Question

"Hyper markets" are shopping centres located
1. Near the CBD
2. Near rail - road junction
3. Out of town
4. Near hospitals

Answer 1

Correct Answer - Option 3 : Out of town

• A hypermarket is a retail store that combines a department store and a grocery supermarket. Often a very large establishment, hypermarkets offer a wide variety of products such as appliances, clothing, and groceries.
• Hypermarkets offer shoppers a one-stop shopping experience. The idea behind this big box store is to provide consumers with all the goods they require, under one roof. Some of the most well-known hypermarkets include the Walmart Supercenter, Fred Meyer, Meijer, and Super Kmart.
• The structural evolution of many towns and cities has been based to a considerable extent upon accessibility, and this is particularly true of the central shopping areas which, in order to survive economically, have to attract large numbers of customers. Yet accessibility is decreasing in most city centres, as is evidenced by the increased traffic congestion - both vehicular and pedestrian - and spiralling demands for greater amounts of parking space. The separation of pedestrians and vehicles in traffic-free shopping streets and the redevelopment of city centres have managed to alleviate the problem temporarily in some urban areas. Retailers and developers, however, have realized that increased car ownership means that customers need not necessarily be so dependent upon the city centre shopping area if alternatives are available, and the result has been the proliferation of planned suburban shopping centres in recent years. Many of these centres cater not only for the day-to-day needs of the population but also contain higher-order functions, such as jewellers, men's outfitters and furnishing stores.
• An important aspect of these centres is the large amount of space devoted to car parking, which, together with such facilities as crèches, restaurants and licensed premises, is designed to make the shopping experience as pleasant and easy as possible, even to the extent of attracting the whole family.
• In North America many of these planned shopping centres have been located beyond the suburbs and are referred to as "out-of-town" shopping centres. These centres differ from the planned suburban shopping centre in that they are usually much larger, often with a considerable variety of high-order functions, and have been designed to serve the shopping needs of a large regional population.
• Their development is related not only to the increasing congestion in the downtown areas of North American towns and cities but also to the much higher mobility of shoppers compared to their counterparts in Britain. High car ownership and the widespread network of fast efficient highways in rural areas have played a major role in the development of out-of-town shopping centres.
• Possibly one of the most important factors that have assured the success of the North American out-of-town shopping centre has been the way in which downtown retailers have reacted to the changes taking place in the city centres.