Survey finds shopping benefits come in big boxes

By IRENE CHAPPLE

Research into bulk retailing has found it is more like a piglet than the oft-portrayed heffalump.

The research, done by the Retail Consulting Group, will be detailed in a presentation at the end of this month.

It says evidence on the effect of bulk consumer outlets is limited, but there is proof that big box retail can be good for traditional retail centres.

The group's position - RCG's clients are retailers - could attract claims of bias, but director Paul Keane says the research was independent.

RCG's research shows big box retail - usually inhabited by such outlets as The Warehouse, Briscoes and Rebel Sports - is now 19 per cent of the total rentable area of New Zealand's shopping centres.

Keane says that figure may rise a further 5 per cent as consumers continue to support the big box concept.

RCG said the success of bulk retail was driven by consumers who wanted large scale formats, ease of parking, multi-use environments and cheap shopping.

Case studies on such areas as Rotorua, which has had the big box retail development Rotorua Central since 1994, showed retail spending had increased between 1997 and 2001 by almost 30 per cent against the national average of 22 per cent.

The area was found to have enjoyed increased sales because of a wider choice and the retention of shoppers who might otherwise go to other towns.

The bulk retail property market also had high investment income, figures this year showing a return of 142 per cent.

RCG also took a swipe at anti-big box retailers, saying their observations were "apparently uninformed."

High-profile campaigner Warren Snow, former manager of The Warehouse founder Stephen Tindall's Tindall Foundation and now running environmental planning group Envision New Zealand, dismissed the group's findings yesterday.

RCG, which did its research through its database and publicly available financial information, had done a "another desktop study in fantasy," said Snow.

He suggested RCG's position as an employee of retailers would pre-determine the findings."