RETAILING IN CZECHOSLOVAKIA

Reviews the nature of retailing in Czechoslovakia today and seeks to explain the reasons for its present unsatisfactory state. Forty years of central planning removed the developed retail structures which existed in market‐oriented Czechoslovakia between World War I and World War II and replaced them with a state‐owned and‐controlled distribution system. The transformation of Czechoslovakia towards an open market economy, begun formally in January 1991, is expected to change fundamentally the nature of retailing in Czechoslovakia. Over the next ten to 15 years, retailing in Czechoslovakia will come increasingly to resemble that in the geographically and culturally related countries of Western Europe. In particular, market segmentation is already changing the structure of retailing in Czechoslovakia. First indications are that the most successful new formats will be large‐scale, price‐led supermarkets and small speciality shops selling fresh produce or fashion goods.