Landscapes of commodification : standardization process in selected high streets in Amsterdam from 2004-2018

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Landscapes of Commodification

Standardization Processes in Selected High Streets in

Amsterdam from 2004 – 2018

Master of Science,

Urban & Regional Planning Candidate 2018 Mariam Hussain 11587741

Section: Changing Landscapes of Property

Prepared for: Dr. H. Kok

Second reader: Dr. F. Savini

Submitted: June 11, 2018

Contact: mariam.h91@gmail.com

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Abstract

Visuals of historic architecture punctuated by fresh, new glass and lighting are commonplace in contemporary depictions of the built environment. A symbol of commercialization that is dissected in this thesis through the case study of

internationalization processes of retail firms on the high streets of Amsterdam. The research study was conducted from December 2017 through June 2018 and uses street level data from January 2004 – January 2018 provided by private research firm Locatus (Woerden, The Netherlands).

As a typology, high streets in Amsterdam exhibit a high density of retailers, forming agglomeration microeconomies. These streets are assessed and compared in this document to understand a strain of neoliberalization of urban conditions, that is proposed to have accelerated by the 2007 financial crisis and following

recession. The six areas surveyed are: Beethovenstraat, Gelderplein (a

contained shopping centre), Haarlemmerstraat, the Binnenstad (Rokin, Dam, Damrak, Nieuwendijk, Kalverstraat), Pieter Cornelis Hoofstraat, and Utrechtsestraat. The researcher uses the term commodification of space to illustrate that standardization through global expansion. Retail firms pursuing growth on the global scale (defined as more than 6 countries in this study) are referred to as multinational corporations (MNCs).

The results conclude that standardization and internationalization have progressed in recent years, due to domestic vulnerabilities from the financial crisis, and a lack of

innovation in certain cases. Market pressures current day in the retail property arena are primarily attributed to the rise of e-commerce and multi-channel retailing, and remnants of the crisis. A mixed methods approach for data collection and analysis is performed through interviews with industry experts in retail location in Amsterdam from the policy and commercial real estate perspectives, content analysis of publications, site visits to high streets, policy documents, macroeconomic data, and private market metrics.

Privately accessed databases in addition to Locatus that are used are Mintel and outputs from Oxford Economics.

Key words:Economic geography, retail urbanism, property markets, high streets, financialization, commodification, internationalization, Amsterdam, globalization

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Colophon

This Master thesis has been completed as part of the graduation requirements

for the Master of Science Urban and Regional Planning programme at the

Universiteit van Amsterdam, Class of 2018.

Research and topic selection proposed with the Changing Landscapes of Property

group. This document has been prepared under the supervision of

Dr. Herman Kok.

16,880 words

Universiteit van Amsterdam

Graduate School of Social Sciences

Faculteit der Maatschappij-en Gedragswetenschappen

Department of Human Geography, Planning and International Development

Studies

Nieuwe Achtergracht 166 1018 WV Amsterdam

Mariam Hussain

mariam.hussain@student.uva.nl

mariam.h91@gmail.com

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Acknowledgements

This thesis concludes one year of study in Amsterdam, a city that will

always provide personal inspiration for urban planning and architecture.

The project would not have been possible without the support of Herman

Kok throughout the research process. A thank you is also necessary to

Locatus for providing expertise for data acquisition, and other

organizations that were able to meet with me to discuss research

ambitions.

The final result is influenced by academic lectures and professors of the

2017 – 2018 study period. Elements of each of the classes contributed to

the collection of thoughts.

The city, and Universiteit van Amsterdam provided academic intrigue,

motivation and support, as well as a place to meet future colleagues to

solve the contemporary challenges that cities encounter.

I declare that this thesis has been completed with the academic and

professional references in the bibliography or appendices. For any

misinformation, contact information has been provided in the colophon.

Mariam Hussain

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Tables & Figures

Figure 1. Illustration of high street commodification process. ... 9

Figure 2. Overview of theoretical and conceptual framework for assessing retail landscapes. ... 13

Figure 3. Central Place Theory model from Walter Christaller (left); Land price rent model of William Alonso (top right). ... 18

Figure 4. Wheel of Retailing model illustrating the industry business cycle. ... 20

Figure 5. MNC territorial embeddedness contributing factors. ... 21

Figure 6. Theoretical and conceptual model with combined spatial and market concepts. ... 24

Figure 7. Photography of a morning scene in Dam Square on March 10, 2018. ... 25

Figure 8. Maps of the three retail zones for 2018-2022 retail policy . ... 30

Figure 9. (Left) Dutch Real GDP, Consumer Spending and Imports from 2000 – 2018. Figure 10. (Right) Per cent change in Real GDP, Consumer Spending and Imports 2000 – 2018. ... 30

Figure 11. Percent change in Consumer Price Index and Disposable Income; Unemployment Rate for The Netherlands (2000-2018) ... 31

Figure 12. Non-residential function map of Amsterdam with retail areas in red. ... 32

Figure 13. Map of Amsterdam with the six selected geographies highlighted. ... 33

Figure 14. Homogenization split observed between story typologies. ... 36

Figure 15. Graphs of function change and chain growth from retail stores to HORECA and services for Kalverstraat, Rokin, Nieuwendijk and Dam-Damrak (2004 - 2018)... 37

Figure 16 Square meter expansion from 2004 - 2018 of shopping area on Kalverstraat, Nieuwendijk, Rokin and Dam-Damrak. ... 38

Figure 17. Image of Kalverstraat & Spui intersection on a Saturday in May 2018. ... 39

Figure 18. Image of V&D department store retailer prior to HBC entry on Rokin. (Stil, 2017) .. 40

Figure 19. Sales growth of European arm of A.S. Watson from 1999 – 2016 from Mintel Retail Interactive (left) and Figure 20. Top five chain retailers filtered by store size and then number of outlets in selected areas (right... 43

Figure 21. Graph of the top five selected chain retailer expansion by number of outlets from 1997 – 2018 fiscal years and detail of Inditex and Hennes & Mauritz extracted from the Mintel database. ... 44

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Figure 22. Store function share changes from 2004 - 2018 for Beethovenstraat, Utrechsestraat,

P.C. Hoofstraat. ... 45

Figure 23. Sales in million euros per selected sample of firms on P.C. Hoofstraat from 1996 – 2017. ... 47

Figure 24. Absolute number of functions between 2004 and 2018 for Utrechtsestraat and Beethovenstraat. ... 48

Figure 25. Photograph of cafes extending on to the sidewalk of Utrechtsestraat at the terminus of Rembrandplein, April 2018. ... 49

Figure 26. Chain and independent retailer split amongst store typologies for Gelderlandplein and Haarlemmerstraat from 2004 to 2018. ... 50

