle art as fact
but rather enacted it as an event. Like many special events staged by nineteenth and
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early twentieth-century department stores, the exhibition’s narrative was thematised.
In this instance, French heritage, tradition and the ingenuity of French craftspeople
in their production of contemporary art and consumer goods were emphasised.
(Johnstone, 1991:33). Consumer items were juxtaposed with museum pieces in an
attempt to demonstrate the value of the goods on display and to provide an
interesting and free entertainment event that attracted people from the outlying
suburbs into the centre. However, other benefits are derived from the staging of
these events. The exhibitions serve to demystify art for an audience that would not
usually visit a museum or an art gallery, and thus provide a venue that could be used
by museums and art galleries to develop wider audiences.
[image removed]
Figure 7-8 Lalique/Chistophe Exhibition, Myer Centre, Brisbane, 1996
Photographs supplied by Special Events Manager, Myer Centre.
In addition to the strategies mentioned above, inner-city malls are designed to
contain all the successful architectural features of the department store and the
department store mall type discussed in Chapter 3 and 4. At the same time, the lack
of availability and cost of inner-city land suitable for the development of large
consumer spaces often necessitates more compact, multi-storey buildings with
underground parking.8 In this respect, the interior design of inner-city shopping malls
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is often more reminiscent of the architecture located in nineteenth-century arcades
and department stores than in the two- or three-storey suburban malls surrounded by
huge asphalt carparks. This is particularly apparent in the Victoria Centre, Glasgow
(discussed above) and in the Myer Centre, Brisbane. Like their nineteenth-century
counterparts, both centres employ:
the conception of space as fluid and continuous, defined by a matrix of skeletal
structure, rather than by internal walls. Portions of the matrix are simply
omitted to introduce natural light deep into the centre of the building. The
external walls are usually of non load-bearing masonry construction with the
ground and mezanine floors extensively glazed. (Ogg, 1987:78)
Moreover, besides being designed around a central void and illuminated from above
by a skylight, both centres contain a series of galleries that allow a view of the
comings and goings. Again like their nineteenth-century counterparts, the galleries
are used as platforms from which visitors/customers can view the animation of the
crowds above and below. In so doing, they provide a space where the crowd
becomes both visitor and spectacle — where shoppers can see and be seen. In the
Myer Centre, these effects are magnified by strategically placing a central courtyard
— designed as a central meeting place and as a stage for special events — directly
under the atrium as a space where the ‘anonymous shopper’, who is attracted by the
magnet of the crowd, can view the comings and goings (Malone, Buchan, Laird and
Bawden Pty. Ltd., Myer Centre Architects Design Brief, 1984:58-60; Johnstone,
1991: 25-28).
The design of the Myer Centre (Figure 7-9) also allows maximum visibility from both
the escalators and the glass-walled lifts that carry potential consumers to each level.
Like the nineteenth-century department stores, the design facilitates the maximum
visibility of goods and people, as well as lending grandeur to arriving and moving
between levels. The lifts are particularly interesting in this respect. These give visitors
a superior vantage point to view the total expanse below, while at the same time
visitors themselves are being viewed as part of the total spectacle. The inclusion of
the atrium and the strategic placement of escalators within the direct vision of the
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glass-walled lifts thus functions in a similar manner to the towers and vantage points
constructed at the great nineteenth-century exhibitions, by making visitor both
spectator and spectacle.
[image removed]
Figure 7-9 Artist’s Representation of the Central Atrium, Myer Centre,
Brisbane, Publicity Brochure, Myer Centre 1999.
As has been mentioned earlier in this thesis, one of the effects of this type of atrium
is that of drawing the customers’ eyes upwards. Like the galleries introduced into the
department store form to direct the visitor’s attention to displays in a sequential
manner, the incorporation of atria within the department store mall form directs
consumers to various sections of the malls. However, unlike the department store,
where galleries were incorporated as part of the pedagogic functions of the consumer
space, the primary function of atria within the post-1970s department store malls is
to direct consumer traffic to the least-used parts of the mall, such as the uppermost
level. The atrium in the Myer Centre in Brisbane has this effect. Here the atrium
space is used as a transitory space to direct movement upwards towards the least
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Chapter VII: A Tale of Three Cities: Culture, Consumption and Inner City Revitalisation
used sections of the mall. The strategic placement of Tops, a totally themed
entertainment level on the top level of the centre, further encourages movement
through to the upper levels.9 As the publicity blurb, Centre of Interest states:
Visitors can fly through the air on the Dragon Coaster five floors high, board the Swaying
Ship and launch into space, take a Ferris Wheel ride, challenge the children to explore
Magical Mountain or test their skill at a variety of games. Casual cafes and eating areas
are located on the same level, to encourage families to linger just a little bit longer. Retailers
whose businesses are orientated towards leisure and family pursuits are also located on the
Top’s floor. (Interchase, 1988)
While the placement of themed entertainment level serves to encourage traffic flow
to the uppermost level of the Myer Centre, the main reason for the inclusion of the
totally themed entertainment level within the Myer Centre was to give it a marketing
edge over suburban malls.
In the early years of opening both the inner city malls discussed above achieved what
they set out to do. However, because their success hinged upon the adaptation and
incorporation of techniques developed by earlier forms of consumer space, there
success was limited and several issues to this day remain unresolved. As mentioned in
the introduction to this chapter, such as issues are associated with the divisions
between the public and private space; with questions surrounding the need to ‘open
up’ the retail space so that it can be used for other social purposes; with the
separation of retail from cultural activities; with the creation of ‘dead space’ and a
lack of late-night facilities upon the closure of many inner-city shopping precincts;
and finally, with the problem of gentrification. These issues have not, as yet, fully
been resolved. Another issue that needs to be addressed is the question of economic
viability. The next section of this chapter will look at the issue of economic viability
and the need for local and state governments to develop an integrated policy for
inner-city redevelopment that acknowledges the role of consumer spaces as cultural
resources.
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Economic Viability and Inner City Revitalisation Projects
In some instances, it is naive to rely upon the introduction of an inner-city leisurebased mall, or a festive marketplace as the panacea to inner-city decay. Other factors
such as the volume of inner-city residents and office workers, need to be taken into
consideration. The 1989 McWhirters redevelopment initiatives for Brisbane’s
Fortitude Valley centre is an example of such naiveté. In retrospect, the Valley
project failed to adhere to several of the basic rules that have been successful in
several America inner-city mixed-use development projects. Both the developers and
city council planners placed too much emphasis upon the drawing power of the
proposed ‘festive market’ and the refurbishments to the Valley Mall, and failed to
assess accurately the volume of downtown residents and downtown workers who
actually use the inner Valley retail centre. Even when planning a festive marketplace,
that traditionally caters to the transient and tourist market developers should realise
that transients and tourists usually only account for a small proportion of shopper
traffic (Black, 1983). It is because of these, and other factors, that extreme care needs
to be taken when planning inner-city revitalisation projects. Otherwise we may find
ourselves in the same predicament as many American downtown malls of the mid1960s where retail projects failed because they did not ‘fit’ the needs of the city’s
immediate and surrounding population (McNulty et al 1985:21).
Care must also be taken in the revitalisation process because our cities are much
more than consumer spaces (no matter how pleasurable, entertaining or vital these
are), and their future is much too important to leave to a handful of developers,
investors and retailing magnates who are interested in purely commercial criteria.
Policy needs to be developed that not only allows partnerships to be formed between
local governments, city councils and retail developers from both an urban and
cultural planning perspective; but that also links retail to other cultural and
educational facilities in the city.
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Notes
1 Whereas the inner-city department store ethos sustained public interest and remained one of the
most popular and economically viable consumer spaces from the late nineteenth to the mid
twentieth centuries by the late 1960s consumer interest in inner-city shopping and department store
culture had dissipated. During this period, due to a number of factors, consumer interest and
loyalty transferred to suburban centres — to the malls, that, by the mid-1970s offered a diverse
variety of entertainment shopping venues (See Chapter, 3 4 of this thesis).
2 Gardner and Sheppard (1989) refer to this as the 'doughnut effect' —the economic collapse of the
city due to retail expansion on the suburban periphery (1989:127).
3 Many of the proposed projects have since been completed and will form part of a future study.
This chapter concentrates upon Melbourne from the mid-1980s to the 1990s because of the
comparisons that can be made with Brisbane and Glasgow in the same period.
4 Gallerias are linear route ways passing through a building.
5
This is a retrospective analysis of three inner-city developments that occurred in the late 1980s
and early 1990s. The point of this chapter is to analyse the reasoning that led to the development of
leisure-based malls in city centres. It is not a current analysis of these centres and their success or
failures. However, this would make an interesting paper and I do intend incorporating the material in
chapter VII into a larger study that examines the impacts of bringing retail into the city in all three
centres when the aspirations of the retailers are not met.
6 In an interview carried out in 1991 by myself with David Boesly, from Melbourne Central Centre
Management, argued that the intention is to instigate live theatre and cultural events that will
stimulate animation and keep the centre busy and dynamic in non-trading hours.
7 The St Enoch Centre provides Glasgow’s outlying population with an ice skating rink.
8 The atrium of Melbourne Central, for example, is 20 stories high.
9 Unfortunately, the inclusion of the fantasy/leisure level at the centre’s pinnacle was not been as
successful as hoped. Two years after opening, not only had the operator of the entertainment floor
failed, leaving the developers with $1.94 million worth of amusement rides and arcade games, but
rental income at the centre was 30 percent lower in 1990 than in 1988. Several factors contributed
to this. An oversupply of shops within the city centre, competition in 1989 with the development of
another inner-city mall and exorbitant rents within the Myer Centre forced many retailers either out
of business or to another location were named as the key causes (Maher, 1991:8). At the time,
developers argued that the inducement of a carousel, ferris wheel and roller coaster for potential
customers ‘to play with on their way to the shops’ appealed to an age group who were not potential
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Chapter VII: A Tale of Three Cities: Culture, Consumption and Inner City Revitalisation
spenders. As explained by one of Interchase’s marketing managers, Len Titow, ‘the design of Tops
caters to a group of people who do not come into the centre to spend money on consumer goods.
