The growth of retail

It took another 2,000 years before the Greeks settled on the concept of dedicated market areas. It became customary for traders to regularly use the same piece of ground to display their wares in the hope of exchanging them for money.

Small, independently owned shops grew from this and remained, by and large, the staple method of trade through the centuries. Most of these shops specialised in a very limited range of items, such as vegetables, pottery, or textiles.

The word shop is thought to have evolved from a mix of three languages. The Germans used the word schopf which means porch; the old French word was eschoppe meaning booth; and our own old English word for a cattle shed, shippon. Today it is generally believed that the name evolved from a place where cattle was traded.

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From mom & pop to department store

The expansion into North America during the 1800s saw the birth of many small towns. From the traditional specialist outlets grew a need for family-owned stores that stocked a “bit of everything”. This was the beginning of the general store. It was small but served the needs of a small but growing community, stocking everything from medicines and foodstuffs to hardware.

The mid to late 1800s saw a change in the retail sphere. Towns were maturing into cities. The small, community stores needed to evolve in step with the growing population. The increase in the range and quantity of stock on sale necessitated the need for the “mom and pop” store to evolve by increasing its floor space and dividing the product range into various departments.

Although given the generic name of department stores, it wasn’t all about just selling. They became a focal point for product demonstrations and events designed to entertain the growing wealthy class while serving as a way for the rapidly growing manufacturing sector to educate the masses well into the mid 1900s.

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The birth of the shopping mall

People were now being exposed to a far greater range of products. Manufacturing grew and people became more prosperous. The competition between retail outlets grew stronger and it became apparent that department stores, as they were known, were not going to be able to compete on their own.

In Kansas City, back in 1922, an outdoor shopping plaza was opened that paved the way for what we now know as a shopping mall. Although it was not an enclosed building, it was the first time the concept of placing different retail chains together came about.

It was only during the post-war boom times in the 50s that the first fully enclosed shopping mall was opened in Edina, Minnesota. As the number of vehicles per household grew, it was easier to move shops together into shopping centers on the borders of suburban areas while being easily accessible on new roads and offering ample parking. The basic system of a large anchor tenant with many smaller stores housed in the same complex has remained the same ever since.