Shopping in the seventies

Having analysed the current state of the supermarkets sector this week in Building we thought we’d have a rummage in our archive to see how times have changed in retail.

Our search took us to 1970 when we featured this article on the Arndale shopping centres at Poole and Doncaster. Whereas today’s retailers are having to rethink their strategies in light of the boom in online sales, the new retail phenomenon in 1970 was apparently the rise of the indoor shopping centre, as mentioned in our intro to the piece:

Shopping in comfort - Building 4 September, 1970

“A shopping centre implies more than a place for the efficient selection and purchase of goods. It should fulfill a social function of attracting people to congregate and meet friends, to shop and window shop as an enjoyable activity and not as a necessity to be endured. Dragging children around congested streets, dodging traffic and sheltering from bad weather inhibits this role.

One solution is the pedestrianised, enclosed and air-conditioned shopping street developed in America and introduced into Britain as a feature of the Arndale Centres that are being built in many parts of the country. The Arndale shopping centres at Poole and Doncaster are illustrated in the following article.”

The article concludes: “The development at Doncaster, as at Poole, provides ideal shopping conditions but depends ultimately for its success upon the vitality injected into the scheme by the shoppers themselves. The developers seem to have resolved this question by ensuring a concentration of comprehensive shopping and by planning for full utilisation.”