Rather, it caters to parents with young children and the juvenile market’ (Titow, 1991, telephone
interview).
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Chapter VIII: The Private Ownership of Commercial/Public
Space: The Regional Shopping Mall as Town/Community
Centre
[image removed]
Plate 8.1: Canberra Centre, Australian Capital Territory. Photographed by Peter Roberts, July, 2003..
Chapter VIII: The Private Ownership of Commercial/Public Space: The Regional Shopping Mall as Town/Community Centre
Introduction
In the last 20 years, there has been a growing tendency for the larger suburban or
regional shopping malls to be designed as social centres. This has resulted in regional
malls increasingly being used as sites of congregation by their surrounding
populations. As such, they are replacing the function of the town square or village
green. The development of regional shopping malls to provide this social function
raises questions regarding the reasoning behind the design of leisure-based regional
malls to include amenities and services previously unavailable in the suburbs,
especially in the outer suburbs (Duffy, 1994:33).1 In particular, it raises questions
with regard to the fact that, while suburban malls are often designed as ‘public
spaces’, and in many cases, are functioning as de-facto town centres, they are
privately owned, financed and managed retail spaces; as such, they will only exist and
be available for public use as long as it is profitable to their owners to do so. In cases
when centres are not profitable ⎯ or when they begin to lose money ⎯ they may be
closed and ‘the public’ are left without facilities they had come to think of as ‘public
amenities’.2
In the light of these issues, the design and function of large suburban shopping malls
as public spaces is examined in this chapter. The examination includes two examples
of leisure-based regional shopping centres in Australia that are providing leisure,
social and educative amenities to the suburbs. The first example is of the Logan
Hyperdome on the outer fringe of Brisbane in Queensland, Australia. The
development of this regional mall stemmed from a market-driven perspective. The
second example is of Robina Town Centre, on the Gold Coast in Queensland,
Australia. Robina is also a regional mall. However, unlike the Logan Hyperdome,
Robina was developed from a ‘new town’ or ‘green field’ planning perspective.3 The
differences in the various types of facilities the two centres offer to consumers, and
in the display and architectural techniques incorporated within the each centre are
surveyed in this chapter. As well, continuities and differences that can be found in
the developmental logic of suburban or regional shopping malls in relation to earlier
forms of shopping centre developments are discussed. A comparison of earlier forms
of developmental logic introduced in Chapter III with that of the two case studies, a
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Chapter VIII: The Private Ownership of Commercial/Public Space: The Regional Shopping Mall as Town/Community Centre
market-driven approach and community development driven approach is conducted
in the chapter.
The analysis reveals that, while the distinctions between the economic and
community consultation or urban planning approaches were very distinct between
1950 and the mid 1970s, these distinctions have become blurred both in regard to
the facilities regional centres provide and in their approach to development.4 The
main differences in developmental approaches lie in the amount of consultation that
is carried out with local government and, in cases where an area has already been
developed, with the local community. However, very little difference is noted in the
types of amenities included in the two regional centres.
In fact, both examples include educative, social and public service amenities
alongside commercial outlets. Similarly, little difference is noted in the attitudes of
the developers towards their surrounding communities. In both instances, developers
of regional shopping malls actively sought the development of a ‘social role’ within
the community. In the light of the lack of differences noted in the case studies, the
chapter argues that, with regard to the development of the twentieth-century
shopping mall form, it is no longer possible to locate ‘two distinct philosophical
approaches that expressed themselves in various shopping centres and that are still in
competition with each other’ (Gruen, 1973:22).
Further, the chapter argues that most of the development that has made any linkage
between the commercial and civic or public space in shopping centres since the late
1970s has been motivated by purely commercial reasons. In order to give some
background to this argument, the next section of this chapter reviews the
development of two quite distinct approaches to shopping centre development. It
then introduces the examples of the development of the Logan Hyperdome and the
Robina Town Centre as a means of comparing the two contemporary examples with
each other and with past models.
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Two Approaches to Mall Development
As discussed in Chapter III, two distinct approaches to the design and development
of shopping centres existed side by side and in competition with each other in the
marketplace from the mid-1940s until the 1970s. The first stemmed from a purely
market-driven perspective. It was concerned with maintaining a competitive edge in
the marketplace and with filling and supplying as many niche markets as possible.
Here, shopping centres were designed as ‘machines for selling’. Everything that
distracted the shopper from spending was discouraged. Shopping malls designed
from this perspective contained narrow path systems that permitted the shopper to
look into windows on both sides at the same time. They also eliminated any function
not directly connected with the activity of selling and buying. An emphasis upon
purely mechanical aspects of parking and on moving from the parked car directly
into the stores was also among the governing ideas (Gruen, 1973:22).
In contrast to the purely market-driven approach, the second approach to shopping
centre development existing between the mid 1940s and mid 1970s was an inclusive
or mixed-use development approach. It was also market driven. However, the
inclusive approach argued that business was more successful when the retail activity
was integrated with the inclusion of as many non-retail urban functions within the
centre as feasible. It was felt that the creation of ‘opportunities for cultural, artistic,
and social events and in striving for an environmental climate and atmosphere that in
itself becomes an attraction for the inhabitants of a region’ was desirable (Gruen,
1973:22). The inclusive approach was often associated with ‘green field’ or ‘new
town’ developments.
The current era of new town development began in the late 1950s in the United
Kingdom and America, and in the 1970s in Australia. Like earlier models, current
developments integrate the physical aspect of roads, utilities and housing; social
functions such as including education, health care, recreation, religious and civic
organisations; and economic aspects of industry and commercial and retail centres.
The Rouse Company’s development of Columbia in the United States is a typical
example of this form of planning. In its description of the development, the Rouse
Company places emphasis upon ‘the human values, not just in terms of economics
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and engineering.’ (Rouse Development Company Website, accessed November
2002)
According to the development Company, the ‘human values’ included a desire to
‘eliminate uncontrolled sprawl’, to ‘foster a true coming together of all residents’;
and, to build a ‘better place to live and work’. (Rouse Development Company,
Website accessed November 2002) In order to achieve these goals Columbia’s
master plan contained nine villages are comprised of several neighbourhoods,
schools, a shopping centre, community and recreational facilities, and homes. Basic
services and amenities are within walking distance of each neighbourhood (Rouse
Development Company Website, accessed November 2002)
While the new town planning perspective to shopping centre development still exists
in a similar form to earlier examples, in the mid-1970s there was a dramatic shift in
the pure market-driven approach to shopping centre development and design. In
fact, there was a complete about-face in the philosophy to shopping centre
development and design. Instead of eliminating non-retail facilities from the
shopping centre space, developers included as many non-retail facilities as possible.
This about-face was a response to several factors. First, market research indicated
that if regional centres were to remain competitive it was necessary that they not only
contain the best variety of shops for an area, and offer regular free entertainment
events, but that they should also contain ancillary services such as sports centres,
cinemas and theatres, community halls, swimming pools, skating rinks, libraries,
petrol stations, garden shops, medical centres, state services, such as social security
offices and employment centres, art galleries and museums, pubs, crèches and
restaurants and coffee bars.5 Moreover, it was argued that if regional shopping
centres were to operate successfully, they would almost inevitably contain at least two
of the above facilities; otherwise they would not attract ‘long stay’ shoppers
(Beddington, 1982:26,27).
Second, the about-face in the philosophy of purely market-driven developers toward
the design and development of regional centres occurred in response to the need in
the suburbs for community centres. Martin White of the Kern Corporation, the
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third largest shopping centre developer in Australia, explained the company’s
motives in venturing into the ‘leisure type industry’:
In many areas of Australia, particularly Queensland, the shopping centre ⎯
as opposed to the town centre ⎯ has become the focal point of the community,
its meeting place. It has replaced the village green or town square as the place
most regularly visited by the population.
This event has given rise to the provision by the developers of centres or facilities
that were traditionally found in the town square.
For example, each shopping centre has provision for a promotion area for
entertainments and also exhibitions of interest, coffee shops in which local gossip
may be exchanged, now more and more frequently, hotels, taverns and
restaurants, making it all but a self-contained community. (White, 1994:1-2)
From White’s comments above, then, it can be argued that it was from a competitive
and economic perspective that the market-driven approach to shopping centre
development shifted focus and now includes amenities such as cinema complexes,
skating rinks, restaurants, cafés and bowling alleys within the regional mall space. In
some instances, regional malls house pubs and clubs. Other public-service facilities
— such as libraries, post-offices, police shopfronts, community development
information centres, community halls, churches and community radio are also being
placed in regional malls by developers with a purely market-driven philosophy to gain
the market edge and to create a space that will keep the potential shopper within the
retail space for as long as possible.
At the same time, another factor influenced this shift in developmental approach.
Local Government Authorities increasingly required the provision of public facilities
such as libraries to be included within shopping centres before planning approval
would be granted.
With regard to the Robina Development, for example, a
memorandum from the Shire Clerk to the Town Planner states:
I refer to our discussion concerning the draft Robina Agreement and, in
particular, Part 8 of the Second Schedule dealing with Community Services:-
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I believe that the Agreement should stipulate that a Library with a minimum
area of 500 sq.m. of floor space be operating no later than 30 June 1995.