Figure 27. Quiet Wednesday morning on Grote Marktstraat in The Hague, May 2018. ... 51

Figure 28. Photographs of the interior (right) and exterior entrance (left) of Gelderlandplein in May 2018. ... 52

Figure 29. Graph of national scale change of the share of independent versus chain retailers. .. 55

Figure 30. Condensed hypotheses and results summary. ... 57

Figure 31. Detail of Beethovenstraat study area. ... 69

Figure 32. Detail of Gelderlandplein and surrounding area map. ... 69

Figure 33. Detail of Haarlemmerstraat, Haarlemmerdijk, Haarlemmerplein axis. ... 70

Figure 34. Detail of Utrechtsestraat area. ... 70

Figure 35. Detail of P.C. Hoofstraat study boundary. ... 71

Figure 36 Detail of Rokin, Dam, Damrak, Kalverstraat, and Nieuwendijk study area with Northern (left) and Southern (right) boundaries. ... 71

Figure 37. Rental rate map of Amsterdam with per cent changes from 2005 - 2017. ... 74

Table 1. List and description of parameters for passive observation of selected geographies 34 Table 2. Overview of selected geographies with standardized parameters. ... 35

Table 3. Interview list for study from April through May 2018. ... 72 Table 4. Data and background information meetings with Locatus. ... 721

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Abbreviations

BIZ Bedrijfsinvesteringszone

CPI Consumer Price Index

FCMG Fast-moving Consumer Goods

GDP Gross Domestic Product

H&M Hennes & Mauritz

HBC Hudson’t Bay Company

MNC Multi-national Corporation

HORECA Hotels, Restaurants and Cafés

NVM Nederlandse Vereniging van Makelaars en Taxateurs in onroerende goederen

P.C. Hoofstraat Pieter Cornelisz Hoofstraat

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1 Landscapes of Commodification

Exploring historic inner cities is a means to fulfil a craving for an authentic experience. Punctuating this urban form are nodes of economic and social activity, materializing in the form of high streets. By investigating these areas, thoughts on how to create places for leisure and requirement, for both temporary and permanent populations can be composed. This thesis is an attempt to explore a moment of change in urbanization that was instigated by economic shifts, through assessing the changes in the built environment that are primarily designed for ‘consuming’ (Zukin, 1998). Theoretically, this is a focus on urban neoliberalization processes in the retail industry from the perspective of property market dynamics and economic geography, integrating consideration of form and location of processes of fragmentation (Taşan-Kok, 2012).

Today, patterns of consumption occur alongside a backdrop of post-crisis risk aversion and new power dynamics that emphasize commercial and financial forms of capital as opposed to industrial (Baud & Durand, 2012, p. 242). With the assistance from economies of scale,

companies can harness the influence these more agile forms of capital to reach oligopolistic heights; this is exemplified in the retail sector in which actors are able to successfully combine, industrial, financial and commercial capital to reach potential for market dominance.

High streets are sites of consumption, social interaction and cultural amenities. They exhibit a captivating charm and character, something that can be attributed to the intersection of public and private space, combined with economic gravity. In cities such as Amsterdam, and other Western European cities, high streets are central to the urban fabric, serving residents and tourists alike, and expressing attributes specific to each locale. What is appearing to be a process of contradiction and opposition to this ‘charm’, is a potentially accelerating standardization, and scaling, as led by chain retailing. This implies that these streetscapes transforming into

commodified space, that attracts and retain global capital much more easily as summarized

below.

Figure 1. Illustration of high street commodification process.

Commodities can be defined in different ways; this thesis will utilize one proposed by Arjun Appadurai based on Marxism, that states that “commodities can be provisionally defined as economic value…[this] value does not have absolute value…but the demand as the base of real or imagined exchange…endows the object of value” (Appadurai, 2013, p. 10). This definition can

standardization commodification _{of high streets} retailer scaling

through replication and

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be used to construct the assumption that once space is commodified, space itself becomes easier to exchange, more ‘liquid’ (Millington, 1988), and contributes to accelerating capital

accumulation. In the retail context, this exchange occurs in two ways: one is in ownership changes in the real estate market, and the second is in shifts of firm structure.

The selected geographies form a portion of the mature retail market, which has very different conditions in comparison to other cities within the country. In the current state of global integration, firm behaviour remains highly specific to the local context influenced by factors of history, economy, socio-cultural norms, and of course location. As global capital continues to occupy and renovate cities therein lies a moment to examine the process of producing and altering space, accelerated by social and economic shifts.

Research Outline

The study will use January 2004 – January 2018 as the core period of interest in the six selected areas. This allows for an analysis of both space and time, a minute period in terms of high street history in Amsterdam. The process follows a critical lens that begins with a

motivation to describe the circulation patterns of global capital through high street retail. This is done by employing two different types of literature: the first phase rooted in production space theory of Henri Lefebrve and neoliberalization concepts of Neil Brenner and Theodore Peck, a second component in microeconomic geography to describe property market and agglomeration; this is followed by retail industry structure, and relevant municipal and national urban planning policy. Data sources consist of expert interviews of industry professionals, firm typology per location and year on geographies, firm growth at the national and global scale of appropriate retailers, publicly available market reports from government bodies and private real estate consulting firms. The study concludes with implications of internationalization and

standardization for retail areas, and further pathways for research.

Problem Statement

“Cities’ receptivity to ‘destination retail’ sites and entertainment facilities have lured them, moreover into dependence on property developers and

multinational corporations that share the same, endlessly repeated vision” – S. Zukin, Urban Lifestyles, 1998

The high street represents several facets of the social and cultural life of cities, an interactive type of gathering space that has shifted, and continues to evolve with changes in development, urbanization, and market pressures. This research hypothesizes that major economic shifts in contemporary cities present a moment of vulnerability that acts as a magnet for takeover, such as one by global capital. In the most acute case, this strain of capital would construct an increasingly fragmented and polarizing conditions, shifting market share and control to actors outside of domestic environment. In the time set in this thesis, there are two

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major events that can be said to be instigators: the 2007/08 global financial crisis, and the rise of multi-channel retailing and e-commerce. (Pederzoli & Kuppelwieser, 2015)

Using a reference study on internationalization of 100 retail companies across 26 countries from 2003 – 2012 (Pederzoli & Kuppelwieser, 2015, p. 877), there are several results that can be applied to develop hypotheses for Amsterdam:

• A risk aversion strategy for investment was selected by companies that already had overseas operations;

• The most common form of expansion was the use of franchising2_;

• Joint ventures, mergers and acquisitions, and other restructuring may also increase due to market vulnerabilities;

• Countries that were more culturally different, and physically farther away from the host country of the company were more likely to be pursued for investment options;

• However, the absolute number of market entries post-crisis was greater in developed countries rather than developing.

