The 70s saw the arrival of the first hypermarkets in Spain with the opening
of Carrefour Prat, in 1973 in Barcelona and a few years later Alcampo Utebo
in Zaragoza.
A Hypermarché was also opened in Sant Boi de Llobregat in 1973.
The north of Spain was the pilot region for setting-up this new retail
formula from France.
In the 70s, the hypermarkets spread to most Spanish provinces.
The first shopping centre to opens
it doors wasBaricentro, in Barcelona in 1980. For the first time ever,
a large amount of stores presented themselves under the same roof,
anchored by a hypermarket and all managed by the centre's own offices.
The AECC was founded that same year.
Following the success of Baricentro, other emblematic centres
opened in other cities, like Nuevo Centro in
Valencia (1982), Salesas in Oviedo (1982) and
La Vaguada in Madrid (1983).
Nuevo Centro
Salesas
La Vaguada
The offer diversified greatly in the second half of the 80s:
Smaller, district centres opened, like Bulevar de Altamira in Cantabria,
specialised centres like Moda Shopping in Madrid and shopping centres
with original architecture like Faro 2 in Las Palmas.
Following on from the large cities, the cities of the provinces
began to open shopping centres that went beyond the hypermarket, such as Cuatro Caminos in A Coruña.
At the same time, new centres opened in the sprawling urban areas of Barcelona and Madrid,
which acted as a complement and driving force of traditional retail.
Arturo Soria Plaza in Madrid, and Bulevard Rosa and Pedralbes Centre in
Barcelona are examples of this trend.
At the same time, huge centres began to appear on the outskirts of the
large cities to attract the public from the outlying areas. Parquesur
and Sexta Avenida in Madrid and Alcampo Sant Quirze in Barcelona bear witness to this.
The first retail parks appeared at the beginning of the 90s,
where power retailers in their particular sector united their
offers in huge stores of a size that the shopping centres could not match.
Iruña in Pamplona (1991) and thr Parques Comerciales Alban are examples of the first parks of this type.
The 90s also saw the increased importance of the cinema and leisure,
while the shopping galleries grew ever more important. Montigalá (Barcelona),
Bahía Sur (Cádiz) and Los Arcos (Seville) are good examples of this new focus.
Shopping centres experienced their biggest growth at the beginning of the 90s:
in just 3 years, more than 80 centres opened.
·
Viz., Neptuno, Málaga Plaza and
La Rosaleda open in Andalusia; La Ballena and Las Arenas in the Canary Isles.
·
Madrid began to be the region par excellence for
shopping centres with the opening of Gran Vía
Hortaleza, La Gran Manzana, Plaza de Aluche and El Jardin de Serrano.
·
L'Illa and Paddock Bulevard, among others, open in Catalonia. Other new
centres from this period include: Los Fresnos in Gijón, Gran Turia in
Valencia, Ruta de la Plata in Cáceres, Area Central in Santiago and
Las Atalayas in Murcia. Shopping centres spread to most of the provinces.
The second half of the decade saw a dip in growth,
although there were still some cities where shopping
centres were being installed for the first time:
El Arcangel in Córdoba, Valle Real in Santander,
Parc Central in Tarragona and Garbera in San Sebastián.
Larger cities began to have several shopping centres to cater for
the whole population. Augusta and Grancasa in Zaragoza,
Porto Pi in Mallorca, El Saler in Valencia and Los Rosales in A Coruña are just some examples.
Zoco Córdoba opened in Córdoba, promoted by retailers.
In Andalusia we also visited the inauguration of Larios
Centro in Malaga and El Mirador de Santa Justa in Seville.
More centres opened in Barcelona: Llobregat Centre,
Barcelona Glories, Barnasud,Max Center la Farga
and Sant Cugat. Bidarte and Max Center Kareaga
open in the Basque Country.
Some of the biggest centres in Spain are launched in Madrid:
Parque Corredor and Parque Oeste Alcorcón, as well as Moraleja Green, Centro Oeste and El Ferial.
In the middle of the 90s new types of offer began to be seen.
The first Factory Outlets in Spain opened:
shopping centres on the outskirts of the city where manufacturers offered their products at huge discounts.
The first centre of this kind in Spain
was Factory Las Rozas (1997).
By 2000 there were 7 centres of this kind in Spain, located in Seville, Madrid and Barcelona.
Another novelty is the installation of centres
in historic buildings or at train stations,
such as ABC Serrano in Madrid and Vialia Abando in Bilbao.
Perhaps the most relevant trend is the creation of leisure centres.
Maremagnum in Barcelona (1985) paved the way for centres where the attraction
focused more on fun than on shopping. Maremagnum was also a pioneer in using
the maritime port to create a commercial area in the centre of the city.
At the end of the 90s, the shopping centres continued with sustained development.
Not only did new centres open, but existing centres were refurbished, adapting
themselves to the needs of the new consumer.
Madrid continued to be one of the most active regions.
Loranca, Alcalá Norte and Madrid Sur Sur all opened.
El Triangle and Parc Vallés opened in Catalonia;
Nervión Plaza opened in Seville; Ciudad ValGreen
opened in Guadalajara; La Bretxa in San Sebastián;
San Agustín in Gijón and Gran Vía in Alicante.
The new shopping centres offered ever-higher quality,
as demonstrated by Parque Comercial Megapark (Madrid) and Artea (Basque Country).
Madrid was also on the cutting edge of leisure centres.
Kinépolis (with huge cinema screens), Equinoccio and Heron City are all opened.
The last company opened two new centres straight afterwards in Barcelona and Valencia.
Shopping centres were created that helped to breathe new life into run-down central areas.
The Mercado of Fuencarral
opened in Madrid, which specialised in an alternative public.
In Seville, the Plaza de Armas opened in the old station.
