Pandemic changes Europe’s retail pattern

LISBON: City centre shops and malls may have lost their lustre during the Covid-19 pandemic but as lockdowns ease across Europe, many stores in and around residential areas stand to benefit as consumers remain reluctant to venture far from home.

While retail sales appear to be rebounding – surging 17.8% in the eurozone in May and approaching pre-lockdown levels in Britain in June – shoppers are increasingly staying local, leaving Europe’s most renowned shopping districts from London’s West End to Berlin’s Kurfürstendamm struggling in the absence of office workers and tourists.