Die another day

It has been suggested that ul. Chmielna in the centre of Warsaw is "slowly dying" and taking a stroll down there from ul. Szpitalna, it is difficult to ignore the empty shops, on whose smudged windows signs declare 'Likwidacja Sklepu', (Closing Down). In the city's new temples of shopping however, the retail centres, planted amid large residential districts, hundreds of shoppers mill around at any one time. At a glance, it almost seems that these huge arenas of consumerism are sucking in customers from the streets, never to return them. Awkward ownership Whilst no major city is defined by how or where its citizens shop, local purchasing habits do of course play a significant role in adding shape to a city: London, for example, wouldn't be quite London without Oxford Street. Perhaps Warsaw's main high streets, ul Chmielna and Nowy Swiat, will always struggle to become magnets for the city's shoppers, given the total destruction it suffered in World War 2 and the