Somewhat prior to, and in the period following, retail also experienced an increase of electronic retailing, in a variety of formats. The year 2000 approximately marks the sudden rise in both online marketing and transactions, which has progressed to communication with customers across multiple communications channels (Varley & Rafiq, 2014, p. 304). To remain competitive, digital marketing and experience strategies must be adopted to enhance retailer-consumer interactions (Varley & Rafiq, 2014, p. 307). In addition, online retailing can be used as a market entry strategy for both brands and products; this leads to the hypothesis that these two trends can be mutually reinforcing (Varley & Rafiq, 2014, p. 290).

A necessary point of clarification between internationalization and globalization in this study, is that firms will pursue internationalization as a strategy to remain market competitive in a globalized environment. From a definition perspective, they are somewhat interchangeable terms, but, they key distinction is that internationalization is a response, and globalization, or global integration, is a continually progressing state (Herod, 2009, p. 53). Retail geography is a means to study processes of globalization, such as through the relationship between

internationalization and neoliberalizing cities.

Research Question & Hypotheses

With this introduction, the following central research question is formed:

“How do the processes of standardization and internationalization that stem from neoliberalization influence retail locations with different hierarchies in Amsterdam?”

In addition, there are several sub-questions that inform the exploratory phase of the research to build a foundation in retail geography and commercial real estate:

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Sub-questions:

• How do significant global economic events impact retail chain expansion and market entries of foreign multi-nationals?

• How do agglomeration economies contribute to retail real estate market dynamics? • What are the patterns of chain formation of retail stores and why are they occurring? • How has the function of the street changed over time in the retail sector? How have

other used of the street changed, by either diminishing or becoming more prominent over time?

• How has internationalization impacted retail high street growth in relation to the experience of a major global economic crisis?

The sub-questions led to formulation of the interview questions used in the data collection phase. Additionally, a mix of deductive and inductive hypotheses were generated to investigate how global capital materializes and circulates in retail geographies:

H1: Internationalization is a dominating force in high street retail in major Western European cities, that has two principle results: multi-national chain retailers have increasingly occupied these areas, and lead the homogenization of the streetscape, and polarization within the city.

H2: Rapid economic shifts leading to a withdrawal of capital results in market vulnerabilities that cannot be mitigated by local economies, and cities become more reliant on foreign investment for growth.

H3: Co-located changes on high streets are either in turn internationalizing, and/or following a similar pattern of standardization.

H4: Climate for mergers and acquisitions will become more favourable post-crisis, altering retail firm structure, and producing different hybrids of retail

internationalization.

H5: Electronic commerce and internationalization are highly complementary; selected geographic sites containing a comparatively degree of internationalization will correspondingly by hosting more complex forms of multi-channel retailing. What is expected from this research is that only minor physical alterations to the built environment will be evident, however; changes in retailer typology will indicate the shifts in economic structures over time. The researcher predicts that that spaces that are produced for consumption, are becoming commodified over time due to increasing standardization spurred from instances of market vulnerabilities. By setting a period that holds multiple instances of economic shifts, the nature, if any, acceleration of change will be able to be studied.

Within this problem statement, there is an unresolved concern: from the consumer perspective, the rise of internationalization may be more beneficial, as a greater range of product options may be available. As well, a more competitive market has potential foster better

experiences for consumers through diversification, contrasting with the consequences of homogenization.

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dual moment of creation/ disruption

2 Framing Commodification

The framework is divided into two sections: economic geography and retailing theory. The following illustration overviews the major ideas in the model, that will be used to analyze high street processes.

Figure 2. Overview of theoretical and conceptual framework for assessing retail landscapes.

The Contemporary Production of Capital

Neoliberalizing Cities

Contemporary capitalism entrenched in neoliberal ideology has been accredited to the resulting spatial unevenness within and between cities. The resulting dominance of market-led urban growth can be described as a continuing and self-affirming ‘process’ rather than a final state of total and complete privatization (Peck , Theodore, & Brenner, 2009, p. 51). This can be challenging to envision in the case of the retail sector, as it is a part of cities that is primarily operated and regulated by private corporations, however; cities in the past two decades are increasingly viewed as ‘landscapes of consumption’, (Zukin, 1998, p. 825). With this increase, examining the forces that are forming these landscapes becomes crucial. The process of neoliberalization is not limited to the downloading of traditional state responsibilities to the private market, it extends to how the private market itself operates, and how it ‘self-regulates’ (Peck , Theodore, & Brenner, 2009, p. 52). As high streets contain a concentration of retail capital as per their geographic and economic structure, they can be used to analyze neoliberalization and related processes through the relationships between economic disruption and spatial response. Concentrations of capital exemplify geographic unevenness, including the results of disruption and crisis. This study will assert fragmentation will still prevail even in a business-driven environment, because the private market does not operate solely for itself; it is still subject to forces beyond, what appear to be, its own control.

Hyper-competitive private market in pursuit of economics of scale standardization through replication real estate asset becomes more liquid

(increasing) financialization of the built environment

(increasing) internationalization as firm survival strategy urban space is

treated like a commodity

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The impact of the forces of neoliberalization becomes more resounding as the economic and financial crisis deepens, rather than disrupts this very process (Aalbers M. , 2013, p. 1056). As a result, rather than rearranging hegemonic structure, crisis further polarizes urbanization, shifting neoliberal processes to a mutated form (Aalbers M. , 2013) (Peck , Theodore, & Brenner, 2009). Geographic literature on post-crisis urban restructuring focuses on governance and housing related studies (Aalbers M. , 2013, p. 1055), that are unequivocally crucial contemporary development conditions. The retail environment could be potentially neglected, as it is more thought of to be associated with economic prosperity and disposable income, the last thoughts when considering mechanisms for mediating change through urban planning and policy. Retail will shift like any other property market in the wake of rapid domestic capital withdrawal.

Capital & Crisis

Economic disruption is commonly analyzed by using periods of crisis that would have instigated, as well as forced change. The most recent global financial crisis and following recession of 2007 – 2008 was an opportunity for neoliberalizing processes catalyzing urban restructuring to accelerate given the resulting vulnerabilities (Aalbers M. B., 2015, p. 582) (Aalbers M. , 2013, p. 1054). This crisis would have produced change in two ‘moments’: a

destruction brought on by market restructuring and political change, and a creation and pivot

towards further “market-orientation” and “commodification” (Peck , Theodore, & Brenner, 2009, p. 55). This establishes an entry point for global financial expansion and manipulation, with the retail sector acting as a mechanism. Thus, the moment of creation can instigate opportunities that may have otherwise not be able to exist. Prior to crisis, private markets would have reached, or even have surpassed a point of saturation that would restrict innovation and entry of new actors. Destructive moments of the normative can result in space for alternatives, and new uses of the space and forms of economic production. Creation is not limited to the hegemony, and destruction is not restricted to the localized.

