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In the United Kingdom, a retail park is a grouping of many retail warehouses and superstores with associated car parking. Its North American equivalent is a power centre. Retail parks are found on the fringes of most large towns and cities in highly accessible locations and are aimed at households owning a car. They offer an alternative to busy city centres. Such developments have been encouraged by cheaper more affordable land on the outskirts of towns and cities, and with loose planning controls in a number of Enterprise Zones, making planning and development very easy. However, in more recent years, in many areas across the UK, planning controls have been tightened up in order to preserve the countryside. This has made it harder for such developments to go ahead, resulting in many smaller, more compact retail parks, sometimes only consisting of about three or four stores being built on former brownfield sites. There are also environmental disadvantages to large retail parks on the rural fringe, including the increased traffic and pollution that occurs in getting there.
Typically they host a range of chain stores, including supermarkets such as Tesco, ASDA or Sainsbury, Marks and Spencers , clothes or footwear superstores such as Brantano, Matalan, Next & New Look, electrical superstores such as Currys, PC World, Maplin Electronics or Comet, carpet or furniture stores such as MFI, Dunelm Mill, Carpetright, DFS and Dreams, and DIY stores such as B&Q, Argos Extra & Focus DIY. Many retail parks across the UK and Ireland also contain a Halfords. Owing to their out-of-town sites, abundance of free parking and proximity to major roads, retail parks are often easier to reach than central shopping areas, and as a result often take away trade from city centre retailers.
Notable examples of retail parks include the Hedge End retail park on the outskirts of Southampton and the 'Racecourse' retail park, next to the famous Grand National site in Aintree, Liverpool. In Ireland many British stores often appear in retail parks. Irish stores such as Atlantic Homecare and Dunnes Stores are also sometimes present.
See also
- Strip mall is the term used in North America.
