The geography of retail trade and services in Annaba’s city, Algeria

Annaba, a metropolitan city, has experienced the evolution and mutation of its commercial establishments over the last few decades. A phenomenon has upset the old center-periphery balance where the commercial offer is dominated by the phenomenon of centrality. This offer is very strong in the center and decreasing towards the periphery. From this perspective, the city of Annaba has experienced a massive migration of certain retail businesses, especially the food trade, from the center to the periphery, which has led to an important specialization, which differentiates its spaces. This paper proposes a methodological approach for analyzing commercial centralities in a compact town center. This paper is an attempt to analyze, in the form of a map, the results of a field survey carried out in 2021–2022 among retail traders, and the rationale behind the spatial reorganization of commercial units in this town. To this end, a number of indicators have been selected as relevant, in particular: residential location, consumer mobility conditions, and certain consumer practices and choices. Using Annaba’s case as a starting point, the aim is to assess the relevance of classic models of retail geography and to understand the new changes in the commercial fabric of Annaba’s inner city after several years of reconfiguration between the center and the periphery.

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Opracowanie rekordu ze środków MNiSW, umowa nr POPUL/SP/0154/2024/02 w ramach programu "Społeczna odpowiedzialność nauki II" - moduł: Popularyzacja nauki (2025).