Expansion & Globalized Capital

Retail capital today forms and circulates amongst financial markets that have now been globalizing for half a century. This is demonstrated by the changes of industrial production in the 1970’s beginning to be more attributed to global economic shifts rather than local or regional factors (Brenner & Keil, 2014, p. 3). In the Dutch context, economic gains and shifts in the retail industry can be partially attributed to corresponding trade agreements, the European Economic Committee (1958), and eventual European Union (1993) that would offer substantial regulatory easing and mobilize internationalization (European Union, 2018). Transferring this idea to cities, ideas such as the World Systems Theory emphasize that urban economic processes must now be understood on the “largest possible spatial scale” (Brenner & Keil, 2014, p. 6). Complementary to processes of neoliberalization, globalization and financialization follow uneven geographies, and

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as networks between cities become stronger, they also become more exclusionary (Herod, 2009, p. 73; Wrigley & Wood, 2018, p. 15). As a result, three mutually reinforcing elements become commonplace in the post-modern: globalization, financialization and neoliberalization. Retail geography can be used to investigate the intersection of these three processes as it exhibits facets of each.

In pursuit of accumulation, there are three key trends that are identified in post-war Western economies in relation to retail capital by Ducatel & Bromley (1990, p. 218, 222):

1: “[There is a] marked concentration of retail capital”

3_;

2: “Shift in power at the productive-commercial interface to the advantage of retail capital”;

3: “The attempt to…reduce [overhead] costs…[will implicate] beyond that of retail capital itself”.

These assumptions describe how macro-scale behaviour of multinational retail firms will impact high street structure. This translates into an emphasis on store fronts and commercial space, a pursuit of minimizing production and distribution costs, and firm restructuring to pursue economies of scale (Ducatel & Blomley, 1990, p. 222).

Certain types of retail companies can leverage these conditions and access a new scale of financial capital. Impacts materialize particularly in high streets, as these areas have historically hosted a concentration of social and economic activity, and now harbour an accumulation of global financial capital. In a city like Amsterdam, historic architecture and physical

infrastructure will limit market expansion through cultural and political instruments such as spatial regulations for heritage preservation, similar to other cities constructed in the same era. Global financial capital may be immense, but it is not all consuming or uninhibited.

This type of capital is found among multi-national corporations (MNCs) that are able to scale to an extent that they can replicate retail functions to earn hundreds of billions of revenues in US dollars annually (Baud & Durand, 2012, p. 245). Dutch businesses are also able to take advantage of these economies of scale with companies such as Ahold that in 2007 had a total revenue of 41.4 billion US dollars, with 73.5% of total sales occurring outside of The Netherlands (Baud & Durand, 2012, p. 245). Ahold, a leading household grocer, assists in illustrating two conclusions: Dutch companies are able to grow far beyond national borders, and foreign-owned companies are not the sole disruptors of the high street landscape. The size of companies such as Ahold provide a glimpse into the unequal distribution of economic power within the retail industry, that becomes more pronounced with the addition of global financial capital (Baud & Durand, 2012, p. 242). Foreign investment both limits and expands domestic economic interests, and is more correlated with company scale, such as market share and profit, rather than

ownership location. Following a crisis, internationalization is a strategy that can be used to

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alleviate market gaps and restore stability in instances where domestic capital is not only unavailable but has also rapidly been withdrawn.

A Marxist Perspective

As a counter theory to neoliberalization, the Marxist view on commercial retail capital can also be considered. This offers the definition that commercial capital is something that does not “create…value [or] surplus-value”, and that this surplus-value is already existing in produced commodities (Ducatel & Blomley, 1990, p. 211). This would imply that pure exchange of goods does not result in value creation, and that retail capital is only a medium for circulating commodities, rather than an entity in itself (Ducatel & Blomley, 1990, p. 211). Retail capital would accumulate in the exchange processes increasing in parallel with integration of global markets. This may be true to an extent as retail can represent excess in economic cycles, or an approach for understanding the relationship between the consumer and the retailer (Ducatel & Blomley, 1990, p. 215). The position that retail capital is “unproductive” in this definition (Ducatel & Blomley, 1990, p. 224), is negated by the fact that retail increases high street real estate values and serves as a magnet for both social and economic activity. In addition, with increasing global integration of real estate markets, retail has thrived and grown in existing areas, rather than been substantially replaced by other more productive sectors by property market dynamics.

Production of Space

Retail geography expresses global capital in two different ways: the first is supports for increasing firm size for multinational operations, and the second is the replication of commercial space resulting in standardization of retail landscapes. To understand the potential impacts of homogenization of space, it is important to first consider how space is initially produced.

Commodifying Space

In the case of retail, the dual instance of creation/destruction materializes in the forms of a rise of internationalization brought on by a market opening for foreign direct investment. This results in the replication of a certain type of space, and thus commodification of the high street landscape due to standardization. Unlike other material, “space is produced unlike any other commodity…it has both a material reality and formal property which enables it to constrain the material reality of other commodities and their social relations” as stated by Lefebvre

(Gottdiener, 1985, p. 115). From the perspective of the property market, real estate is now “one of the major commodities that strengthen[s] corporat[e] portfolios and increase[s] capacity to

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physically being produced per se, but instead converted to this new, standardized form perpetuated by the combination of property market dynamics propelled by financialization.

This view of Lefebvre and Gottdiener implies that there is more than just a physical replication of products on the global scale. There is also a replication of corresponding social relations, and potential of reform to the cultural aspects of areas such as the high street (Gottdiener, 1985, p. 123). The social dimension of commodified space provides opportunity to explore shifts in consumer culture that are also taking place alongside other trends. Models that are used to explain commodification of development land use planning can be translated for retail geography such as the tension between satisfying local needs versus leading private market actors (Savini & Aalbers, 2016, p. 882). In the case of historic high streets, this relationship does not appear as immediate as the market structure may not be as visible, in when compared to similar instances with urban redevelopment initiatives (Savini & Aalbers, 2016). Another challenge with high streets in this context is that retail is inherently based in private market regulation with public authorities managing relatively few governing

responsibilities.

Location Selection in Retail

Stores that materialize on the high street are one of the links in chain of retail business. They are a representation of the complex networks of manufacturers, transportation and logistics systems, designers, and sales and marketing mechanisms. Studying the resulting patterns of stores, offers a partial view of the industry, however; this structure does allow for a more comprehensive and necessary spatial analysis of high street retail with impacts to local geography as the frame of reference. Examining store location as a function of store type is essential as location is the most crucial element in the retail business model due to the

combination of potential of competitive advantage coupled with substantial capital requirements (Zentes, Morschett, & Schramm-Klein, 2017, pp. 229-30). Applying the economic geography perspective to location theory splits the complexity explanation into two facets, space and place (Wrigley & Wood, 2018, p. 6). Space in this context refers to “distance and network” (i.e. number of stores globally), whereas place is related to the physical location of an individual store and associated factors (Wrigley & Wood, 2018, p. 6). There are numerous factors that will contribute to a firm’s selection of store location – this thesis will focus on the ones that are viewed as the most relevant to economic geography research context which are property markets and agglomeration economies. The following section will begin by overviewing a few retail location theory models and then shift to economic geography.