This is in accordance with Council’s Five Year Library Plan.
Would you please ensure that these comments are incorporated in discussions
with Robina and in the final document? (TR Moore, 1 11 1999, Albert
Shire)
The Shire Clerk’s request was incorporated into discussion with the developers
resulting in the Council’s requirement for a library to be included in the plan that was
finally approved by Council. Robina is no exception to this type of bargaining
between developers and local councils. In most instances, local councils use their
influence and their powers to decline approval of plans if developers are not willing
to include public facilities and amenities stipulated by local councils within the
designs of the shopping malls.
However, the increasing inclusion of other, more service-based amenities within the
mall space demonstrates an increasing awareness of developers that these facilities,
rather than being a negative cost, actually increase their market position and
therefore increase trade. For example, the AMP Development Group in Queensland
has introduced a ShopMobility program to enable those with limited mobility better
access to several of the regional malls. While the developmental rhetoric touts the
[image removed]
Figure 8-2 AMP ShopMobility Program, Garden City, Queensland,
AMP web page accessed October 2002.
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provision of the amenity as a service to the community, developers are aware that
this service is also increasing the number of those regularly visiting the centre and
therefore increasing trade . The AMP’s web page states that the program
has become highly patronised with over 130 people using the service on average
per week. This equates to nearly 600 users per month. Membership numbers
are also growing, as at November 1999 there were 1281 registered members.
This figure is increasing at approximately 30 new members each month. (AMP
web page accessed October 2002)
From the above, it can be argued that the developmental logic of offering the
ShopMobility program serves both an economic and public service. However, it
should be noted that, as this service stems from the company’s marketing program, a
major reason for introducing this service is to increase customer loyalty and to
develop a base of customers who will continue to frequent that particular centre. It is
offered as a tactical strategy 'to attract people to the store, and to get them into the
habit of coming' (Nystrom, 1919: 250, 251). Here regional malls have adapted the
same merchandising principles as their counterparts, the department stores, who,
‘under the guise of public service institutions’ offered amenities such as sick rooms,
wheelchairs free of charge to encourage consumer loyalty (Nystrom, 1919: 250, 251).
Like their historical counterparts — bazaars, emporia and department stores —
regional shopping malls are designed to attract potential customers, to keep them
within the centres for as long as possible, and to get them into the habit of returning.
With this aim in mind, developers have designed regional shopping malls as social
spaces. While regional malls contain service-based facilities and grocery stores,
regional malls are not designed as spaces to facilitate speedy purchases ⎯ spaces
where potential shoppers can quickly dash in and purchase what they need and then
dash out again. Such a utilitarian design would limit profitability. Rather, they are
designed to prolong the length of time spent within the consumer space. As has been
argued in Chapter III, the longer the duration the potential customer spends in the
consumer space, the greater probability of profit (Gruen & Smith, 1952:68).
In order to attract potential shoppers and to prolong the length of time spent within
regional malls developers reintroduced the leisure principle within this form of
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consumer space. As argued in Chapter II, the leisure principle changes the shopping
experience from one associated with needs and work to one of relaxation, enjoyment
and entertainment. Simultaneously, the shopping environment shifts from a utilitybased environment to a leisure-based environment — to a space where individuals
enter, not simply to shop, but also for enjoyment.
Here, then, it is possible to see the ways in which the economic benefits of including
civic, cultural and social amenities appealed to the two quite distinct philosophical
approaches to shopping centre development. The economic benefits of including
such amenities within the retail space appealed to the first approach from a purely
economic perspective, and to the second approach from the perspective of
improving the quality of urban life as well as for economic reasons. The next section
of this chapter comprises case studies of the Logan Hyperdome and of the Robina
Town Centre as a means of tracing the similarities and differences between the two
forms of developmental logic towards shopping centre development that have
emerged since the mid-1970s.
Logan Hyperdome: Single-Function Ghetto Pseudo Town Centre or
Under-Utilised Public Space?
The Logan Hyperdome was one of the first leisure-based shopping centres
developed by the Kern Corporation in Queensland in the 1980s. The centre was
designed in the typical ‘big box style’ of the time. The cinema and cafes were
clustered around the main food court and could be shut off from the rest of the mall
after trading hours. The Pancake Manor (now a McDonald’s restaurant) was initially
situated immediately outside the entrance of the mall that led to the food court and
therefore had its own entranceway. Two large atrium spaces punctuate the mall
space. The first was located at the top of the food court where a large speaking clock
hangs over the kidzone. The second atrium space in the first stage of development
was placed outside the centre’s key anchor, the Myer department store. This area
contained the centre stage and ample space for a large audience to sit or gather round
the stage to watch one of the regular free entertainment events organised by centre
management. Extensive water features complete with large carp, tropical plants and
‘Expo’ type characters were strategically placed throughout the mall to give the
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centre an ambience associated with ‘leisure shopping’ (Centre Management, 1989).
Stage Two of development was completed in 1998 and brought the addition of a
library, several cafes, a post office, building society, doctor’s surgery, specialty retail
shops and two supermarkets.
[image removed]
Figure 8-3 Logan Hyperdome: Entrance to Food Court and Cinema Complex,
The Hyperdome Gazette, October 1996:1.
The centre also had several fast food outlets, a large home and leisure centre and a
petrol station on the land surrounding the centre’s entrance. The placement of the
home and leisure centre on the perimeter of the Hyperdome increases the animation
of the centre and attracts the attention of the passer-by. Further, as discussed in
Chapter IX, the placement of mixed-use services adjunct to shopping facilities
increases trade simply because it increases the volume of pedestrian traffic.
A Potted History of Logan Hyperdome
The Hyperdome was built to service the corridor between Brisbane and the Gold
Coast that includes Logan City and its surrounding areas of the Albert and Logan
Shires. The title ‘City’ is misleading in the case of Logan. For while it is one of the
fastest growing areas in southeast Queensland, with an estimated population base of
165,297 and an area of 244.34 square kilometres (Logan City Council, 1996:7; Logan
City Council, 1996:1), Logan does not have a city centre or urban core. Before the
completion of the Hyperdome in 1989 and the Grand Plaza at Brown Plains in the
mid 1990s, the area boasted several strip-centres and four neighbourhood centres.
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These neighbourhood centres were (and still are) strategically located to service the
areas of Springwood, Shailer Park, Woodridge and Browns Plains.
The four
neighbourhood centres provided ample shopping facilities, and negated the need for
local residents to travel 20 to 30 kilometres to the nearest regional centres at Mt
Gravatt or Sunnybank Hills in order to get their weekly groceries. However, they did
not provide a venue that could be used as an urban core. Nor did they provide a
venue that met the local residents’ social, cultural and recreational needs. During
these years of the area’s development, if residents wanted to go to the cinema, to a
restaurant or a café then they needed to travel into the nearest city centre, Brisbane
approximately 30 kilometres away.6
However, the reason why people move to outer suburbs like Logan is, in many
instances, economic. Land and housing prices become less expensive the further
away they are from city centres and therefore appeal to those socio-economic groups
unable to afford inner-city housing. At the same time, because of economic
circumstances, residents of these new suburbs often rely on public transport to travel
to many inner-city venues. This is at times expensive, runs on a very erratic timetable,
or non-existent. The lack of amenities and poor transportation services in the early
developmental years of many new housing developments means that sectors of the
suburban community such as housewives, teenagers and the elderly, are often housebound and reliant upon the television, radio and family or immediate community
networks for entertainment and social interaction. It is because of these factors that,
when leisure-based shopping centres are developed in these areas, residents claim
these particular forms of consumer space as de facto community spaces.
For example, when the first stage of the Logan Hyperdome was completed in 1989,
the residents of the area had an abundance of leisure and social amenities previously
unavailable to them within easy access.
At the time of its completion, the
Hyperdome housed a multiplex cinema, a video and games arcade, a Pancake Manor,
a Sizzler restaurant a large food court placed under an atrium space, a children’s play
area, the largest range of specialty retail in the area, a department store, K-Mart and
Coles supermarket. Not only did the Logan Hyperdome provide the residents of
Logan with shopping and leisure facilities previously unavailable in the area, but the
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Centre also provided a free bus service to the shopping mall. This service was of
particular value to Logan, as its demographic profile comprised a comparatively
young population. When the Hyperdome opened, 36 percent of Logan’s population
were aged 14 or less. Further, 48 percent of the surrounding population comprised
young couples with children (Centre Management Fact Sheet, 1990:10). The free bus
service was therefore especially welcomed by those housebound young mothers and
teenagers too young to drive but of an age where they were able to go to the mall to
meet friends for a meal, to see a movie or simply to window shop.
The Hyperdome provide a number of other services to the young families of Logan.
The centre housed a child-safe playground that the centre management called a
‘Kidzone’. Strategically placed under the atrium and surrounded on three sides by
the centre’s food court, the Kidzone ‘[s]erves two purposes, mum can rest her feet
and have a cuppa while watching over her brood and the children can let their hair
down and run wild under her watchful eye’ (Centre Management, 1996:30).
However, like the earlier developments of Northgate in Seattle, Washington that
provided a children’s playground that boasted ‘a carnival atmosphere’ (Gruen &
Smith, 1952:70) for its customers and Stones Town Centre in San Francisco that
included an office building, a restaurant and community centre, developers for
Logan’s residents provided only facilities that would directly help potential shoppers
to shop. Logan’s decision to include ‘the Kidzone’, like Northgate's decision to
provide a children’s playground, was based upon research that underlined the fact
that a high proportion of families in the area had young children (Architectural Record
1949:134-146; Gruen & Smith, 1952:70; Hyperdome Centre Management, 1990).
