Modern Shopping Trends

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31088, 17 June 1966, Page 24 (Supplement)

Modern Shopping Trends

With the city’s population moving away from its centre and the advent in force of the motor-car, modern business has had to adapt to changing conditions. One aspect of this has been the development of shopping centres in some of the olderestablished suburbs, and the creation of entirely new ones to cope with the city’s expansion.

New Brighton, with its popular Saturday shopping, has grown enormously since the end of the Second World War both in the range and number of its businesses. Many city firms, particularly the chain grocery and departmental stores, have moved into the suburbs to go to the people.

The motor-car has been a major factor in planning for the location of new supershops and shopping centres, and it has been much easier in the suburbs to create offstreet parking lots to attract business.

The suburban grocery supermarket has become commonplace, yet a decade ago, they did not exist New ones appear wherever there is a concentration of population or the prospect of growth. Christchurch has two good examples of major undertakings designed to meet the new look in marketing. One, Riccarton Mall, is in the heart of the fastgrowing commercial area of Riccarton borough. The other, Government-develop-ed, is at Bishopdale, where rapid residential growth is taking place. Riccarton Mall, representing an investment of well over £500,000, is described as a one-stop shopping centre. Its 20 shops range over many every day needs, and it incorporates two big department stores and a major food market. The Riccarton Mall shops

are all under the one roof, and all have access from a covered promenade with a heated floor. There is even a play centre to look after the children. To point up the importance placed on the motor-car, Riccarton Mall has space for 500 parked vehicles (plus room for development) and access from three streets. This innovation in Christchurch shopping -has become a show-place, not only for its utility and convenience, but for the pleasure of its surroundings. In all, Riccarton Mall provides 67,000 square feet of business space, enough for more than 60 bungalows, and its biggest shop covers an area of 18,000 square feet. Opened less than a year ago, it has shown that such facilities are appreciated by the public. Riccarton Mall is established in an old business

area, whereas Bishopdale has been created on land that was paddocks a few years ago.

Residential building has gone on at a phenominal rate in the wedge of land lying between Wairakei road and Harewood road. In a few years, it is expected that the population will be 24,000 within a one-mile radius.

Bishopdale is on Government land, and the site of the shopping centre, off Harewood road, was developed by the Housing Division of the Ministry of Works for the Lands and Survey Department, which leases the sites to the occupiers. The first of 36 stores, a butchery, was opened a little over a year ago and today, all the sites are allotted and Bishopdale has become a thriving centre with four major shops and a variety of smaller ones.

In the immediate Bishopdale area, the Government had 2267 residential sections. Most of them have been released for private home-building. In the whole area developed by the Lands Department sites have been found for three primary schools, an intermediate school, a private school, two kindergartens, 11. churches, and pensioners’ flats. A large reserve has been made available at the Bishopdale shopping centre, and a decision is awaited as to the provision of either a licensed hotel or tavern adjacent to the shops, and of a community centre. The shopping centre itself is the largest development of its kind in the South Island. Again, at Bishopdale, the emphasis is on the motorcar, with provision for more than 500 parked vehicles. A feature of Bishopdale is the landscaping and planting of the centre grounds to add beauty to their surroundings.