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Property markets

“[property] has therefore become an arterial route in the circulation of finance” (Savini & Aalbers, 2016, p. 890)

The retail industry is subject to influence and formation by the larger real estate market, and subsequent legislation and private investment ambition. The draw of investment in real estate is that in comparison to other opportunities, it offers a relatively high security of capital and security of income but, does contain a high barrier to market entry (Millington, 1988, p. 20). Other characteristics are that investment is required on the long-term and is illiquid (cannot be easily withdrawn), the amount of time and money required to purchase a property is high, however; this type of investment carries promises of high yields and low risk, blatant favorites of financial markets (Millington, 1988, p. 23). Property market analysis in the case of retail can help to determine what type of investment has accumulated on high streets, because of

corresponding microeconomic factors. An example is that with an increase in standardization in this type of real estate market, retail property may become more liquid in a sense, meaning that it will be easier and faster to purchase and sell (Brown & Matsiak, 2000, p. 433). This could be one of the reasons behind why certain high streets may be more standardized than others; the physical stores have a stronger linkage to international capital markets, and therefore higher liquidity.

Figure 3. Central Place Theory model from Walter Christaller (left) (Getis & Getis, 1996, p. 225); Land price

rent model of William Alonso (top right) (Alonso, 1964, p. 20).

Property markets can be used to explain urban hierarchies, that can be described using models such as “Central Place Theory” by German academic Walter Christaller (Getis & Getis, 1996). Illustrated in the figure below, this theory asserts that central places are the most significant in relation to other geographic areas, which transfers to explain demand for inner-city locations,

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such as the Binnenstad in Amsterdam (Getis & Getis, 1996, p. 220). This model can also be used to describe goods distribution, or how far people are willing to travel for retail purchases (Getis & Getis, 1996, p. 221). The central model also depicts where subsidiary nodes, B and K, would occur. This can be applied in order to explain urbanization patterns of concentrations and dispersion of retailers throughout the city. A second key concept for understanding property markets is the land price rent model derived by William Alonso that places maximum rent at the very geographic centre of the Central Business District, or the core of the city (Alonso, 1964). Combining these two ideas constructs a base model for property market rent theory in which, businesses will follow a concentric pattern of agglomeration, with the highest rent levels

contained at the absolute centre, formulating a hierarchical structure and rent gradient (Alonso, 1964) between the outer neighbourhood suburbs and the inner city. Rent, as one of the primary costs in retail business models (Zentes, Morschett, & Schramm-Klein, 2017), will guide location patterns, influence the distribution of retailer types amongst high streets, and construct pathways for financialization.

Agglomeration & Retail

Like other spatial-economic processes, high street retail is expressed upon an agglomerative form, with concentration allowing for both increases in capital returns and productivity (Koster, van Ommeren, & Rietveld, 2013, p. 63). Agglomeration theory can act as a common term to bridge market and spatial concepts, to explore why retail businesses consider locating in a concentrated area. Using research on cities in Zuid-Holland conducted by Vrije Universiteit in 2012, some implications for this type of spatial structure can be transferred to construct hypotheses for Amsterdam. One item of relevance is that retail firms will be drawn to “dense…urban areas” to capitalize on external economies, even with increasing rental rates (Koster, van Ommeren, & Rietveld, 2013, p. 79). For retail, spending on locations for

agglomeration with an increasing cost of floor space is higher than other sectors such as office or manufacturing (Koster, van Ommeren, & Rietveld, 2013, p. 73). This insinuates that there is likely an underlying relationship between global capital and lease price increases but may be somewhat independent of product or retailer type. This appears to be redundant but, it alludes to the fact that capital accumulation in this instance is occurring across different layers of

geography, that if there is a majority presence of multi-national firms, they may be the only ones able to maintain a presence on high street areas. This could further imply that there is a

separating of space in which a concentration of MNC retailers may be self-replicating

agglomeration processes to maintain and increase returns to scale in these areas. This structure of course offers more than just economic benefits, as there is also an ease of access to multiple products and services in one location.

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Retail Markets & Competition

Retailer Life Cycle

Retail organization structure has numerous typologies, but the universal “Wheel of Retailing” in Figure 4 can be applied as a foundation to understand the differences between companies. The model, originally developed in 1931, categorizes actors into three different stages that describe profit generation methods, as well as vulnerabilities. (Zentes, Morschett, &

Schramm-Klein, 2017, pp. 27-8)

Figure 4. Wheel of Retailing model illustrating the industry business cycle. (Zentes, Morschett, & Schramm-Klein, 2017, p. 28)

This model can be used to construct reasoning for standardization, and where factors for change of the retail high street may lie. With neoliberalizing effects of a global economic crisis, the figure indicates that mature retailers in particular will be at a particular disadvantage as they are in the vulnerability phase. As mature retailers would be pressured to eventually exit the market, newer businesses can enter, mirroring creative/destructive disruption. What this model also implies is that retail market dynamics have been following this pattern for almost a century, if not more; contemporary capitalism in this case is not inducing the replacement by innovation cycle but will be further polarizing the impacts of this cycle.

Retailers as Multinational Corporations

As demonstrated by Ahold, retail and internationalization can successfully go hand-in-hand and build economies of agglomeration to new heights. In comparison to other industries though, such as manufacturing, retail requires a much more complex growth strategy in order to take into account economic, regulatory, and social structures in order to succeed (Wrigley, Coe, & Currah, 2005). Specifically, the social component is crucial in this case as “consumption is [a] sociocultural process as [well] as an economic interaction” (Wrigley, Coe, & Currah, 2005, p. 441). Although internationalization may appear to be an automatic response to achieve market

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stability, the uncertainties associated with sociocultural adoption will require a stronger

commitment, in terms of time, investment, and embeddedness within the local market (Wrigley, Coe, & Currah, 2005). Even if a retailer has adequate financial resources, survival is equally dependent on other factors in the domestic market. The following figure provides an illustration of embeddedness, and the various elements of MNC operations and locations.

