The Amenity of Dutch District Shopping Centres

This particular research examines if the theory on the experience economy can be of value to Dutch district shopping centres. It is thereby listed as one of the main goals to get an insight in the aspects that contribute most to the amenity of a Dutch district shopping centre. Furthermore it is examined what the role of the experience economy in Dutch district shopping centres is and how it could be improved. The ‘Conceptual Content Cognitive Map (3CM)-method’ was adopted to strengthen the intention in building new theory. Therewith, the district shopping centres ‘Admiraalplein’ and ‘Crabbehof’ in the city of Dordrecht where chosen as research locations due to their unique location. The most important observation made in this study is that of the ‘social aspects of amenity’. It is interesting to see that the visitors of Admiraalsplein and Crabbehof highly stress the asocial behaviour of other visitors and thereby the general notion of feeling unsafe in the concerning shopping centre. Furthermore it seems that aspects like the retail offer, sufficient parking lots or completeness of the offer are considered as ‘basic conditions’ to the success of a district shopping centre. Feeling unsafe and therewith the behaviour and type of visitors should be considered as one of these ‘basic conditions’. Aspects like these all need to be in place in order to take advantage of additional aspects like the use of colours, roofing of corridors or organising activities.