Managing the shopping centre as a consumption site : creating appealing environments for visitors : some Australian and New Zealand examples : a thesis in presented [sic] in partial fulfilment for the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Geography at Massey University
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1995
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Massey University
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Abstract
The position occupied by retailing within the production - consumption debate is the
subject of dispute. As neither sphere can be fully analysed in isolation such
argument may be somewhat irrelevant. The need to conceptualise the two spheres
together, therefore, has informed this research on the created environments of
shopping centres.
Planned and managed shopping centres are a ubiquitous part of the built
environment in 'advanced capitalist' nations. There has been a tendency, however,
for researchers to focus upon exceptional centres rather than everyday examples of
this particular consumption site. They have concentrated upon how shopping centre
environments appear to be created and the appeal researchers assume they may
have for an observer. My research for this thesis, however, has been concerned
with how managers create shopping centre environments and how they are designed
so as to appeal to their centres' perceived markets. This was done by conducting
semi - structured interviews with a number of centre managers in Australia and New
Zealand .
The unified ownership and management structure of shopping centres makes it
easier for their created environ ments to be controlled. Shopping centre researchers
and those who have attempted to read the built environment as if it were a text have
tended to assume that the architectural styles used will reflect dominant ideologies
and that they are powerless to interpret or alter them in any other than the manner
intended by the designers, developers and owners. Many of the managers
recognised, however, that shoppers cannot be forced to visit nor can they be made
to purchase. Research was therefore commissioned by management as a way of
gaining socio - economic information on the individuals in their catchments , their
'needs' and desires.
Selecting tenants which would appeal to their markets and arranging them in a
manner which reflected the way people liked to shop was thought to be paramount to
the success or otherwise of a centre. Some managers, for example, claimed that
there was a difference between 'doing' the shopping (which is a chore) and 'going'
shopping (which is enjoyable ) and that this needed to be kept in mind when they
positioned retailers within their centres.
Consumption does not only involve the purchase of commodities for their use and/or
sign value but is also concerned with experience. Managers attempted to provide
their shoppers with an enjoyable experience when they visited their centres by, for
example, the creation of an appealing ambience and by either suggesting or
insisting, respectively, that the common areas and leased spaces be regularly
refurbished.
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Shopping environments, Shopping centre management