What: Lockdowns have changed travel patterns within cities, including a reshuffle in terms of traffic flows.

Why it is important: Department Stores must be aware of this change to properly fine-tune their strategies into addressing local communities.

The Spring lockdown (and, in some countries, the second lockdown) has generated fantasies about the death of cities and a massive rural exodus for teleworkers able to extract themselves from cities. While this remains to be proven, and for now, is not supported by data, not only this idea overlooks that this is not a possibility for everyone, but also that cities were already thinking about redesigning their role prior to the crisis (see this article).

The lockdowns forced citizens to revise their travel strategies within cities above all by reducing the extent of their commute, as they had to focus on buying groceries and nothing else. This behaviour change, combined with prior studies about how travel patterns can be affected by simple decisions such as favouring smaller streets over major roads, leads to the idea that tomorrow’s cities will respond to the needs of communities by becoming a collection of neighbourhood centres, which, in consequence, will force them to review the travel routes and patterns.

The consequence? Department stores, often located at crossroads on major routes, will need to anticipate this change in order to avoid staying on the side of the road.

Covid-19 Is Not The ‘Death Of The City’ - It’s The Rise Of The Neighborhood Center