Figure 5. MNC territorial embeddedness contributing factors. (Wrigley & Wood, 2018, p. 12) To contend with social complexities of the market, time and spatial scale can help to overcome initial hesitations for beginning operations in foreign country. This infers that to understand how internationalization and standardization are impacting the retail environment, it is necessary to analyze changes over time and across physical geography (Wrigley, Coe, & Currah, 2005, p. 446). This can explain why strategies for foreign expansion may differ across retailer types with the application of a path-dependency perspective coupled with location theory. For example, areas that contain an existing high share of international retailers may be more likely to attract similar retailers over time, due to a higher degree of territorial embeddedness of international retailing at that specific location.

Foreign MNCs are not however the sole instigator of standardization and homogenizing of consumption landscapes. Domestic companies will also pursue economies of scale within their own borders, utilizing advantages of existing embeddedness to increase economies of scale. Combining this with the polarizing effects of neoliberalization, firms that have reached economies of scale through domestic and international expansion will introduce oligopolistic conditions (Wrigley, Coe, & Currah, 2005, p. 446). This would be a condition that emerges from firm size, that would impact other businesses in the sector, but may appear to have less, or a shielded impact to consumers.

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Mature Markets & Innovation

Operations in mature markets such as Amsterdam in general occur in a saturated environment involving ‘goods replacement’ rather than an introduction of entirely new products and services (Reinartz, Dellaert, Krafft, Kumar, & Varadarajan, 2011, p. S54). Applying retail internationalization, this infers that local, regional, or national scale actors may already be successfully operating and providing a range of products to the consumer base but come other under threat when confronted with international companies that are able to innovate at a much faster pace. Increasing innovation can surmount to a scale to set new market conditions, that will not be able to be as easily adapted by all actors in the industry. Smaller firms and domestic organizations may be unable or unwilling to innovate at the same pace as MNCs and will be more susceptible to changing market conditions. MNCs themselves can propel innovation by utilizing their own capital advantages. This characteristic supports the reasoning of pursuing internationalization as an expansion strategy due domestic market saturation, that is also coupled with a robust availability of capital (Baud & Durand, 2012, p. 249); hinting that global financial levers that can be employed to access different markets and transfer capital across borders.

Multi-channel Retailing

Crisis is not the sole catalyst of disruption. Innovation emerging out of advancing technology and shifting behaviour also contains potential to reform practices and intensify competition amongst actors (Reinartz, Dellaert, Krafft, Kumar, & Varadarajan, 2011, p. S59). Beginning in the early 2000s, the rise of e-commerce and multi-channel retailing has begun to play a leading role in industry reconfiguration, manifesting in several ways. This innovation has evolved to ‘omni-channel’ retailing in some businesses, a method that nudges consumers to complete purchases using a combination of channels (Zentes, Morschett, & Schramm-Klein, 2017, p. 96). One perspective within multi- and omni-channel retailing is that e-commerce is acting as a complement to brick-and-mortar stores, rather than completely monopolizing sales (Zentes, Morschett, & Schramm-Klein, 2017, p. 74). In combination with the statements to describe retail capital accumulation by Ducatel and Bromley (1990) listed previously, multi-channel retailing allows for additional means for pursuing profit and further concentrating capital.

Conclusion to Theoretical Framework

The importance of analyzing concentrations of retail geography are particularly important as consumption may appear to be, but is not, placeless (Mansvelt, 2005, p. 30). The spatial and chronological dimensions of consumption culture are equally crucial as the form in which it occurs, as made evident by accumulation of retail capital, that is unique to the post-modern era (Mansvelt, 2005, pp. 45-6). As well, there remains substantial demand for

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understanding the geographic implications of the 2008 crisis and the proceeding “mutations of neoliberalism” on different scales (Aalbers M. , 2013, p. 1056). This emphasizes the singularity of research that focuses on consumption landscapes that are substantially altered by the very forces that construct them. Conclusively, the physical, time and locational properties of consumption landscapes are necessary for geographic analysis.

Retail as a part of economic globalization, illustrates the changes to space that are a result of changing rates of expansion and contraction of capital. As described in the Methodology chapter, this document will be used to select the specific areas of focus within Amsterdam that located within the Kernzone and Centrumzone that have shifted from a moment of both creation and destruction. The following research execution will be an attempt to materialize the theoretical combination of economic geography and retail markets, to determine what changes have occurred on Amsterdam high streets in the past fifteen years. The following diagram reconstructs the theoretical and conceptual model as illustrated earlier, with integration of the complexities discussed in this chapter. The diagram acts as a conclusion to the framework, and an introduction to upcoming chapters in this thesis.

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Figure 6. Theoretical and conceptual model with combined spatial and market concepts.

Retailer scaling through replication and

amalgamation Increasing standardization of high streets

Commodification of High Streets

real estate asset becomes more liquid

Neoliberalization of urban environments

Agglomeration economies

Retailing theory

Internationalization of retail firm structure Moments of Creation/Disruption Competition-driven industry (increasing) financialization of the built environment (increasing)

globalization Economies of scale

Real estate property markets

Vulnerability Multi-channel _retailing

Co-located high street functions

Streetscape homogenization

2007/08 global

financial crisis Vulnerability

Consumer behavior Polarization; fragmentation of the built environment Urban hierarchies

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3 A System for Examining

Internationalization

Exceptional Amsterdam

Global capital materializing in the form of high street retail is a result of several factors on both local and national levels: resident demographics, business operating conditions,

macroeconomic trends, and socio-cultural embrace of the foreign. The presence of multinational retailers in Dutch cities has been a growing trend since 2005, with Amsterdam hosting twice the share at 21% in 2017 compared to other major municipalities according to private real estate consultants (Cushman & Wakefield, 2017, pp. 4,6). In addition, this was a “record year” for international investment in commercial real estate in The Netherlands, with American, German and British investors dominating domestic capital (NVM, 2018). This optimism correlates with the projection that the sector was expected to continue post-crisis recovery in 2017 (Mintel, 2017). Compared to other parts of The Netherlands, the permanent population of the city has the

highest purchasing power per capita in the nation (GfK, 2016), that would have provided

economic stability during the crisis and recession phases. Tourism is also contributing factor and had the highest rate of growth in over a decade last year (Central Bureau Stastiek, 2018). This cements the linkage between the willingness of international retail firms to expand their operations and Amsterdam to welcome them with open arms.

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In addition to research proximity, the capital city was selected as a case study due to its economic gravity, that draws different forms of investment into the city. A preliminary scan of publicly available research reports from private real estate consultants concluded that sufficient data on the retail market would be available for Amsterdam. The emphasis on the city from the private investment side formed the concept that the property market would exhibit intricate dynamics, a combination of historic precedence, planning policy, and recent economic shifts. Preliminary site visits of high streets spurred curiosity for studying the different patterns of retail businesses throughout the city with hierarchies distributed between neighbourhood and centre city streets. The previous image of above of pedestrians spilling into the central Dam Square, leads the observer to contemplate the draw of the area, such as that from the nearby Kalverstraat shopping street. Streets such as Kalverstraat, make up part of a nation that has the largest share of retail floor space per 1,000 people in comparison to other Western European countries (IVBN, 2016, p. 27). This is potentially attributed to relatively small country size and dense urbanization that is supported by robust planning policy in transportation, housing and other areas. This background culminates to the necessity of examining Amsterdam as a ‘critical case’ for theoretical application (Tin, 1994).

