Shopping Centers Today is the news magazine of the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC)
Issue link: https://sct.epubxp.com/i/231459
w o r l d aT a g l a n C e France will be introducing a bill this year to loosen the country's ban on Sunday shopping. The ban, imposed in 1906, permitted only fishmongers, florists and institutions catering to tourists to operate on Sundays. Some retailers ignore the law, however, and operate anyway. AMF Fastigheter, one of Sweden's largest property investment and development companies, is to build a 100,000-square-meter (about 1 million square feet) mixed-use development of retail and offices in the heart of Stockholm. Called Mood District, it will form an outdoor complement to Mood Stockholm mall, which opened in 2012. Some 20,000 job seekers in Spain applied for a mere 400 positions at an Ikea scheduled to open in the city of Alfafar, in Valencia, this year. The country has nearly 5 million people out of work, about 27 percent of the workforce. More than 12 million square meters (about 129 million square feet) of shopping center space will have opened in Europe in the 23 months that preceded December, according to DTZ. This will bring the total shopping center stock to 136 million square meters. Annual retail sales across Europe will increase by 1.7 percent each year between now and 2018, the report predicts. Venezuela's government has not made life any easier for landlords and retailers lately. In November, President Nicolás Maduro forced retailers to lower prices, claiming that they had enjoyed profit margins of over 1,000 percent and thus had contributed to the country's 54 percent annual inflation rate. Shoppers promptly descended on stores and stripped them of their inventories. Later that month Maduro issued a decree stating that no store rent can exceed 250 bolivars per square meter, or about $39.67. The decree also bans percentage leases and says rents may not be charged in foreign currencies. Venezuela's mall trade group, Cavececo, claims that even prior to the decree, the industry had the lowest rents in Latin America. 12 SCT / J a n u a r y 2 0 1 4 Mall owners in Argentina are angered over a bill in the province of Santa Fe that would ban Sunday operating hours. Independent retailers there have lobbied for the bill. Ramón Villaveirán, vice president of the Chamber of Shopping Centers, warns that the ban could cost some 1,500 jobs; roughly 5,000 workers are employed in the industry there. The government of India has granted H&M; permission to open stores there. The Swedish fast-fashion company plans to open about 50 units across India.