During the second half of the 20 ^th century, consumption patterns in the developed market economies have stabilised, while in the transition/EU-accession countries these patterns were accepted with unusual speed and dynamics. Differences, changes and current trends in Western Europe and post-socialist countries in the quantity and concentration of retailing activities have been minimised, whereas some distinctions in the quality of retail environments have remained. Changes have occurred in buying habits, shopping behaviour and consumer preferences basically for all population groups across the generations. This article is a theoretical and conceptual introduction to a Special Issue of the Moravian Geographical Reports (Volume 26, No. 3) on “The contemporary retail environment: shopping behaviour, consumers’ preferences, retailing and geomarketing”. The basic features which have occurred in European retailing environments are presented, together with a comparison (and confrontation) between Western and Eastern Europe. The multidisciplinary nature of retailing opens the discussion not only from a geographical perspective but also from the point of view of other social science disciplines that naturally interconnect in the retail environments.

The aim of the paper is to critically evaluate the similarities and differences in the development of the temporal and spatial structure of shopping centers in the Czech and Slovak republics. We focused on the retail transformation and sustainable manifestations of the location and construction of shopping centers. We classified shopping centers according to their genesis, location in the city, and size of the gross leasable area. To analyze migration trends and geographic distribution characteristics of shopping centers in the capital cities of both countries (local level of analysis), we used spatial gravity and standard deviational ellipse. Generally, there is an analogous trend in the development of shopping centers in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, with a particular two- to four-year lag in Slovakia (west–east gradient). Despite this, we still perceive the demand for shopping centers in both countries as above average, and it is not declining. The construction of shopping centers, mainly in small towns, also indicates this trend. In Prague and Bratislava, the pattern of spatial expansion of shopping centers differs. Prague probably represents a more advanced phase of shopping center agglomeration. However, neither country has reached the state of clustering.

The measurement and evaluation of the attractiveness of shopping centres in the Czech and the Slovak Republics is examined in this paper, countries which had experienced seventy years of development within a single state. The methodological basis for measuring the attractiveness of 130 shopping centres is an evaluation of the factors that can be described as objective (exogenous and endogenous) and subjective (in vivo and in vitro approach). An aggregate indicator of the overall attractiveness of each shopping centre was computed as a combination of the sub-variables. Based on previous international studies, the factors (variables influencing attractiveness) that are typical for shopping malls anywhere in the world, as well as for the original specific information for the Czech-Slovak retail environment, enable a generalization of the results at least to the East Central European level, and to carry out a comparison with any other market environment.

The shopping behaviours of teenagers in shopping centres in Bratislava (Slovakia) is compared to those of seniors in this paper. The analysis focuses on the perception of shopping centres by teenagers and seniors in the context of time (shopping frequency), social (with whom they shop) and financial (amount of money spent) factors. The survey was conducted on random samples of 504 teenagers and 431 seniors. To test the hypotheses, group means were evaluated (Analysis of Variance models). When assessing the spatial aspects of teenagers’ and seniors’ shopping behaviours, a concentric zone approach was used. It can be concluded that Bratislava teenagers are not as sensitive consumers as seniors in the context of the variables assessed in the survey. Teenagers perceive shopping centres as a normal part of their consumption behaviours. Seniors perceive the shopping centres less positively and they spent a shorter time there. Also, in the case of seniors, the frequency of their visits to shopping centres increased in the context of their positive perceptions.