The Shopping "Fairytale" Unites the Competition

The greatest shopping park in the Eastern Europe is to be opened in the Baneasa neighborhood in Bucharest. Carrefour, Bricostore, Metro, Mobexpert will form the greatest shopping center in Romania.

The commercial area will have a total of 180,000 square meters and will be the greatest shopping center in the Eastern and Central Europe. The construction works have advanced a lot and the centre will welcome clients in March-April next year.

CARREFOUR

On a surface of 32,600 square meters, Carrefour will open its 6th store in the country. It will be called Fairyland and its commercial gallery will be double compared to Orhideea. "The investment, which is evaluated at approximately 30 million euros, will offer 1,000 jobs and 1,600 free parking spaces", Francois Oliver, General Manager of Carrefour Romania, says. More than 70% of the merchandise sold in the 6 hypermarkets of the group are made in Romania.

"This is the first time in the history of the group when the commercial gallery is finalized six months before the opening of the hypermarket", Francois Oliver said. Media Galaxy will occupy approximately 3,500 square meters, according to Dan Ostahie, the Altex president. The greatest home supply store in Romania will be opened right next to Fairyland. "The 6th Bricostore will be opened here and will have a surface of 14,000 square meters", Isabele Plesko, General Manager at Bricostore Romania, said. The first Romanian furniture mall will also be here. Dan Sucu, Mobexpert president said: "On a surface of 23,000 square meters, we will try to create a mall of the same level as the ones of our French partners".

BANEASA

The commercial area is part of the Baneasa Investments program, which covers 224 hectares. A great neighborhood will rise here by 2015 and will have 3,000 apartments and mansions and more office buildings.

THE POLISH DILEMMA

Unbelievable for a state which is a EU member! The Polish conservatory Government has begun a crusade against the foreign hypermarkets (Tesco, Carrefour, Auchan), which it accuses of being useless for the economical growth of Poland and of destroying the proximity commerce. Prime Minister Kazimier Marcinkiewicz himself clearly got involved in this war by supporting the statements of the Minister of Finances, Teresa Lubinska, which he had made in an interview for Financial Times. In that interview, the Lady Minister stated that "the hypermarkets are the simplest investments", while "the Poland problem is that the country has to produce by its own".

LOCAL BATTLES

Before becoming a minister, Mrs. Lubinska, an economist and lecturer, was a local councilor at Szczecin, where she engaged in a local crusade against the building of hypermarkets.

The hypermarkets are often attacked by the Polish populists. One of the political parties, the third according to the power hierarchy in the Parliament, is also holding virulent speeches against them, accusing them of not paying enough taxes in Poland. The party’s program is taking into consideration the appearance of a tax of 2.5% of their turnover. Tomorrow, the Marcinkiewicz Cabinet will table a motion of confidence in the Polish Diet, and, in order for it to pass, it will need exactly the votes of the anti-liberals, ultra-Catholics and populists.

REACTION

The Polish Tesco spokesperson replied by saying that his hypermarket chain is the greatest British investment in this country, with 1.5 billion euros invested by now. Actually, now, there are 207 hypermarkets in the entire Poland and they have a total of 160,000 employees. With sales which go over 10 billion euros each year, they contribute to the countries GDP with approximately 8%. (Marina Constantinoiu)