Paulina Holbreich» Moscow

Closing of the legendary “Cherkizovskij Market” in Moscow

Polja — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 19:22:16 +0000

The news about the closing of the legendary market in the eastern part of Moscow near by the international hotel complex “Izmajlovo” spread like a fire. The market of the size of about 200 ha is existing since the early 90-ies and emerged to be the biggest one in Europe with approx. 100 000 persons employed. Most of the people involved into the production and distribution chains come from China and smaller (Central) Asian countries having no legal residence permit. The daily turnover of this market is estimated to be more than 200 000 US-$ per diem. The management of the market remains in the hands of the Izmajlovo clan – Telman Izmajlov, his two sons and his nephew- since 1989. Shortly, Mr. Izmaijlov attracted attention by opening the most expensive and luxurious hotel resort in Turky inviting prominent guests from all around the world.

Cherkizovsij Rynok

The latest news report just a “preliminary closing” of the market because of ” failors of sanitary and dealing norms”. In fact, the market is considered to have a criminal touch in terms of the way of making business and the trading goods. The missing certifications and other documents for many goods are then the simplest delicts. A closing of the “Cherkizovskij market” has been tried several times since 2001, but without any success.

Is the current situation more authoritative then it has been in the past? Now plans to build a sport and entertainment center as well as a modern shopping center, instead of the shabby market hall, the kiosks and the large parking for the trucks with (illegal) goods, becoming more and more realistic. Shortly the Chinese deputy secretary of trade who visited Moscow and showed interest in finding a con-sens regarding the destiny of the over 60 000 Chinese who worked at the Cherkizovskij market as well as the goods to the amount of 5 billion US-$, which are still in the area. He confirmed that the Chinese government is willing to invest about 1 Billion US-$ in building a new shopping-center as well as a large-scale logistic center and customs terminal. This project would take at least two years in case of the final clarification of the matter.

Until then hundreds of police officers are patrolling around the housing estates to prevent a rising of criminal incidents. It`ll take some time to stabilize this tense situation with thousands unemployed Asians who are just hanging around the Metro stations and nearby “Izmajlovo Park” awaiting the issue.

Retail Market – Slovakia

Polja — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 11:00:13 +0000

Slovakia records one of the fastest growing rates of retail sales in Europe. An increase of 5,5 % in 2007 (7,5% in 2006) shows the dynamic development at the retail market in Slovakia. Most activity in country is still concentrated in the capital Bratislava. The International Survey 2007 ranked Bratislava at the forth position right after Moscow, St. Petersburg and Prague in terms of the attractiveness for international retail companies (inside CEE). The two NUTS2 regions Bratislavskiý Kraj (around Bratislava) and Stredné Slovensko (Košice, Žilina) will experience most of the investments in retail in the next ten years (see Fig. 1). Retail planning environment remains favourable, with currently no size limits or restrictions on retail development, albeit with bureaucratic intervention from public bodies.
There are three main groups of retailers in the country: co-operative societies, international players and domestic independents (small shops/kiosks). Western grocery retail companies like Tesco, Rewe (Billa) and Schwarz Group (Kaufland) expand in Slovakia since 2000. By now there are about 293 outlets in Slovakia. Most of them are large-area hyper-/supermarkets or discount stores. None the less the Slovak retail market is still dominated by a Slovak co-operative Jednota Slovensko with 2 318 small format outlets (mostly supermarkets / cash & carry). The dominant preference position of self-service stores with 35% market-share, followed by the supermarkets (29%) and hypermarkets (23%) mirrors the scheme of the retailer market-shares. Although the number of hypermarkets increased from 10 in 2000 to 91 in 2006, many customers still prefer grocery shopping at small-format stores. For reasons of time-saving especially smaller households favour self-service outlets which offer a sufficiently wide range of foodstuffs and basic non-food products.
Market Trends & Retail Formats

Though smaller supermarkets remain a very strong sales channel at the Slovak retail market, mainly because they meet the demand of smaller towns and municipalities, the latest trend indicates a change in purchasing behaviour of Slovak households. The preference for shopping in large-scale shopping centres and hypermarkets, particularly in the capital Bratislava is to be anticipated. Galleria shopping centres in the city centre, anchored by a hyper-/supermarket, and four western-style shopping malls at the “Greenfield-side” of Bratislava build the starting-position for the further retail development in the country. The year 2006 marked a significant turning point in terms of the number of newly-opened shopping centres. Four middle-sized (up to 24 000m²) were built in Tranava and Martin. Six large-scaled (up to 88 000m²) shopping malls will be opened until 2010 in the vicinity of Bratislava and one in Žilina.

Transition of Moscow and the Retail Sector (Part I)

Polja — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 14:19:45 +0000

In 2007 Russia`s capital counts more then 14 Mio. inhabitants, the city ranks first in terms of expensiveness and offers the most dynamic investment activity in the country. This exceptional position of this Megapolis is due to Moscow`s history and the specific spacial structure of Russia. For Moscow is a very complex subject of study, this article picks out just one field to show some (partial) main difficulties of city. The urban management deals with typical changes (and problems) of cities in transition – formation of a real estate market, gentrification, residential-to commercial-conversions, growing of the Tertiary sector, growing traffic volume and the weakness of state authorities to name some of them. On the basis of retail the question of a possible implementation of western patterns will be exemplified.

The historical core forms the Kremlin (fortress), the old slawistic word for ring fence, which was build in the 15th century. The wooden basic fabric of the city (100 000 inhabitants) has been burned down first time by the Tartars in the 16th century and second time by the army of Napoleon in 1812. The reconstruction, which started in 1813, included modernization and expansion of Moscow. The revolutions in 1902 and 1917 entailed that St. Petersburg has been replaced by Moscow as Russia`s capital city in 1918. The socialistic centrally planned economy of the Soviet Union conducted Moscow an outstanding status in terms of political, economic and social role model.

The urban planning which played an important role of the socialistic ideology and was implemented to influence the co-habitance of people demonstrates a very interesting example in the Transition process from plan to market economy. Closely related to the estate market and retail industry, urban planning in Moscow has experienced the most impressive visible change during the past two decades. The privatization of government property contributed to the building of a real estate market where people now are able to buy and sell flats and Dacha’s without the usual counter trading. The privatization of real estate had also a very strong effect in the transitional society for it out marked and opened a gap between the winners and the losers of the transition. The new price level for flats in the city raised at a 1000-fold (gentrification) but also in the suburbs as well as the vicinity of Moscow rents grew exuberantly.

Gated communities for the rich high class (“New Russians”) are built near the central district or in the western part of Moscow e.g. Vorob’evy Gory or Kvartal 75. The poorer (and major) part of Moscow`s inhabitants lives in Komunalkas (flat sharing), small flats or just in the vicinity, oscillating between the city and home by Metro.

In line with the change in housing situation, the growing importance of commerce especially in the city (defined by the Garden Ring) is worth to be mentioned as it is actually a response to the changing demand situation. This theme will be explained in detail in Part II.