Tenant Mix Variety in Regional Shopping Centres. Some UK Empirical Analyses

The planned shopping centre or mall has become an important part of contemporary life style. It has been changing patterns of shopping as well as social and recreational activities since its first appearance in 1920s in the US: now malls are found almost everywhere in the world (Brown, 1992; Urban Land Institute, 1999). One of the major reasons for this creation was to engineer a better shopping environment and, thus, gain better operational performance. In this created shopping environment, negative agglomeration effects can be more easily eliminated or keep under proper control, further reinforcing favourable interactions among tenants. Consequently, agglomeration economies generated from the clustering of tenants are one of the most significant benefits to be pursued by retail managers. This cluster of tenants is referred to as the ìtenant mixî by the shopping centre industry. It has been a long-term concern for shopping centre managers/operators and researchers in this area1 because of its significance in establishing the shopping centreís image and enhancing the synergies within the shopping centre. However, no satisfactory suggestions have been made for the best strategy for tenant mix; owners merely followed some rules of thumb or their own experience (Anikeeff, 1996; Brown, 1991; Greenspan, 1987). Nevertheless, we know, from agglomeration theory, that variety is an important factor in increasing productivity in the traded-good sector (Fujita, 1989; Fujita and Thisse, 2002). However, there is a still lack of operational principles to advise centre managers/operators how to perform this crucial element for creating a pleasant shopping environment.