During its years, the Hyperdome also held regular free entertainment events on its
Centre stage area, ran school holiday programs for teenagers and hosted workshops,
craft events and storytelling for young mums and pre-schoolers. Regular Friday night
discos were, and still are, held at the Logan Hyperdome. This event is run by the
local police and parents and is advertised as a safe venue where parents can leave
their teenagers in the knowledge that the venue is fully chaperoned (Hyperdome
Gazette, 1997).
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Centre management also helped support a youth worker for the Logan area.
Research conducted by Feral Arts in 1993 demonstrated a number of limitations with
existing services and venues. One outcome of this research was the identification of
the need for a flexible, autonomous street work service in the local area. The
management of the Hyperdome agreed to provide a base for the service that is
currently operated by the Open Family agency. These services are offered outside of
trading hours and therefore cannot simply be dismissed as simply merchandising
tactics to keep potential shoppers within the retail space. Rather, it is an attempt by
Centre management to work with the local community and provided a much-needed
service to the area.
It is little wonder, then, that a year after the opening of the centre, the Lord Mayor of
Logan said of the development:
Since opening its doors to the public in August last year, the Hyperdome [has
become] one of the City’s most readily identifiable landmarks.
The centre has become a regular shopping destination for thousands of Logan
City residents, as well as people from Brisbane, the Gold Coast and other
surrounding areas.
With all the facilities it has to offer, the Hyperdome has quickly become a focus
for business, entertainment and leisure activity. (Albert and Logan News,
1992: 4.)
By the end of its first year of trading, the Hyperdome had become ‘the focal point of
Logan City’ (Clysdale, 1992:3). Like many other suburban malls worldwide, this
suburban shopping mall had become the area’s de facto town centre.
The second stage of the Hyperdome’s development brought with it an even greater
emphasis upon the creation of the shopping mall as a gathering place and the focal
point of the community. Alterations included the widening of several malls or courts
under existing atrium spaces so that shoppers had more room to congregate without
interrupting the pedestrian traffic flow. In the newly re-vamped Fashion Boulevard,
(figure 8.3, below) several comfortable leather sofas were strategically placed under
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the atrium space so that individuals could, browse, dose, and generally not be placed
in a position where the purpose of their visit must always be to shop.
It could be argued that the alterations to the Hyperdome Fashion Boulevard can be
seen as a deliberate attempt to create a ‘public space’ within the mall and to
encourage continued use of the mall as a meeting place or social centre.7 However, it
is important to take into consideration the fact that these spaces are privately owned;
and, as such, impose limitations upon the types of use and the types of individuals
permitted to use these pseudo public spaces. Chapter IX of this thesis looks at the
implication of merchandising the privately owned consumer spaces as public
facilities. The aim of the comments in this chapter is to highlight the merchandising
and marketing strategies developers use to tap into various market bases. It is argued
that the creation of de facto public spaces by shopping mall developers is yet another
strategy to widen their client base. Moreover, it is a strategy designed to keep
potential shoppers in the centres for a longer duration and to develop customer
loyalty to one particular mall above another.
[image removed]
Figure 8-4 Fashion Boulevard, Logan Hyperdome, The Hyperdome Gazette, October 1996:3.
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Other additions to the Logan Hyperdome include the placement of a two-level, 1570
square metre library complex within the mall’s car park. At the time of its opening,
centre management argued that the Hyperdome library was:
…setting the scene for library development in Australia.
Along with a tremendous range of books for all ages and interests, the
Hyperdome Library has introduced free internet and CD ROM facilities,
colour photocopying facilities, parking including designated areas for the
disabled, quiet study rooms equipped with television and CD/cassette player
and the state’s first drive-through facility. (Hyperdome Gazette, 1998:8)
The concept for the drive-through collections and return facility came about during
the merchandising and planning process for the additions to the existing mall.
Discussion with focus groups revealed that parents with young children and babies
often found it difficult to return their library items. In view of this data, it was felt
that the provision of the drive-through service would be beneficial to both the
management of the library, in reducing time spent sending out reminders for overdue
books, and to the community (Centre Management, 1998:8).
In the instance of the Hyperdome Library, every effort is being made to help existing
borrowers. However, the placement of the library adjacent to the Hyperdome is a
strategic attempt to encourage non-library users into the educative space. Previous
[image removed]
Figure 8-5 Youth Space at Logan Hyperdome Library, Logan City Council Website accessed November
2002.
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studies of library use within Logan indicate that when a library is placed within the
mall environment, the user pattern changes (Logan City Council, 1996). It is for this
reason, and because of the fact that the Logan area comprises such a young
population, that the library is designed with special spaces for youth. As Figure 8-5
shows, space is allocated with sofas, worktables and chairs, computers, CD players,
magazines and televisions to make a comfortable space for young people to use.
In summary, Logan Hyperdome can be seen as a developer-driven attempt to tap
into a much-needed suburban market for civic, leisure, social and commercial
amenities. Built in the mid-1980s, the typical box-style architecture of the centre did
not seem to deter local residents from patronising the mall. Rather, because the area
had few other easily accessible leisure and recreational facilities, local residents
welcomed the mall and adopted it as their own. Centre management was fully aware
of this fact and designed community-based programs that developed customer
loyalty and a sense of local pride in the centre.
Robina Town Centre: The Civic, Cultural and Social Centre of the
Gold Coast or ‘Just Another Shopping Centre’?
Robina Town Centre is part of a large residential master planned community.
Situated in South-East Queensland, one hour’s drive from the State’s capital,
Brisbane, and ten minute’s drive from the Gold Coast, the development is advertised
as offering ‘ideal lifestyle advantages for workers and residents. Southeast
Queensland boasts some of the best weather conditions in the world and the Robina
area offers beaches, world-class golf courses and many other outdoor recreational
pursuits.’ (Robina Land Corporation, 1996:2). The development comprises 1850
acres of the Gold Coast Hinterland owned by Singaporean developer Mr Robert
Hoh. Initially, Mr Hoh appointed the renowned Boston town planner, Moshe Safdie,
to prepare the original master plan. This ‘was approved in principle in 1981’
(Whitman, 1999:108). The original master plan envisaged a mixture of housing types
(up to 10,000 dwellings housing up to 35,000 residents); areas for open space; lakes
and waterways; mixed-use development; commercial, warehouses and industrial
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development; education, sport, community and recreational facilities, places of
worship; government and business activities; and a town centre and retail precinct.8
Ten years after the original plan had been ‘approved in principle’ the designs for the
public spaces of the development were again revisited, this time influenced by the
international planning practice of Robert Lamb Hart (Whitman, 1999:157). Hart
produced a series of principles for Robina’s urban spaces that were then partially
incorporated in the final plan designed by the Jerde Partnership and Cameron,
Chisolm and Nicol, who were jointly appointed as architectural consultants for the
development of the Town Centre, comprising the retail component of the project. It
is here that Robina Town Centre makes for an interesting case study. The very
philosophy of the development’s design becomes both the shopping centre’s theme
and its marketing advantage. Here, the shopping centre is not simply used as a
defacto town centre — it is the town centre. It is the core of the community. As the
development’s planning schedule stated in 1991:
The core is …the central area and is intended as the area of maximum
pedestrian activity within which the major regional shopping facility will be
located together with personal and community services, professional offices,
restaurants, cultural, civic and recreational facilities, hotel and studio
apartments.
The core is focused on an ornamental lake and a major town centre plaza that
together form a celebration place where the community can come together with a
sense of pride and belonging to partake of urban activities such as eating,
drinking, shopping, promenading and cultural events accessible to the public 24
hours per day. (Albert Shire Council, 1991: 2.2.2)
Moreover, the developers reiterate their theme of ‘Town Centre’ and, at the same
time, place emphasis upon Robina’s uniqueness by strategically locating it at the
nexus of ‘an intensive mixed-use area containing offices, business premises,
residential apartments, hotels, churches, cultural, recreational and entertainment
facilities allowing easy pedestrian connections and convenient access by public
transport’ (Albert Shire Council, 1991: 2.2.3).
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Built on the side of a hill, the mall comprises three terraced levels that lead down to a
café-lined boardwalk facing a artificial lake. As Figure 8-5 shows, the entrance to the
shopping mall from the lake, with its gradiated incline up three levels of curved steps,
[image removed]
Figure 8-6 Robina Town Centre and Lake Entrance, Advertising Brochure, Robina Town Centre, Centre
Management.
is highly reminiscent of the entranceways to many civic buildings. The curved stoned
stepped entranceway thus places emphasis upon the fact that the visitor/potential
customer is entering the civic centre of the community. In this way, developers place
emphasis upon and strategically make use of the fact that Robina is not simply
another of Australia’s enclosed malls offering the same services and the same
shopping facilities as all other malls. Rather, it is promoted as a ‘new generation’
centre whose design has been ‘drawn from the very best of regional shopping
complexes, city planning and architecture throughout America and Europe’
(Advertorial, Robina Town Centre, 1996).
