What: a reflexion on the future of city centres

Why it is important: Department stores have an opportunity, and a duty, to rethink their business model, based on traffic flow, in favour of more experiences and interactions

Covid-19 has and will continue to redefine urban dynamics: people, who used to come to cities for economic and social opportunities, will probably tend to gather in city centres for pleasure of social interactions. This evolution, due to the digitisation of every day life and the successive lockdown waves, goes hand in hand with an older reflexion led by mayors on how to create the city centre of the future (see our articles on 15-minute city,  the impact of new flows on urban organisation, and the reflection on capital cities vs. regional cities).  This impacts the future of business: when the London mayor thinks about making Oxford street fully pedestrian, and in Paris to turn the Champs Elysées into a giant garden, this means that retailers have also to adapt.

Moreover, older traffic patterns are disrupted:

• Tourism is not expected to come to 2019 level before 2024
• There will be fewer employees and workers coming to the city on a daily basis (more and more will opt, if possible, for a balance between work from home and office gathering).

As a consequence, multi-format thinking (such as what Galeries Lafayette has done in Le Marais area) becomes key.

What will city centres look like post-Covid

Related items:

• Welcome to the 15-minute city
• The pandemic resets the destiny of cities
• Where are the opportunities? Capital cities or regions