Małgorzata Twardzik (p), Piotr Gibas (p)

Krystian Heffner

Trade is the subject of interest of many areas of science, such as geography, economics, marketing, sociology or urban planning. In many countries in Europe and the USA studies of trade usually focus on location of commercial outlets in urban space, accessibility (time, cost) of trade for customer, selection of assortment offer and innovations in trade. Recent decade of spatial studies on trade in Poland concerns mainly new large-selling area formats and importance of trade in development of suburbanisation process and appropriation of public space by new trade formats.
The aim of the article is to identify the mains rightnesses of the locations of commercial and service buildings in Polish towns and rural areas and to determine the percentage of population living in areas with difficult access to the trade. Conducted statistical and spatial analysis with the use of information obtained from Database of Topographic Objects is a method of diagnosis of accessibility that has not been applied before for its entire area of Poland and constitute the introduction for further in-depth studies in this sphere.Commercial and service-providing activity is usually located according to market criteria and takes into consideration the size of settlement unit, economic and financial situation, transport conditions and residents’ preferences. Therefore, in Poland, yet not only there, the largest cities and agglomerations offer the best conditions for development of commercial and service providing chains. The assumption is confirmed by the results of conducted statistical and spatial analysis which shows that over 30% buildings of commercial and service-providing purpose are located in the largest cities and in municipalities forming the heart of urban functional areas in the capital cities of voivodeships. According to classical theory of services, location and distribution of individual categories of goods is based on the principle of hierarchy . Distribution of commercial services in Poland is highly correlated with the distribution of settlement and transport network, as well as economic (income) conditions in the country. Presented results of statistical and spatial analysis constitute the introduction for further in-depth studies in this sphere.

Ismaelh Cisse (p), Jean Dube

Małgorzata Twardzik

Since the end of the 1990s, new consumption habits due to consumer society, time constraints and consumers who live in the present have contributed to the emergence of new forms of retail businesses: the power centers. These retail chains are characterized by a spatial concentration of retailers in large surface areas (100 000 ft² each) and large parking lots. Such power centers usually revolve around one or two big retail chains, such as Walmart, Costco or Ikea.

It is well known that the retail business location decision and individual performances are influenced by the location of competitors (Nilsson and Smirnov, 2017; Carlena Cochi, 2013). For most small retailers, the arrival of power centers leads to a reduction of customers, decline in sales, and sometimes closure of the business (Hicks, 2008). For others, however, this is viewed as an opportunity because of the positive effects of the agglomeration (Hicks 2007, Evans 2011).

The aim of this paper is to identify the determinants of small and medium-sized retail businesses' survival when a power center appears in a remote area. More specifically, in this context, the paper seeks to test whether the resilience of small and medium-sized retail businesses can be attributed to the local characteristics, such as the relative spatial concentration of economic activities and/or businesses' individual’s characteristics.

To this end, the analysis of the time (in years) that an event takes to happen (closure) is conducted through a Cox proportional hazards model. The model estimates the probability of survival of new retail businesses appearing between 1995 and 2016 in six non-metropolitan cities in Quebec (Canada), including three cities relatively close to large national urban centers and three other isolated cities. Using spatial micro data, we build a spatial concentration index through a Distance Based Methodology (DBM) as proposed by Dubé and Brunelle (2014). These indicators describe the local economic landscape: specialization, diversification, competition and complementarity. Individual characteristics are controlled by initial size, sub-economic sectors and the number of establishments.

The results show that individual characteristics, especially business size, are factors of resilience in the face of retail chains. The fashion subsector is negatively impacted by the arrival of a Walmart store. As for local characteristics, the proximity of small retailers in the same sector or complementary sectors diminishes their survival. Furthermore, small retail business resilience is sensitive to the distance to urban centers and the city size among non-metropolitan regions.