Level two of the Robina mall opens out into a central meeting space ⎯ a brick paved
central courtyard. Figure 8.6 below illustrates that this area is filled with tables, chairs
and huge umbrellas to provide shade to diners. Music filters out from large speakers
mounted on a huge clock tower placed in the centre of this area. The area is designed
to encourage congregation and people watching. Designers have given it a sense of
public space by including public art, and small, landscaped gardens, and by
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surrounding the area with two storey buildings with large balconies overlooking the
courtyard. The surrounding buildings have several functions. First they give the area
depth. Instead of simply providing an open space for relaxation and congregation,
designers have utilised a similar technique to that used within the atrium spaces
Figure 8-7 Robina: Paved Central Courtyard photographed by Barbara Henderson-Smith, April 1999.
within the department store mall form. Those seated in the courtyard at Robina can
look up and watch the animation on the wide balconies second level and those on
the second level can similarly watch the comings and goings of those below. Second,
because the tenants of the buildings flanking the cental area are solicitors, building
societies, banks, doctors, dentists, accountants and Robina Town Centre
Management, the civic nature of the area is emphasised. Here, people carry out the
business of running a city, healing the sick, providing sound financial and much
needed-legal advise to investors. Traffic generated in this area thus gives the area a
feeling of a busy, dynamic town centre.
The balconies surrounding these businesses lead to the Town Centre’s Food Court.
Here, developers have moved away from the average food court located in many
enclosed shopping malls in that, at Robina, the food court forms part of the balcony
area that looks over the stone steps leading down to the lake and the boardwalk. The
people eating at the food court therefore overlook the pedestrian traffic below,
whereas in most instances in enclosed shopping malls, food courts are positioned at
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the base of atrias and are overlooked by pedestrian traffic as people move to
different levels within the enclosed mall space.9 Positioning Robina’s Food Court
around the balconies thus gives it a more cosmopolitan feeling than those found
within most department store malls. While housing the same types of fast-food
outlets, including, McDonald’s, Pizza Hut, Kentucky Fried, sandwich shops, Chinese,
Malaysian and Italian take-away, the atmosphere here is more upmarket. Further,
because the seating arrangements are terraced and positioned to watch the pedestrian
traffic below, an ambience, similar to that found in cafes and restaurants in many
European towns is created.
Four malled streets radiate outwards from the courtyard situated behind the food
court. Each of them is paved with an interesting mixture of stamped cement and
terracotta tiles. Three out of the four malls are open-air. These are covered with
various types of shade materials, ranging from canvas sails to a mixture of wrought
iron and glass roofing. Only the fourth mall, the food hall, is totally enclosed and airconditioned.
Each of the malls is themed in a manner that signals to the visitor the type of shops
contained within the different spaces. The Food Hall is themed to resemble a
nineteenth-century European market hall, while the other malls are themed to evoke
a sense of narrow, winding European streets. The shop facades in the mall are a
typical example. Here, busts of men and women — dressed to indicate that they are
of European origin — lean out of shuttered windows, gesturing to their neighbours
and to passersby. In line with these characters, several sculptures are positioned at
various intervals in the mall — punctuating the visitor/potential customer’s journey
at strategic points.
In incorporating themed malls in this way, designers of the Robina Town Centre
have utilised two quite different merchandising techniques. First, like the developers
of the department store mall type in the mid-1970s, Robina’s architects incorporated
themed malls as a means of signalling to the shopper where certain types of retail
stores were located. In this sense, themed malls provide a carefully modulated
sequence of conditions, from short-entrance side malls, through the range of
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intermediate spaces, to the strongly articulated central place. This spatial sequence
provides a corresponding range of conditions for the leasing pattern (Maitland,
1988:25–28).
Second, the inclusion of themed malls at Robina — like that at the MetroCentre, in
the north of England — was developed to key into the tourist gaze. There are further
similarities between the marketing techniques of Robina and the MetroCentre. Like
the MetroCentre, it is the claim of the uniqueness of Robina — the fact that it is ‘like
no other shopping centre in Australia’— that is used as a marketing strategy to
appeal to potential visitors. This, together with the centre’s open-air atmosphere, its
up-market furniture and fittings and its innovative architecture, was meant to
encourage visitors to flock to the centre as a means of having ‘been to’ Robina Town
Centre.
Unfortunately, other factors were at play when Robina was developed. These
impacted negatively upon the number of visitors/shoppers to the centre. The first
factor that did not bode well for Robina was related to the housing development
adjoining the shopping centre. Land sales and subsequent building of housing was
slower than expected. This meant that the immediate population base needed to
support a regional centre was not achieved in the first years of development
(Whitman, 1999:112). Added to this problem was the fact that the Gold Coast region
had a number of other shopping malls — neighbourhood, strip and regional centres10
— that had gained a ‘regular’ local shopper component. A particular example is
Pacific Fair as a regional centre, was highly successful in capturing both the local and
tourist market. Added to the marketing advantage Pacific Fair had over Robina
Town Centre was the fact that Pacific Fair is located right on the Gold Coast
whereas Robina is at least ten minutes, drive away. The distance thus discourages
international, and intra-national tourists, who often do not have a vehicle and rely on
public transport.
However, one of the major problems with Robina Town Centre relates to its design.
The open-air nature of Robina was not popular with either the Gold Coast locals or
with tourists, who preferred the air-conditioned malls dotted along the Gold Coast.
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As a result of these problems, the Robina development went into receivership in
1998 (Southgate, 1998).11 The centre, that cost over A$300 million to build, was
valued at A$110 million and the new managers were faced with the task of rebuilding
the confidence of local traders. It was revived but to this day is struggling for a
strong place in the Gold Coast marketplace.
Conclusions
This chapter has examined two quite distinct approaches to the development of
regional shopping malls that have existed side by side in the marketplace in the last
20 years. The example of Logan Hyperdome was introduced to demonstrate the
ways in which a purely economic, developer-driven model has adopted a marketing
perspective that consciously develops a community development approach in an
attempt to establish a regular customer base. The example of Robina, on the other
hand, was used to highlight recent developments within ‘new town’ planning. Little
difference was noted in the attitudes of the developers towards their surrounding
communities. In both instances, developers of regional shopping malls actively
sought the development of a ‘social role’ within the community. Similarly, little
difference was found in the type of amenities housed in either form of mall.
The
amenities housed within Robina Town Centre (developed from a new town
framework), for example, include a library, a crèche, a radio station, community
meeting rooms, a church, a Christian Outreach drop-in centre, medical services, a
postoffice, banks, solicitors, a cinema complex, bistros, coffee shops and numerous
retail outlets. In comparison, the Logan Hyperdome (developed from purely a
market-driven framework) houses a library, medical services, a post-office, banks,
solicitors, a cinema complex, bistros, coffee shops and numerous retail outlets. Both
centres serve the local community as civic, social and cultural centres.
However, major differences were located in the success of the centres. These
differences did not seem to be related to merchandising strategies or to architectural
design, but rather to market-driven forces such as competition from existing
amenities, the size of the surrounding community and its ability to support a major
regional centre. These issues are not within the boundaries of this study, that is
largely concerned with the social and cultural role of consumer spaces in
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contemporary society. However, since these issues do impact upon the sustainability
of regional centres, and therefore affect continued access to leisure and cultural
amenities, they do highlight the need for future research into the economic viability
and urban planning of regional shopping malls designed as social and community
centres.
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Notes
1 The social function that has been sought by shopping centre developers in the last two decades
extends outside the physical parameters of the retail space to the development of a ‘social role’
within the community. See Whitman (1999) Chapter 4 for an excellent discussion of this point.
2 An example of cultural amenities being lost to local communities is the closure of the McWhirter
Centre in Brisbane. This centre’s top floor was occupied by local artists and various art and crafts
organisations. The closure of the centre left these groups without space.
3 The current era of New Town development began in the late 1950s in the United Kingdom, in
1962 in America, and in the 1970s in Australia. Like earlier models, current developments integrate
the physical aspect of roads, utilities and housing, the social (including education, health care,
recreation, religious and civic organizations) and economic aspects of industry and commercial and
retail centres. Columbia is a recent American example, other examples include Milton Keynes in the
United Kingdom and Robina on the Queensland Gold Coast in Australia. The current era of new
town development comes from a similar planning philosophy to the early Greenfield communities.
Greenfield Towns, as they are known, are cities in which all aspects of development are determined
before construction begins. In the early history of America, planned communities were quite
common. Jamestowne, Philadelphia, Williamsburg, Annapolis and Washington, D.C., are examples
of this trend. The subsequent development of the United States, however, made planned cities both
impractical and unpopular. It was not until the twentieth century that the New Town idea was
revived. Following the example of British garden cities, Radburn, New Jersey, was begun in 1929.
These developments were followed by the introduction of government sponsored towns: Greenhills,
Ohio; Greendale, Wisconsin; and Greenbelt, Maryland. After World War II, Park Forest, Illinios
joined the list of American New ‘Greenfield’ Towns.
4 As late as 1973 Gruen argued that shopping centre development could be divided into ‘two
distinct philosophical approaches that expressed themselves in various shopping centres and that
are still in competition with each other.’ (Gruen 1973:22).
5 See Gunning, Hanegraaf, Rutherford and Campbell (1998) for a discussion of the future
‘community orientation of retail’.
Elbasani and Keyser (1996) also identify a number of
demographic considerations that have led development of the mall to more community-based
orientation.
6 Previous to the development of the Logan Hyperdome the closet cinema complexes were in the
inner city suburbs and the city centre itself. Mt Gravatt shopping Centre and Sunnybank Shopping
Centre did not house entertainment or leisure-based facilities at that time. They have since been
remodelled and both now house multiplex cinema complexes.
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7 See Brown et al. and 1986, Heywood et al, 1998, for interesting discussions of the ways in which
the young and the elderly, in particular, use the mall space as a public space.
8 These points are taken from Paula Whitman’s discussion of the Robina Development as Town
Centre and various materials from the Robina Land Corporation. (Whitman, 1999).
9 There are exceptions to this rule. The food court at Melbourne Central, for example is situated on
level two—and is strategically placed so that shoppers can watch the crowds below.
