Searching for the ideal

It was a cloudy afternoon in Moscow. The crème de la crème of the Russian retail market was gathered at the Ararat Park Hyatt Moscow hotel. Over 200 people were assembled at the invitation of ColliersInternational Russia, the organiser of the event, their fourth conference on the retail market in Russia. “How can we create the ideal shopping centre, and what features should it have?” – this was the provocative question posed by Nikolay Kazanskiy, the managing partner of Colliers International Russia, at the beginning of the conference. “We wanted to start a discussion because looking for an answer to the question asked in this way could prove to be most inspiring,”he explained afterwards. So what was the response? The majority of the participants agreed that consumers’ approach to shopping has changed dramatically in Russia. “Our society has been going through a transformation. The current trends show that we’re getting clos