Urban retail in inland Abruzzo: between decline and new polarities

The multiple trade geographies in Abruzzo reflect the heterogeneities of the regional fabric itself: different constituents like orography, business demography, population density and infrastructural endowment have spawned a two-speed growth of the retail sector, where coastal cities have developed faster compared to the inland areas. Disentangling between retailers and consumers, this paper offers a focus on the urban retail in some cities of the inland Abruzzo, providing some policy implications. Through descriptive and parametric approaches, we found that some public policies, like subsides and pedestrianisation, had an impact on the perceptions of retailers based in inland areas even higher than those localised in coastal areas, while other features still remain lacking, such as accessibility; besides, compared with coastal areas, consumers’ perceptions in inland areas show an higher social function, where the buying behavior is less hedonic and more functional to the needs of the local communities.