New shopping centres: is leisure the answer?

Purpose - Consumers are spending more on leisure, and retailers and shopping centre developers are seeking ways to make shopping more of a leisure pursuit. This paper deals with the questions: what is leisure shopping, who are leisure shoppers, what is leisure retailing, and how are shopping centres providing for them?Design methodology approach - Brief reviews of key research domains establish various meanings for leisure shopping and give some indications of who leisure shoppers are. Recent developments in shopping centres are considered. The last section discusses conceptual models, building on earlier empirical work on the functioning of shopping centres which incorporate leisure activities.Findings - Leisure shopping is not best conceptualized as part of a continuum from purposive to leisure oriented. Rather, it may exist in a variety of circumstances, dependent on individual characteristics, trip motivations, the social setting of the trip and the nature of the destination. Leisure centres are not a separate category of centre, but the classification of shopping centres should be modified to incorporate consideration of leisure. Catering may be the most important provision.Research limitations implications - Shopping centre managers and owners should note the complexity of leisure shopping. The best unit of analysis may be the trip, rather than other forms of customer segmentation. Synergistic benefits for retailers from some forms of adjoining leisure activity may be small.Originality value - The paper provides two models which may be used to analyse both shopping activity and shopping centres from the leisure point of view.