10 Dr David Holmes argues that the Gold Coast ‘is the most over-malled region in the country’.
See Gold Coast Malling Sabotages Community.
11 Paula Whitman notes that this is a great irony as Robina Town Centre was lauded in the
architectural community, receiving an award by the Royal Australian Institute of Architects as an
outstanding piece of architectural design.
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Amenities — Issues of the Private Ownership of Public
Space
Chapter IX: Merchandising Private Space as Public Amenities — Issues of the Private Ownership of Public Space
Introduction
Chapters I to VIII of this thesis traversed a wide-ranging analysis and examination of
consumer spaces. Three main themes were developed in these chapters. The first
concerned economic sustainability and the durability of the shopping mall. The
second theme related to the development of merchandising and design techniques in
consumer spaces. The third examined the growing tendency for suburban shopping
malls to be designed as social centres. It surveyed the ways in which suburban
shopping malls are increasingly being used as social spaces, and as such, are replacing
the town square or village green as sites of congregation. The third theme introduced
concerns with the private ownership of public space and the implications this
brought to the urban and cultural planning fields to be discussed in this chapter.
With regard to issues of durability and economic sustainability of the contemporary
mall, the beginning of this thesis introduced a condemnation of the mall by Victor
Gruen as a means of introducing the question of whether or not they are here to
stay. In 1978, Gruen argued that they would soon cease to exist. Yet, nearly a quarter
of a century later, they are still here. Further, it would seem that they will continue to
be a part of the contemporary urban landscape for many years to come.
In the last twenty years, the shopping centre has evolved to be one of the central
features of urban social life. Due to a number of developer-driven marketing
strategies, contemporary-leisure based shopping malls are used as social spaces and
leisure amenities by the elderly, youth, young mothers, single women and family units
(Coady, 1987; Department of the Environment, 1978; Jones, 1976; O’Connor, 1984;
National Crime Prevention Authority, 1999). This is particularly so with regard to the
leisure-based regional malls that have ‘become the focal point of the community, its
meeting place, replacing the village green or town square as the most regularly visited
sites by the population’ (White, 1994:87).
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A recent Australian industry survey found that 60 percent of the sampled population
visited a shopping mall with family or friends and expected to run into someone they
knew. The majority of respondents agreed that they ‘were more likely to have visited
a mall recently than to have been to main street or to the shops in the city’.
Furthermore, over 75 percent of the sample surveyed agreed that shopping malls
provided a focus for their community (Duffy, 1994:28). Studies in Canada, America
and the UK have similar findings. Brown, Sijpkes and Maclean’s study of two
Canadian malls found a high social and recreational usage of the sites (Brown et al,
1986). Judith Coady’s comprehensive study of American shopping malls found
similar results. Transcripts of her interviews reveal that, in America, regional malls
are utilised by young people as sites of congregation, display and performance rather
than as spaces of consumption, and the elderly use these sites as spaces to meet
friends in a climate-controlled environment (Coady, 1987).
Similar findings were reported in an Australian government report on The Shopping
Centre as a Community Leisure Resource, that argued that working mothers often visit
these spaces to disengage from the responsibilities of the ‘double shift’ that
accompanies working and bringing up a family and young mothers often use
shopping malls an inexpensive space to idle away a few hours — as a relief from the
restrictions of the home (Department of Environment, 1978).
Malls are also an important site of congregation for teenagers. Recent focus groups
and surveys of a wide section of Melbourne youth found that shopping centres were
by far the most likely place they choose to hang out with their friends when they do
venture out into public places (National Crime Prevention Authority).1
From the above then, it can be argued that the contemporary shopping mall —
particularly the regional malls, mega-malls and department store malls — have
become so popular and so entrenched in contemporary urban life that they will be
here to stay for some time. However, the very fact that these centres are so popular
and have come to be used as public spaces raises several issues. These relate to the
third and fourth themes of this thesis: the development of privately owned consumer
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spaces as public or civic spaces and the implications this holds for law enforcement
and issues of human rights; and the private ownership of public space and the
implications this brought to the urban and cultural planning fields. The following
discussion draws together some key issues surrounding these themes.
The Private Ownership of Public Space: The Implications for Law
Enforcement and Issues of Human Rights
In recent years there has been much discussion surrounding the problems associated
with private policing of malls and the rights of management to refuse access to
certain individuals or groups. Examples have been cited where groups of teenagers,
the homeless and, in some cases, certain ethnic groups have been banned from the
mall. This is reflected in a recent report that discussed the ways in which groups of
young people gathering in Launceston’s Mall in Tasmania have caused concern to
some citizens and business owners and were therefore refused access (Challenger,
1997). In the case of Launceston Mall, the sorts of behaviour identified as
undesirable included such things as being disruptive to staff and to fellow customers,
vandalism and stealing (National Crime Prevention Authority, 1999).2
In response to these kinds of activities, many managers of malls attempt to modify
their sales environment or strengthen security in some way. Site managers set rules of
access, public availability, and behaviour. These vary from mall to mall. One example
of dress and behaviour codes associated with a shopping centre is that of the St.
Louis Galleria in the United States of America. People visiting the Centre were
expected to wear correct clothing such as shirts and shoes. They were expected not
to congregate in such a way as to cause inconvenience to others. They were only
expected to use the tables and chairs in the Atrium area if they were eating. The
breach of these rules led to exclusion from the site (cited in Youth Action and Policy
Association, 1997:50).3
It may be argued that these rules are simply trying to create a peaceful, law-abiding
area where individuals can feel safe. However, while these points are valid, the issue
being discussed in this chapter relates to problems associated with the loss of certain
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public liberties such as the right to hand out pamphlets or to speak publicly. In
Canada, Hopkins (1990) charts the activities of developers, centre managers and
private security firms in policing enclosed shopping malls. His study points to the
fact that the public, knowingly or otherwise, surrender certain public liberties when
they enter the enclosed space of the shopping mall. One of the implications for users
of these forms of consumer spaces, then, is that if they choose to enter the privately
owned consumer spaces, they have also chosen to give up the rights that all citizens
have to seek redress of any perceived abuse of authority.
Another point to consider is the fact that, as the National Crime Prevention’s
(1999) Report, Hanging Out: Negotiating Young People’s Use of Public Space argues, in most
instances:
…the private regulation of the consumer space is not driven by concerns
with public order per se. Rather, most policing strategies are premised on
the idea of promoting such spaces as ‘consumer’ spaces and doing whatever
is necessary to facilitate consumption. The main concern of commercial
enterprises is to prevent crime in the most effective way possible and to
ensure that behaviour in the site best matches the commercial objectives of
the trader or corporation. (National Crime Prevention, 1999)4
The National Crime Prevention’s Report raises some interesting issues with regard to
the private policing of public or civic spaces. One of these is included below as an
example of a possible strategy to develop in the policing of private commercial
spaces used as public spaces.
Creative consultation, management and planning strategies are essential if public
space policing issues — especially pertaining to young people — are to be addressed
adequately. Research, collaboration and devising and developing alternative ways of
negotiating young people’s use of public space are also paramount. The National
Crime Authority conducted one such piece of research in 1999. The Report provides
concrete and useful illustrations of specific strategies and measures that might be
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adopted, or adapted, in dealing with youth public space issues. Research was
collected nationally on collaborative attempts (both positive and negative) by
developers, urban planners, city councils, community members and the police to
solve problems surrounding young people’s use of malls. The following section
summarises some of its findings.
Issues of policing rowdy teenagers were raised at the Midland Gate Shopping Centre
in Perth, Australia. The Report cites this example as one in which it was of both
economic benefit to the centre and was also of benefit to the local community.
Following complaints that ranged from large numbers of young people hanging
around in groups, conducting vandalism, fighting, abusing shoppers, damaging staff
cars to evidence of drug use in the car park, centre management’s first reaction was
to employ more security guards. However, the increase in security personnel only
exacerbated the conflict experienced with the young people. The Centre manager
stated that:
it became a game of ‘cat and mouse’ in an ‘us and them’ situation.
Meanwhile, shopping trade increasingly suffered, particularly on Thursday
evening and Saturdays. (National Crime Prevention, 1999)
In response to the failure of more security guards to solve the problem of the young
people congregating in the mall, management decided to work collaboratively with
the community. After approaching a local youth organization, a committee was
established to look into the issue. ‘The committee included representatives from the
Centre management, local council, local youth service, state and Commonwealth
departments, local businesses, police and community groups. A survey was
conducted so as to understand the situation better and to develop a program that
would attempt to address the needs of the young people and the community.’
(National Crime Prevention Authority, 1999)
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A social worker was hired by the shopping centre management to work with the
‘problem youth.’ An office was allocated in the mall and a community space was also
provided so that the young people hold meetings or simply drop in for a chat. The
management of the shopping centre also set up a work experience program.
The results of this collaborative approach have been positive both from the
perspective of the youth and of the management of the mall. Young people visiting
the mall have adopted a code of conduct that they voluntarily practice. Further, in
making the decision to consult widely on the issues, and to adopt a more
developmental and accommodating approach in relating to young people, the centre
has saved money. The costs associated with hiring a social worker proved less than
those associated with hiring more security staff. However, more importantly, centre
management and its youth reference group does not see the role of the youth worker
to ‘police’ young people or to act as a quasi security guard. As a result of the positive
benefits of the initiative at Midland Gate Shopping Centre, policies have also been
developed and training has been conducted for security officers so that they know
when to approach young people, when to call the youth worker and when to walk
away (National Crime Prevention Authority, 1999).
Not all of the strategies used by management of shopping malls in the National
Crime Prevention Authority’s (1999) Report were positive. However, the report is an
important tool and useful resource for both understanding present concerns and for
developing future policies in this area.
