| Contents > Perceptions of Shopping Centre Development in Sydney: a celebratory or more complex history?by Bailey Matthew |
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Perceptions of Shopping Centre Development in Sydney: a celebratory or more complex history?
This paper examines the emergence and development of regional, pre-planned shopping centres in Sydney. It argues that the industry has sought to strongly influence the public perception of shopping centres by marketing a narrow narrative of their development: focusing on commerce-dependent benefits and excluding any negative consequences. Shopping centres have been positioned as a direct response to consumer demand – servants of the people, bringing not only a mass variety of consumer goods, but also comfortable, centralised public space; generous parking; progress; economic growth; and local employment. Governments and media have, for the most part, been enthusiastic supporters of this narrative and the shopping centres at its heart.
I offer here not so much an alternative, but a broader account, showing that whilst shopping centres did bring benefits, these also came at a cost. This does not mean that shopping centres should not have been built, but it suggests that a more circumspect attitude might have been adopted towards their construction. I will argue that the celebratory narrative and resulting potential perception of shopping centres as largely beneficial, has accompanied a significant accumulation of power by the shopping centre industry.
This paper will begin with a literature review before outlining a brief background of shopping centre development in Sydney. It will then examine: the benefits that shopping centres brought to communities; some examples of the way these highly promoted benefits influenced shopping centre industry and government interactions; and then some of the negative impacts of shopping centres that tend to be concealed beneath the dominant marketing story of service, convenience and variety.
Literature Review
There is currently no comprehensive history of shopping centre development in Australia. Some discussion of shopping centres is included in other retail histories including:Beverley Kingston’s Basket, Bag and Trolley (1994), Kim Humphery’s, Shelf Life (1998), and Gail Reekie’s Temptations: Sex, Selling and the Department Store. Peter Spearritt has written two general articles on Australian shopping centres: Suburban Cathedrals: The Rise of the Drive-in Shopping Centre (1995)and I Shop Therefore I Am (1994). Lindsay Barrett (1998) has an article on the history of Roselands, and Malcolm Voyce (2003) has analysed the way that shopping centres manage and control social space. This paper differs from these earlier works through its analysis and critique of the celebratory marketing that has surrounded shopping centre development.
Historical BackgroundLarge, pre-planned shopping centres began appearing in Australia in the late 1950s. They were based on American models and followed a long history of retail development that had culminated in two dominant forms of commodity distribution – the department store and the supermarket. Whilst the department store had reached the pinnacle of its power in the 1920s, the supermarket was only just establishing itself in the 1950s. Based on the concept of self-service, which shifted labour from employee to customer, it provided a highly efficient distribution point for mass-produced, pre-packaged consumer goods (Humphery, 1998, pp. 66-7.). Incorporating technical advances in construction techniques and air-conditioning, shopping centres enclosed these two already highly successful retail models and added a range of specialty shops and large parking areas to create a new dominant retail form. Tapping into mainstream society’s affluence, shopping centres were widely embraced by a public excited by consumer products and in need of a convenient means by which to acquire them.
Shopping centres complemented the post war suburbanisation and spread of car ownership that was occurring throughout Australia and other Western countries. Decentralised residential and working populations found it increasingly difficult, inconvenient and at times unpleasant to shop in cities that were variously described as crowded, congested, dirty, chaotic, and dangerous. Public transport could be costly, driving was onerous, and parking at times nigh impossible (Newell, 1960; Myler, 1960; ‘The Fate of Sydney’, 1965). Between the late 1940s and late 1950s, almost one hundred thousand people moved out of inner Sydney, most relocating in the outer suburbs. In the same period, retail trade in the city dropped from fifty to thirty-six percent of the metropolitan area’s total turnover (‘Summary of the 5th’, 1958).
In Sydney, the big city stores began to chase the demographic shift and decentralised with suburban branches. By the early 1960s department stores had branches in varying sizes throughout Sydney, while supermarkets and variety store chains were even more widely distributed reflecting their smaller market catchment size (Beed, 1964, pp. 88-91). Smaller retailers were attracted to these bigger stores further expanding suburban retail provision. Whilst some established businesses like butchers and chemists survived the influx of newcomers, others did not. In a sign of rising suburban affluence, second-hand stores began closing or moving as the electrical and home-furnishing retailers moved in (Kingston, 1994, pp. 85-6).
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| Contents > Perceptions of Shopping Centre Development in Sydney: a celebratory or more complex history?by Bailey Matthew |