Neue Einzelhandelsformen in St. Petersburg: der Übergang zu marktwirtschaftlichen Bedingungen

Abstract

The Russian retail trade sector has adjusted itself to the new free market conditions within an extremely short period of time. Different purchasing habits and completely new forms of companies have developed. Thousands of kiosks have been set up. In the form of kiosk complexes, these often take over the exclusive supply function for large tenement estates with considerably more than 100 000 inhabitants. It is rare to find shopping malls around the borders of the city or in the "green belt", such as can be found in the new Länder of Germany, in major Russian cities. Using the example of two city districts in St. Petersburg, the causes and conditions, as well as the regional location patterns for the formation of these ephemeral institutions were examined. The kiosk trade has developed to become a permanent aspect of the entire municipal retail trade system. In addition to the drastic deficit in sales' space, the lack of starting capital, the state regimentation and the greater level of flexibility of running a kiosk, the causes for the formation of this phenomenon are to be found primarily in the low level of personal motorisation and the preferred use of public transport by the population. Consequently, the larger shop location complexes, which demonstrate the range of goods to be found in a shopping centre, have been set up in the metro stations, followed by the locations of bus and tram stops, close to the stationary trade installations, as well as at cross-roads with pedestrian footbridges. The most important precondition for the operation of a kiosk is: the kiosk trade will become more efficient in a direct proportionate relationship to the spatial proximity and the daily quantities of passers-by, recruited from all social classes. The numbers of kiosks amount to 2,5 - 3 kiosks per 1000 passers-by. The further development of the sales model "kiosk trade" is essentially dependent on the extent to which these factors pe rtaining to the establishment of kiosks change.