Changing role of the retail sector in Poland during a period of economic transition

Centrally‐planned economies generally put little emphasis on the retail sector. The communist government in Poland, for example, worked with an “economy of shortages”, where demand for most goods was greater than supply and there was no incentive to develop an efficient distribution system. However, in 1989 the Polish government introduced a free market economy. Deregulation and liberalisation of trade allowed retailers to play a leading role in the subsequent changes, and make a major contribution to economic growth. The transformation of this sector needed a new approach to organisation, operations and ownership. This paper describes some of the changes in the Polish retail sector during a period of radical change.