The final point of discussion relates to concerns with the private ownership of public
space and the implications this brought to the urban and cultural planning fields. The
next section discusses some key aspects of these issues.
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Chapter IX: Merchandising Private Space as Public Amenities — Issues of the Private Ownership of Public Space
Merchandising Private Space as Public Amenities: The Private
Ownership of Public Space and the Implications this Holds for
Developers, Urban and Cultural Planners
In the last ten years there has been a growing trend within shopping mall
development to develop regional and leisure-based centres as town centres or urban
cores. Martin White of the Kern Corporation, the third largest shopping centre
developer in Australia, argued: ‘[I]n many areas of Australia, particularly Queensland,
the shopping centre ⎯ as opposed to the town centre ⎯ has become the focal
point of the community, its meeting place. It has replaced the village green or town
square as the place most regularly visited by the population’ (White, 1994:1–2).
As discussed in Chapter VIII, developers who had looked at only providing retail
functions in shopping malls changed their marketing techniques in response to
market forces in the mid 1970s.
As a result, regional and larger leisure-based
shopping malls were developed to include amenities such as cinema complexes,
skating rinks, restaurants, cafés and bowling alleys within the mall space. Such spaces
also house gyms, medical centres, dentists and nurseries. In some instances, regional
malls housed pubs and clubs. This trend is continuing well into the twenty-first
century. In 2001, other public-service facilities — libraries, post-offices, police
shopfronts, community development information centres, community halls, churches
and community radio are also being placed in regional malls by developers with a
purely market-driven philosophy to gain the market edge and to create a space that
will keep the potential shopper within the retail space for as long as possible.
The fact that many public spaces and amenities are primarily commercial rather that
civic has implications for urban planning, crime prevention and cultural policy
development. In the area of cultural policy and urban planning for example,
problems exist in the promotion of consumer spaces by city councils as cultural
amenities and as tourist attractions in attempts to revitalise city centres is introduced
in Chapter VII. Attempts by local councils to attract investment and development
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Chapter IX: Merchandising Private Space as Public Amenities — Issues of the Private Ownership of Public Space
projects, including malls and the rejuvenation of town centres, provide an example of
the intersection of private and public interests. However, because the ownership of
these spaces lies totally with private development and investment companies, the
continued existence is dependent on their economic viability. If a consumer space
containing cultural, social and educational amenities begins to lose money then the
development company may choose to close the centres or to redevelop for other,
more profitable purposes. Therefore, as long as consumer spaces are managed and
run privately on a purely for-profit basis their role as cultural amenities is both
questionable and at risk.
A key issue is how much input local councils have into planning, design and
management of sites, and whether this input balances private with public interests. It
is important to acknowledge the financial and political pressures on the operations of
local councils. Many have to compete for private investment or are subject to
pressures from the state government, that may entail offering planning concessions
and less stringent conditions. In such circumstances the challenge is to create
proposals and developments that have broad appeal across a range of constituencies.
Examples of links being made between local and city councils and retail developers
can be found in several American inner revitalisation projects. In America, many
developers and retailers agree that the ‘number one requirement for downtown retail
project feasibility is enthusiastic and aggressive support from local government and
civic groups’ (McNulty, 1990; Black, 1983:14). In fact, in America there are lenders
who consider local government support one of the key factors in their risk
assessment. Black argues that if downtown retail revitalisation is to occur on a
significant scale, the city must take the lead, or provide the catalyst. The city’s tasks
range from the general to the specific (Black, 1983:14). These ‘tasks’ start with the
city government establishing a framework for retail revitalisation that includes a
‘realistic’ market assessment and retail development strategy.5
When the retail strategy is ready, Black argues that local government needs to
provide strong and continuous support for the redevelopment plan. Because cities
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Chapter IX: Merchandising Private Space as Public Amenities — Issues of the Private Ownership of Public Space
often lack the expertise to manage the development process from conceptualisation
to implementation, and fail to understand either the market or economic and
financial criteria, it is often wise to establish a ‘quasi-public entity to function as plan
co-coordinator and project co-developer’ (Black, 1983:14-20).
The Horton Plaza in downtown San Diego is the result of a partnership arrangement
between a quasi-public development organization, the City Centre Development
Corporation, and developer Ernest Hahn. The project was carried out in several
stages and actually took six years both partners were satisfied with the final plan. In
1982 the partnership’s final plan arranged the buildings along a strong diagonal open
street intersecting with E Street, now called Broadway Circle. A full-scale model
made deliberate allusions to a European Hill-town with multi-level streets, colourful
awnings and banners, specialised store facades, and elaborate signs and symbols. The
design represented Jerde’s conviction that only an ever-changing, dynamic, peoplecentred scene could lure shoppers away from the successful but commonplace
regional malls (Snedcoff, 1984:97). Unlike recent Australian projects that simply
transplant replicas of the post 1970s urban mall prototype onto the city landscape,
many American projects have moved away from the department store mall
prototype, and instead place retail facilities alongside cultural facilities such as
museums, art galleries and theatres.
The design moved away from the department store mall prototype and instead
worked around a concept that organised shops and restaurants into a series of
‘neighbourhoods’ or cultural corridors along layered streets or plazas that would
encourage exploration and traffic flow. Each level was organised around a series of
uses with restaurants open to the sky at uppermost levels. Shops were tucked under
garages, placed on bridges, attached to parking garages and located in kiosks
scattered throughout the project. The design also aimed to meet the goals of the city:
‘Making the project an integral part of the downtown by blending edges into existing
streetscape; encouraging pedestrian linkages; and including significant artworks in
new commercial development’ (Snedcoff, 1984:97).
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Chapter IX: Merchandising Private Space as Public Amenities — Issues of the Private Ownership of Public Space
In moving away from the department store mall prototype, the mixed-use
development model is able to address issues that remain unresolved in Australia.
Consumer spaces are ‘opened up’ so that they can be used for other social purposes.
They are not separated from, but are rather linked to cultural venues and activities.
And finally the issue of ‘dead space’ upon the closure of many inner-city shopping
precincts is removed.
This model provides another important benefit to cities and city cultures, and to
consumers themselves. The integration of consumer spaces with cultural spaces
within the city centre rather than functional delineation of such spaces has a strong
symbiotic effect and therefore increases usage. Moreover, as Frank H Sprink, Jr. (the
Director of Commercial and Industrial Research for The Urban Land Institute),
argues, ‘it can provide excellent locations, access to potential patrons, a less aloof
relationship with the community, and the potential for increased community
participation and support’ (Snedcoff, H. ND: foreword).
Sprink’s argument the thesis to its final point, that is: if it is shopping centres, and
not museums, theatres or art galleries that are ‘the third most frequented spaces in
our lives’ (Naisbitt, 1982:45), why not use these spaces alongside other cultural
resources? Why not introduce mixed-use development?
The point is that there is a tendency by commentators to make negative judgments of
consumption and consumer spaces rather than making useful connections. Many
social historians and cultural theorists have had a tendency only to look at the
negative aspects of consumer spaces without appreciating the positive benefits. While
there is a growing body of theory that examines the cultural significance of
nineteenth-century department stores (Bennett, 1988; Bonner, 1989; Bowlby; 1985;
Harris, 1979; McCracken, 1899; Miller, 1981), the main theories of consumer culture
have difficulty in addressing the actual practices and experiences of consumption;
they tend to concentrate upon ‘the negative evaluation of consumer culture inherited
from the mass culture theory’ instead (Featherstone, 1991:13; McCracken, 1988).
These negative evaluations of the consumer space invade and impact upon urban
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Chapter IX: Merchandising Private Space as Public Amenities — Issues of the Private Ownership of Public Space
planning and policy issues. Planners and policy-makers still perceive consumer spaces
as ‘not-so-benevolent experiments in social engineering with the main purpose of
making people spend more money and buy more goods — as new forms of social
control and segregation, a means of designing out all those negative features of our
society such as poverty, urban decay — and social protest’ (Gardner & Shepard,
1989:98).
This negative evaluation fails to acknowledge the ways in which consumer spaces
(such as leisure-based malls) are often used for purposes other than purchasing
goods. It fails to acknowledge the ways in which consumer spaces have taken on a
central role in people’s lives —the ways in which they have become social sites.
Chapter 8 of this thesis has demonstrated that young people use shopping malls as
sites of congregation, display and performance rather than as spaces of consumption,
that working mothers often visit these spaces to disengage from the responsibilities
of the ‘double shift’ that accompanies working and bringing up a family, and young
mothers use shopping malls an inexpensive space to idle away a few hours — as a
relief from the restrictions of the home. They do not necessarily visit to purchase,
but rather to window shop, to chat and occasionally, to meet friends at a coffee shop.
The function of the consumer spaces is not simply one of pure consumption of
goods. Rather, they are social sites that have taken on a central role in people’s
everyday lives — they are, in fact cultural resources. However, before they can be
used alongside other cultural resources such as museums and theatres — before
policy that not only allows partnerships to be formed between local governments,
city councils, and retail developers is introduced — negative evaluations of
consumption and the consumer space need to be replaced with a more positive
model. This does not mean a carte blanche acceptance of the present system. Rather,
it requires research into the everyday uses of consumer spaces; a probing into past
and present models both locally, and overseas. Finally, it requires strategies to improve
upon past models. It requires strategies that do not approach consumer spaces — and
in particular shopping malls — from a purely commercial criteria.
227
Chapter IX: Merchandising Private Space as Public Amenities — Issues of the Private Ownership of Public Space
1
National Crime Prevention, 1999 Hanging Out: Negotiating Young People's Use of Public
Space,
[http://www.ncavac.gov.au/ncp/publications/80850_hanging_out_report/index.htm]
Accessed 2 December 2002).
