Retail Centres: Location and Consumer's Satisfaction

Analysts rarely consider that commercial malls offer a global service to the consumer. It is commonly assumed that the consumers' decision concerning the place they choose usually for shopping depends essentially on the distance to the mall. This paper shows that, for such decisions, the consumer's satisfaction (an indicator widely used for evaluating the quality of a service) plays at least an equally important role in metropolitan areas where commercial zones are numerous enough to lead consumers to choice decisions. How the consumer builds up his/her satisfaction is the second point of this article. Different aspects (perception of shopping possibilities, expected pricing practices, general global environment) of each commercial zone do combine in the consumer's mind producing satisfaction or dissatisfaction. In these combinations, access conditions appear clearly to play a secondary role. It confirms that the two variables (access and satisfaction) are independently assessed by consumers. The city centre pedestrian streets are generally evaluated by the consumers with the same criteria as the outer commercial malls but they differ on some important aspects. These differences distinctly arise from specific consumers expectations towards the two kinds of commercial zones.