Piotr Gibas (p), Krystian Heffner (p)

Małgorzata Twardzik

Compact character and density of development are especially important among the features of spatial structures of villages and characteristics of rural areas that support development and improvement of living conditions. It is a factor facilitating infrastructural and social integration that often determines availability of village structure to external users. Demographic potential of rural settlement is also important. It economically justifies sustaining its basic service sector and development of public spaces of the centre characteristics, including the elements of the core nature (i.e. clear system of hard-surfaced roads and streets). It is also conducive to emergence of service, industrial and multi-family housing developments in the forms that make existing spatial structures of villages even denser. If we consider the aforementioned features of settlement structures occurring in rural areas, the assessment of the level of development density in various types of communes in Poland and determination of spatial distribution of this phenomenon seems to be a justified objective of the paper. Research of distribution and intensity of this phenomena can be assessed through analysis of proximity of 7.3 m address points in Poland. The assessment of the state and progress of this phenomenon enables indication of areas of various quality of urban settlement structures with respect to activities related to improvement of infrastructure, possibilities of investments location and social activation.

Małgorzata Twardzik (p)

Krystian Heffner

Retail trade and services are becoming the most dynamically developing sector of non-agricultural activity in Polish in small towns and rural areas. State-owned and cooperative stores have been closed down and they were replaced mostly by private stores. There are more and more commercial outlets of various formats, including supermarket chains, discount stores and integrated chains. Despite growing number of modern retail trade formats traditional small-format, often referred to as local market is also really important. New trading posts in small towns and rural areas are mainly located in the zones of influence of larger cities. They affect many changes of spatial, social and economic character. Small towns and rural areas surrounding them more and more frequently start to compete for further retail trade investments while noticing lots of benefits and costs of this process. Dynamics of changes in rural areas can be observed in frequent occurrence of discount chains in recent years. Investors of discount, supermarket and integrated stores recognise the possibilities of development not only in large cities and in rural areas.
Appearing in small towns and rural areas, discount and supermarket chains are in competition with local shops and local producers.
The aim of the article is to show the scale of new retail investment in small towns and rural areas in Poland. Research devoted to this field is important from the point of view of choosing the location of new investments related to discount chains and of the strategy for the development of small towns and rural areas. Identification of consequences of the operation of discount chains in chosen in rural areas and in small towns can impact the verification of the policy adopted by local authorities in relation to spatial planning and forming the functional structure.
Identification of consequences of the operation of modern retail formats in chosen in rural areas and in small towns can impact the verification of the policy adopted by local authorities in relation to spatial planning and forming the functional structure of the space [Brunetta, Caldarice 2016]. It will result in more conscious (rational) decisions in terms of localising new discounts, which will reduce the number of local conflicts related to the location of such facilities.

Krystian Heffner (p)

Małgorzata Twardzik

Many researchers indicate that retail sector is increasingly important for the urban centres development. It creates a large resource on the labour market, organizing and impacting urban public space and even establish a new type of social and cultural relations as well as often it becomes a market and marketing symbol of the city and town. Small towns and other local centres in European rural areas so far fulfilling housing functions (commuting) but local trade and retail are systematically losing importance for commercial service of residents. The main change is connected to disappearance of traditional economic bases of small towns, including the former trade-services functions carried out towards rural areas in the surroundings zones. Interesting are the components of retail change in urban centres, in particular possible explanation of changing patterns of retailing. Important for urban structural change is the locational shift in retailing. Other aspects of location question are that of accessibility and the shift outward.
The interactions between trade and retail activities and urban economic resilience with a primary focus on the former socialist countries in Central and Eastern Europe. Quick and intensive increase of large-scale retail outlets and its impact to the social and economic aspects of existing retail in local, regional and national urban systems have been extensively discussed in the literature. The answer to the question: What is the future of the traditional retail in urban centres? Is it very up to date because the question of survival of retail facilities in a competitive and dynamic urban structure has been discussed less? The problem of functioning of retail in small towns became extremely important - the adjustment of traditional city-centre retail function disappears and depreciates at a fast pace resulting in numerous deserted high streets in many urban centres. It is connected to uncontrolled influx of new forms of shopping venues in outer (hypermarkets) and inner (shopping malls) zones of traditional urban centres.
The status of retail and commerce show the position of an urban centre in the settlement system hierarchy and to give each place of the city its own special character, in particular the physical appearance of the high streets and types of retailing. Important is the answer to the question why exactly such a set of retail stores and services get together in some cities and towns and how it is change over the longue duree.