2
The list included: occasionally intimidating or harassing mall users; fighting with each other
outside, sometimes spilling over into stores; causing anxiety to staff and customers when roaming
within stores; causing damage to property; being nuisances in stores and jeopardising the safety of
customers and staff (eg running through stores); and stealing goods from the stores (National
Crime Prevention (1999)
http://www.ncavac.gov.au/ncp/publications/80850_hanging_out_report/index.htm]
Accessed
2
December 2002).
3
The list goes on. Other rules include: possession or consumption of illegal substances;
disorderly or disruptive conduct of any nature, including using obscene language/gestures/clothing,
running, yelling, fighting, throwing any object, littering, making excessive noise, or anything that
may be offensive to others; possession of pets, except Leader Dogs; smoking in the common
areas; distributing literature; offering any items for sale; soliciting signatures, conducting surveys;
videotaping or photographing without written centre management approval; any act that could result
in physical harm to person or damage to property; truancy; and skateboarding, roller blading, or
bicycling.
4
In particular see, ‘Creative Management And Planning Of Public Spaces’ at
http://www.ncavac.gov.au/ncp/publications/80850_hanging_out_report/index.htm
Accessed
2
December 2002).
5 At present in Australia, this is carried out by developers rather than by local government
authorities.
228
Chapter X: Conclusions
Conclusions
Conclusions
In conclusion, the remainder of this thesis summarises the major findings to the
initial research questions outlined in the introduction. In answer to the first question,
economic and market-based rather than philanthropic or altruistic reasons were
found to be the principal motives for developers of consumer spaces to include
social and cultural amenities within the retail space. In all of the examples discussed
throughout this thesis, the development of non-retail amenities in privately owned
consumer spaces were identified with the expansion of the existing customer base, as
laying the foundation for a customer base that makes return visits, and the creation
of a space that maximises the duration of the shopping trip in the hope of
maximising profits.
The second research question asked how and when did the practise of linking the
retail space to social, cultural and educative spaces begin? The answer to this
question revealed some interesting facts. With regard to ‘when’, the research revealed
that this question could not be gained by simply going back to the advent of the
French department store. Earlier forms of retailing exhibited this merchandising
strategy. For example, as Chapter II revealed, bazaars housed art galleries, lounge
rooms and spaces conducive to public gathering. Similarly, arcades were developed as
public spaces where potential shoppers could congregate. Even more interesting was
the fact that these practices were in place in the eighteenth-century, well before the
advent of the French department store.
With regard to ‘how’ the retail trade merchandised consumer spaces as public spaces
Chapter II located a number of strategies developed in the seventeenth century by
tradesmen and merchants to sell their wares. The most important of these was the
removal of the obligation to purchase upon entering a store and the encouragement
to enter the retail space to browse rather than to purchase. Entry into the retail space
under these conditions was referred to as free-entry. The implication being that entry
was not premised upon the obligation to purchase. The result of removing the
obligation to purchase to the retail sphere meant that the space was opened up and
230
Conclusions
able to be linked to other social and cultural sites accessed by the public for reasons
other than shopping. Moreover, retailers were able to bring attributes of the public or
civic space into the retail sphere. For example, by the eighteenth century,
shopkeepers and manufacturers’ workshops included showrooms where potential
customers could sit and take tea. Public spaces were also designed within the retail
space so that potential customers could see and be seen. British shopkeepers often
linked the retail space with the social practice of promenading by strategically
situating their premises in an already established thoroughfare or site used for
promenading. By the late eighteenth century, consumer spaces housed entertainment
facilities such as art galleries, and exhibitions.
By the 1870s, 1880s and 1890s, European stores provided facilities such as reading
rooms that held newspapers and journals of the day, buffet rooms with luxurious
furnishings, salons where paintings were exhibited free of charge and, of course, the
department stores always contained large and comfortable powder rooms. In fact,
the facilities provided by department store managers for their customers’ service
were endless. As Harris argues of the Bon Marché, if customers ‘needed a place to
leave their aged parents or restless children, a place to meet friends or to arrange
rendezvous, or simply a place to repose and prepare themselves for a return to the
galleries, the House was willing to provide these needs’ (Harris, 1981:186). Leisure,
entertainment and the provision of non-retail amenities continued to be used by
department stores in Europe, America and Australia in the early twentieth century as
a tactical strategy ‘to attract people to the store, and to get them into the habit of
coming’ (Nystrom, 1919: 250, 251).
The tradition of linking retail to social spaces has continued throughout the twentieth
century. The new American 'one-stop' centres of the 1950s for example, included
‘greenhouses, play areas, band shells, outdoor theatres, outdoor fashion shows,
miniature zoos, outdoor shows of painting or sculpture, flower shows and picnic
grounds’ (Gruen & Smith, 1952:68). However, the inclusion of these facilities was
increasingly based upon purely commercial criteria. The malls of the 1950s included
only those facilities that were considered as magnets to the surrounding populations.
Northgate in Seattle, Washington provided a children's playground that boasted ‘a
231
Conclusions
carnival atmosphere’ (Gruen & Smith, 1952:70) for its customers, while Stones Town
Centre in San Francisco included an office building, a restaurant and community
centre. In these instances, the inclusion of non-retail amenities was considered
necessary to prolong the time spent within the consumer space.
More recently, regional, super–regional and the mega-mall type are offering outreach
and educational programs to develop consumer loyalty. As discussed in Chapters V
and VIII, in many regional and super-regional malls, the public service nature of
providing facilities such as libraries, child-care facilities and community rooms is
often to do with lobbying local governments to receive permission for construction
on the desired scale (Goss, 1993:26). In other cases, it is not a case of the mall
management lobbying local government but of local government making stipulations
on mall developers to make improvements to roads, parking and, in the inclusion of
libraries and other facilities needed in an area before planning approval for
development is granted.
Other instances, highlight the public service role is taken up and emphasised as a
means of increasing trade and improving the market position of one mall above
others with a similar retail mix. In these instances, increasing trade and improving
market position are contributory reasons for mall managers’ use of the public service
role as a marketing tool. The example, the ShopMobility program, discussed in
Chapter VIII, highlighted a developmental rhetoric touting the provision of the
amenity as a service to the community. It also highlighted that the developers are well
aware that this service is increasing the number of those regularly visiting the centre
and therefore increasing trade.
Here, the developmental logic of offering the
ShopMobility program stemmed from the company’s marketing program need to
develop a base of customers who will continue to frequent that particular centre.
Given the fact that the motivation for including social, cultural and other, non-retail
facilities in the retail space is, in the main, motivated for profit, what are the
implications of continued development of consumer spaces from a developer driven
perspective?
232
Conclusions
Chapter VII surveyed the problems associated with the issue of economic viability of
inner-city leisure based malls arguing that it is naive to rely upon the introduction of
an inner-city leisure based mall, or a festive marketplace as the panacea to inner-city
decay. It underlined the need for local and state governments to look at ways of
developing an integrated policy for inner city redevelopment that acknowledges the
role of consumer spaces as cultural resources.
Chapter VIII outlined the growing tendency for suburban shopping malls to be
designed as social centres. It surveyed the ways in which suburban shopping malls
are increasingly being used as social spaces, and, as such, are replacing the town
square or village green as sites of congregation. The chapter questioned the reasoning
behind the design of leisure-based regional malls to include amenities and services
previously unavailable in the suburbs ⎯ especially in the outer suburbs (Duffy,
1994:33). A particular concern was the fact that, while suburban malls are often
designed as ‘public spaces’ and, in many cases, are functioning as defacto town
centers, they are privately owned, financed and managed retail spaces; and, as such,
will only exist and be available for public use as long as it is profitable to their
owners. In cases when centres are not profitable ⎯ or begin to lose money ⎯ they
may be closed and ‘the public’ will be left without facilities they had come to think of
as ‘public amenities’. Similar problems exist in the promotion of consumer spaces as
cultural amenities and as tourist attractions by city councils in attempts to revitalise
city centres discussed in Chapter VII.
Chapter VIII examined the design and function of suburban shopping malls as
public spaces.
Two examples of the leisure-based regional shopping centre in
Australia were examined to trace the differences in developmental logic, the different
types of facilities they offer to consumers and the various ways in which consumers
themselves make use of each type of consumer space. This comparative analysis was
undertaken as a means of introducing problems associated with the current
developer-driven model.
Other implications of the purely commercial nature of the development of consumer
spaces — and particularly the contemporary shopping mall space — were canvassed
233
Conclusions
in Chapter IX. These included the implications for law enforcement and issues of
human rights, and the issue of access and of durability or sustainability. The fact that
often the only social, cultural or leisure resources a community has access to are
often placed in commercial spaces and are therefore only accessible at certain hours
and to certain groups or individuals is an issue that needs further research. In area
such as Logan — that does not have an urban core — the social and leisure facilities
housed within the shopping mall are valuable to the community because they are the
only facilities the area has. If, the developers of the mall chose to close the space
access would be lost.
Loss of access to community or cultural facilities is an important factor that should
be considered when local councils and town planners are looking at the economic
benefits of including civic amenities within the retail space.
The fact that the
continuation of these facilities rests solely upon the economic viability of
development groups points to problems with the continued development of
amenities such as public libraries, public galleries and other civic or cultural amenities
in the retail space was also questioned.
In the light of the issues summarized above, this thesis concludes that as long as
consumer spaces are managed and run privately on a purely ‘for profit’ basis, then,
their role as public spaces and as cultural amenities remains questionable.
234
Conclusions
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