Retail in Aberdeen

Retail in Aberdeen, Scotland is extremely important to the local economy and the city has the largest selection of shopping facilities of towns in the north of Scotland.
The major shopping streets have traditionally been Union Street and George Street. Today Union Street is still extremely busy particularly on the stretch between the entrances to the St Nicholas Centre and the Trinity Shopping Centre. George Street is still busy but does not have many British chain stores.
The city centre has a number of Boutique Stores, particularly concentrated around Thistle Street and Castle Street at the west-end of the city and Belmont Street. Unusually compared to other cities, Aberdeen has boutique-shops in some of the smaller shopping centres.
Unlike many other cities in the United Kingdom, much of Aberdeen's shopping has remained in the city centre, with out-of-town retail parks being mostly confined to supermarkets and warehouse style stores and supermarkets, such as Norco's Berryden superstore, now Sainsbury's. Unlike other cities Aberdeen has not seen the widespread closure of shops as they move out of town and so there has been less of an economic downturn than one might expect in recent years.
Shopping Centres
Aberdeen currently has four main central shopping centres, the St Nicholas & Bon Accord (currently two buildings next door to one another, and hence two centres), the Trinity Shopping Centre and Union Square, the second largest shopping centre in Scotland, on the site of the old Guild Street railway station. These contain all the standard British high street stores with the Bon Accord Centre anchored by John Lewis, the St Nicholas Centre by Marks and Spencer, The Trinity Shopping Centre by Debenhams and Union Square by Marks and Spencer also.
Smaller shopping centres such as The Academy cater for boutique tastes and the Galeria contains boutique hair dressers and bars.
Future Developments
In recent years, Aberdeen has been considered to be falling behind in the Scottish retail market with many people from the north-east going to Glasgow or Edinburgh for shopping trips.
The city will soon see a number of developments to improve the city centre shopping experience and the number and quality of shops available. The main developments will be:
*The pedestrianisation of Union Street. This project will make the street much more appealing to shoppers as it is currently extremely busy and in fact a major route through the city.
*As part of the "Bon Accord Masterplan" the existing Bon Accord and St. Nicholas shopping centres with anchor stores such as John Lewis and Marks & Spencer are to be amalgamated to create one large retail centre. This project is being constructed in phases. During 2009, the St. Nicolas centre and the central atrium of the Bon Accord centre were refurbished. The refurbishment of the central atrium involved transforming the former Woolworths unit into space for two new anchor tenants; River Island and Top Shop. On the upper level Next also opened their largest Scottish store. During 2010, there are plans to complete a multi-million pound refurbishment on the Bon Accord Centre.
*The redevelopment of the former 'What Everyone Wants' store on Shiprow to create a new leisure development including an Ibis Hotel and casino (which is now open). The full development is expected to be completed in 2010.
*The redevelopment of the run-down Aberdeen Market to create a new shopping centre on Market Street, called 'Union Green'.

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