Methodology

Operationalization

The research question has been operationalized in this study through examining the changes of retailer store typology from accessible data. This is to understand in what instances is consumption becoming standardized, and globalized, at a faster rate, and the geographies in which national or local scale ownership has been maintained. The second phase of

operationalization involved conducting open-ended interviews with industry professionals under the established professional network and expertise of the thesis supervisor (Yin, 1994, pp. 84-5). Interviews allowed for a richer, and much more complex contextualization necessary to

understand quantitative outputs.

Operationalization of the term internationalization shifted in the research process and was finally defined by limits of quantitative data. With retail as an increasingly globalizing sector, quantitatively restricting the process of internationalization is challenging, as in reality internationalization was a multi-faceted process in high street retail. To mitigate this, the definitions used by Locatus in their respective database were used:

• “Locatus registers a retail outlet as a retail chain when there are more than 7 outlets of the same brand worldwide, or when the business has more than a hundred employees (and less than 7 branches)” (Custers, 2016);

• “A format is international [when]…it has at least one unique shop in at least 6 countries worldwide” (Roth, 2015).

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The database did not differentiate between the ownership of stores, only whether each outlet was part of a chain or not. Because of this, quantitative analysis is focused on standardization

patterns, with the influence of internationalization. Other variables that were made available for use were retail sector and type of goods and services available, a unique ‘Unit ID’ for each of the outlets, address, total shopping area in the store in square meters for retail (i.e. no service or HORECA outlets) and point data for each of the store locations. Thus, these selected variables are an embedded design, in which the units of measure that are used in the real estate and retail industries are employed in this study design (Yin, 1994, pp. 41-2).

Data Collection

Quantitative data collection consisted of extraction from the database of retail research firm Locatus, database of market research company Mintel, Oxford Economics and Growth for Knowledge (GfK) for national scale macroeconomic measures. Locatus was able to assist with background information on retail market structures, software use, and industry experience providing two in-person sessions with details provided in Appendix C. Data was extracted using

Tableau data management software of the Dutch language database into Microsoft Excel on-site

at the Locatus office in Woerden (Locatus, 2018). The firm’s digital archive extended from

January 2004 to the current data of access, with a unique record for each year per store. The time period of the data available set the boundaries for the study, with some deviations with other additional quantitative data, and case examples from interview sessions. A brief proposal had to be made to Locatus for industry relevance of the research question, researcher background, and how operationalization would be possible through their records.

The Mintel online market research database also required industry relevance for obtaining access without a paid subscription. This database contains information on global market reports starting in 1996, with information on profits and turnover for individual firms, country reports, and specific sub-sectors across business sectors (Mintel, 2018). This resource was used to study expansion patterns of individual firms operating in The Netherlands, with

operations on the selected high streets. Oxford Economics and GfK access was made available through the thesis supervisor, for appropriate metrics. These two resources provided information on domestic product, consumer spending, imports and exports, employment, and income

distribution by municipality at the national level.

Qualitative data collection was divided into three parts: expert interviews with industry professionals, publicly available market reports, and site visit observations. Site visits were conducted passively and were complemented by visits to other cities to gain a stronger overview of the Dutch retail sector, such as The Hague and Utrecht. Passive observations conducted between March – May 2018 were used to overview brand presence on the high street, street layout and infrastructure, determine co-located functions, and study the urban hierarchy.

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Industry professionals interviewed were highly experienced with management level positions. Sessions were divided between private global real estate consulting firms, a Dutch private real estate developer-owner company, municipal policymakers, private urban planning and research firms. Interviewees all had expert level knowledge of retail location and market structure in Amsterdam and The Netherlands, referred to through the professional network of the supervisor.

Although questions and interview structure were completed in advance of conducting interviews, sessions were more deductive and holistic, allowing for adherence to the more abstract portion of the theoretical model (Yin, 1994; p. 44). Sessions were semi-structured and open-ended, in order to provide a thorough understanding of events from different perspectives (Yin, 1994, pp. 84-5). As made available in Appendix C, retail companies themselves were not interviewed, due to the time limits of the research process.

Data Analysis

Data analysis follows the mixed methods structure using a complementarity approach (Bryman, 2008, p. 607), by inductively analyzing quantitative data, and deductively drawing out overarching themes and relationships in the full dataset (Yin, 1994). Qualitative content analysis used a coding frame and thematic analysis for interview sessions, policy documents, and

consultant publications (Schreier, 2014; Bryman, 2012; 578-9). This frame was a hybrid between concept and data driven themes, with the theoretical framework first dictated initial

assumptions such as ‘internationalization’ and ‘market expansion’, to the interview discussions resulting in the creation of categories such as ‘tourism’ and ‘innovation’ (Schreier, 2014, p. 204). A minor component of narrative analysis was added deductively as interviewees provided reflective statements on urban change (Bryman, 2012, pp. 582; Bryman, 2012). Multi-actor analysis was also used to study firm ownership structures to examine different types of standardization that are occurring.

The research study as a whole is fairly unobtrusive, with the exception of the interview sessions (Bryman, 2008; 289). Similar to any other research in the field of social sciences, critical subjectivity of the researcher has impacted results (Gadamer, 1989) . This is particularly

relevant in the context of discussing neoliberalizing cities, in which the scope of theoretical literature influences the researcher to critique and scrutinize hegemonic behavior.

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4 The Amsterdam Retail Landscape

Urban Planning & Retail

National & Regional Scale Influences

Retail policy in The Netherlands has been implemented on three different scales, as outlined in post-war planning legislation for municipal, regional and national authorities (Evers D. V., 2003, p. 212). Specifically to retail, policy included restricting peripheral development, shopping malls, to preserve existing retail areas such as inner city high streets (Evers, 2003). Beginning in the early 90’s however, market pressures led to an easing of these restrictions to allow for development of larger stores that were not easily scaled to inner city areas such as home wares or furniture (Ever, 2003, p. 223-4; Evers, 2002, p. 109). Another decade later, the sector was described as one that “appear[ed] to be at the brink of one of the most fundamental shifts in retail policy…post-war” referencing that peripheral development may be on the rise (Evers, 2002, p. 112). This shift would have contributed to the structure and condition of retail high streets in 2018, that likely continue to compete with retail developments outside of the city.

