Commercial Premises and Retail Trade: Types and Evolution
Commercial Premises: A Classification
New commercial large premises owe their prosperity to increased living standards and purchasing power.
- Self-service stores: less than 100m2 showroom.
- Supermarkets: between 100-2500 m2 room.
- Hypermarkets: more than 2500 m2.
- Discount chains (wholesale): adopt self-service, shifting the merchant’s role to the buyer. Removing personnel and selling large quantities improves prices on food and household items. They are located in city centers or neighborhoods, except for supermarkets, which seek the periphery.
- Department stores: sections of at least 4000 m2 of showroom, with more than 100 employees, selling all kinds of merchandise, with more than 50,000 references. They are located in central cities.
- Popular stores: small size (400-3000 m2) that sell frequently used products (food, home, etc.) with around 5000 references. Examples include DAY TREE and GADIS.
- Integrated regional malls: combining independent trade (hairdressing, cafeteria, recreation, etc.) are recent (+- 15 years) with very good reception at home and abroad (Vialia Tormes).
- Agricultural markets: in small towns, held weekly.
- Street markets: in towns.
- Agro-livestock fairs.
- Mail order or telemarketing: slowly spreading.
- Vending machine sales.
- Outlet stores: selling clothes from past seasons of fashion brands.
Tertiary Sector Activities
Classification of tertiary service sector activities or services can vary, as it is a very large sector. Types include: personal services (education), business (advertising), and distribution (transport). The tertiary sector can be divided into economic, social welfare, and directional.
Economic Tertiary Services
These are related to economic development, such as banks, finance, stock markets, insurance companies, trade, transport, communications, and tourism. These are some of the most important services for economic development and utilization.
Social Welfare Tertiary Services
These are related to the welfare of society, such as health, welfare, education, culture, and leisure. This sector has experienced a large increase in Spain, especially with the growth of health services, education, and culture.
Directional Tertiary Activities
These are related to the management, planning, and control of politics, economy, and society. The same applies to intellectual pursuits, such as the direction of mass media. The growing importance of research, information, and knowledge results in a quaternary sector.
Quaternary Sector
This sector is characterized by actions to conceive, create, interpret, organize, manage, and transmit with the help and support of scientific and technical knowledge, including highly intellectual services. This new sector entails a high degree of specialization and is related to management and distribution, allowing the development of the information society.
Changes in the Business Sector: Internal Trade
The Commercial Revolution has been conditioned by two factors:
External Factors
A) Location of production: In Spain, external production predominates, especially for agricultural and perishable products, which means longer distribution channels. It also involves a large number of intermediaries, increasing the final price. (Example: Orange Valencia, wholesaler, retailer). Today, modernization involves packaging products to meet demand, increasingly performed by the producer, preventing a phase of intermediaries. Producers are grouped into cooperatives to sell all products together and maximize profits.
B) Consumption: Increased purchasing power per person has allowed for diversification of supply. There is a growing consumer dispersion and decreased frequency of purchase.
Internal Factors
A) Distribution: The most significant novelty has occurred in supermarkets, as it transfers the function of the merchant to the consumer. This requires more space but a decrease in the number of staff.
B) Technological innovation: It facilitates operations, such as data-phone devices, optical bar code readers, Internet shopping, electronic scales, and new forms of credit cards and electronic purses.
Types of Internal Trade
- Wholesaler or wholesale: Distributes products to retail and concentrates production. Most news is about self-service wholesalers, Cash and Carry. Engaged in trade with food, drink, and tobacco, mainly seeking central locations that are well-communicated. International city centers are equipped with Catalonia, Andalusia, Valencia, and Madrid.
- Retail or retail: Accounts for 80-90% of Spanish trade. They are small establishments in old buildings around 40-50 m2 with cheap rent. Usually an individual entrepreneur with a small staff employed (2.2 persons on average), often with the help of family. 62% of businesses are family-owned. People are often elderly and have poor equipment. Franchises control 80%.