OLD AND NEW RETAIL ENVIRONMENT IN A POST-COMMUNIST CITY: CASE STUDY FROM THE OLD TOWN IN BRATISLAVA, SLOVAKIA

The future success, vitality and viability of urban shopping areas in Slovakia have attracted considerable attention from academics and policymakers alike over the last few years. This paper reports the current state of the urban retail environment in Bratislava (Slovakia) as a result of various transition waves that reflect its changes over a forty-four year period (1967 – 2011). The outcome of this paper is the identification of concentric zones with the highest rates of changes based on analysis of old and new retail data from both temporal and spatial aspects. In addition to this, it also offers a variety of approaches to measuring the change of urban retail environment in a post-communist city.