Retail in Aberdeen
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Retail in Aberdeen, Scotland is extremely important to the local economy and the city has the largest selection of shopping facilities of towns the north of Scotland.
The major shopping streets have traditionally been Union Street and George Street. Today Union Street is still extremely busy particularly on the stretch between the entrances to the St Nicholas Centre and The Mall Trinity. George Street is still busy but does not have many British chain stores.
The city centre has a number of Boutique Stores, particularly concentrated around Thistle Street and Castle Street at the west-end of the city and Belmont Street. Unusually compared to other cities, Aberdeen has boutique-shops in some of the smaller shopping centres.
Unlike many other cities in the United Kingdom, much of Aberdeen's shopping has remained in the city centre, with out-of-town retail parks being mostly confined to supermarkets and warehouse style stores. Unlike other cities Aberdeen has not seen the widespread closure of shops as they move out of town and so there has been less of an economic downturn than one might expect in recent years.
[edit] Shopping Centres
Aberdeen currently has three main central shopping centres, the Bon Accord-St Nicholas Centre (currently two buildings next door to one another, and hence two centres) and the The Mall Trinity. These contain all the standard British high street stores with the Bon-Accord Centre anchored by John Lewis, the St Nicholas Centre by Marks and Spencer and the Mall Trinity by Debenhams.
Smaller shopping centres such as the Academy cater for boutique tastes and the small Galeria contains boutique hair dressers and bars.
[edit] Future Developments
In recent years, Aberdeen has been considered to be falling behind in the Scottish retail market with many people from the north-east going to Glasgow or Edinburgh for shopping trips. The city will soon see a number of developments to improve the city centre shopping experience and the number and quality of shops available. Union Street is soon to be pedestrianised which will make it much more appealing to shoppers as it is currently extremely busy and in fact a major route through the city. The main developments will be;
- 'Union Square to the south of Union Street, where on the site of the original Guild Street railway station, Scotland's second-largest shopping centre is to be built
- As part of the "Bon Accord Masterplan" the existing Bon Accord and Saint Nicholas shopping centres with anchor stores such as John Lewis and Marks & Spencer are to be amalgamated to create one large retail centre. This project is being constructed in phases and is anticipated to be complete in 2009.[citation needed]
- The redevelopment of the former 'What Everyone Wants' store on Shiprow to create a new leisure development including a hotel and casino.[citation needed]
- The redevelopment of the run-down Aberdeen Market to create a new shopping centre on Market Street, called 'Union Green'.