Municipal Policy

Regulations at the municipal scale for Amsterdam is outlined in the Detailhandelsbeleid

2018-2022 document which outlines the goals and objectives that The City of Amsterdam will be

pursuing (Gemeente Amsterdam, 2017). Included in the document are key indicators such as growth projections and influencing factors, area classification, and quantitative metrics such as vacancy rates, and changes in lease price for key areas. The policy also addresses how the municipality plans to contend with an increasing presence of international chains, and other changes in the retail landscape (Gemeente Amsterdam, 2017). Different areas of the city are separated into three major zones highlight an emphasis on planning regarding planning decisions as a function of distance from the centre of the city as in Figure 8 (Gemeente

Amsterdam, 2017, p. 39). For quantitative measures that are used to the plan retail areas, shop rental rates are of interest, as they tend to follow other macroeconomic fluctuations. Overviewing the changes in retail lease pricing from 2005 to 2017 reveals that the investment in, and

revitalization of retail areas in the city is fragmented4_{, echoing the influence of larger external}

forces (Gemeente Amsterdam, 2017, p. 113). These measures are indicative of conditions at the microeconomic scale, especially regarding change over time. Consequent values can be one of the several lenses used to monitor post-recession conditions in the city.

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Figure 8. Maps of the three retail zones for 2018-2022 retail policy (Gemeente Amsterdam, 2017).

Contemporary Market Conditions

A Macroeconomic Overview

Hosting a population of 2.4 million residents, the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area (AMA) is commonly referred to as crucial for national economic growth (Gemeente Amsterdam, 2015). The following projections with data from Oxford Economics offer a background for Dutch retail market dynamics from 2000 to 2018 that echoed in Amsterdam. Figures 9 and 10 exhibit the macroeconomic impact of the 2008 global financial crisis with a drop of imports of goods and services, consumer spending, and Real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2009. Percent changes in growth show the drastic drop in 2009 across all three indicators. The rate of growth of GDP and consumer spending has not yet reached pre-recession levels, although total imports have.

Figure 9. (Left) Dutch Real GDP, Consumer Spending and Imports from 2000 – 2018. Figure 10. (Right) Per cent change in Real GDP, Consumer Spending and Imports 2000 – 2018.

-10 -5 0 5 10 15 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 2016 2018

Percent Change in Real GDP, Consumer Spending and Imports

GDP

Consumer Spending Imports of Goods & Services

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 2016 2018

Dutch Real GDP, Consumer Spending and Imports

GDP (€ Billions)

Consumer spending (€ Billions)

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Figure 11 below shows an average overall decline in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) over

time, indicating that the average aggregate cost of goods and services, or inflation rate, is in decline (OECD, 2018). Notably, 2014 marks a turning point in which unemployment reaches the maximum over this 18-year period, CPI begins to decline after a two-year period of stagnation, and disposable income appears to be a rising closer to pre-recession values. Comparing Figures 9

& 10, although import growth returns, or even exceeds 2006 levels, consumer spending, disposal

income and real GDP do not, signalling a delayed recovery. In the context of retail, this would translate to a decrease in available domestic capital, slowing the rate the growth for new businesses, as well as comprising existing stable and vulnerable operators. With the

unemployment rate continuing to increase until 2014, total domestic consumer spending on non-essential goods and services would follow. Conclusively, this would result in increasing pressure in the industry to pursue alternative options for economic stability including foreign investment.

Figure 11. Percent change in Consumer Price Index and Disposable Income; Unemployment Rate for The Netherlands (2000-2018) (Oxford Economics, 2018)

The Amsterdam context signals that recovery in the retail sector is occurring demonstrated by a projected vacancy rate of 3.6% for 2017 by the municipality (Gemeente Amsterdam, 2016, p. 5). Another indicator is that employment in the retail sector continues to grow, operating more than five thousand stores throughout the city (Gemeente Amsterdam, 2017, p. 23). The map below shows the distribution patterns of retail in red, that was used as a base for the selecting areas of interest, in combination with expertise from industry professionals from Locatus. -2 0 2 4 6 8 10 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 2016 2018

Percent Change in CPI & Disposable Income; Unemployment Rate

Consumer Price Index (% year) Disposable Income (% year) Unemployment rate (%)

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Figure 12. Non-residential function map of Amsterdam with retail areas in red. (City of Amsterdam, 2018) This development pattern coupled with fragmentation of changes in lease pricing in the study area period was used to select the specific geographies of study. High street areas on the map that experience the highest increases in rent pricing based on euros per square meter, a range of 25% to 220% (Cushman & Wakefield, 2017, p. 33). Areas that exhibited this increase were selected in accordance with the hypothesis that internationalization will be a dominating force along high street.

The following Figure 13 marks the six different areas of focus that are in Amsterdam. Certain areas contain multiple streets to be more conducive to corresponding microeconomic structure. For example, Haarlemmerstraat is combined with Haarlemmerdijk and

Haarlemmerplein as they are immediate adjacent retail areas and function spatially as one entity. Overall, all selected geographies are high street areas except for Kalverpassage and Gelderlandplein which, are enclosed shopping areas that are owned and managed by private Dutch firm Kroonenberg Group (Kroonenberg Group, 2018). A total of ten different streets and one shopping centre were selected, amalgamated into six areas for the purpose of this study. Detailed maps of each of the areas are provided in Appendix A.

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Selected geographies in Amsterdam

Figure 13. Map of Amsterdam with the six selected geographies highlighted. (Google, 2018)

UTRECHTSESTRAAT

GELDERLANDPLEIN

P. C. HOOFSTRAAT

BEETHOVENSTRAAT

HAARLEMMERSTRAAT,

HAARLEMMERDIJK,

HAARLEMMERPLEIN

KALVERSTRAAT, ROKIN,

DAM, DAMRAK,

NIEUWENDIJK

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To offer an overview of each of the streets, the following parameters were applied to each of the study areas. These are to standardize descriptions in cases that vary in terms of economic and physical scale as illustrated in Table 2.

Parameter

Dimensions

Name of area Name of the geographic area stated for the purpose of _{this thesis.}

Location, boundaries & surrounding area

Legal street boundaries for study area, name of the surrounding neighbourhood, and location within the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area. Boundaries have been selected to contain the largest concentration of retailers within the street area.

Urban hierarchy Size of street in comparison to other high streets in Amsterdam, scale of shopping area. Derived from passive observation of street size and scale.

Total no. of stores (2018) Quantitative measure derived from Locatus data that _{includes retail stores, services and HORECA.}

Total shopping area 2018 (including HORECA)

Quantitative measure derived from Locatus data in square meters that includes hotels, restaurants, and cafés.

Primary on-site observations of

retailer mix From passive on-site observation, what are the types of retailers that are present

Landscapes of commodification : standardization process in selected high streets in Amsterdam from 2004-2018