Prime retail location

Toulouse in France has the largest density of out-of-town shopping per head of population anywhere in the world.

The first hypermarket, Mammouth, (113,000 sq ft selling area) opened in September 1969.  The second and third Geant Epargne (195,000 sq ft) and Escale (64,000 sq ft) in April and September 1970 respectively.

In February 1972 Ouragan opened a hypermarket (90,000 sq ft) approximately 5 miles from the centre of Toulouse.  The store opening was a great success until one month later Carrefour opened a store of 268,000 sq ft two miles nearer the centre of Toulouse but on the same autoroute leading out of the city.  Within 2 months Ouragan had closed through lack of sales, causing huge losses.  Its life line of customers had been cut off by Carrefour from the centre and suburbs of the city.

Catchment population and driving times are essential to the success of any retail development.  In Ouragan's case they failed to locate nearer the city centre, which would have shut out competitors on the same autoroute nearer the centre.  It is and will remain a classic example of poor retail location planning.

MPC have prepared detailed retail planning studies of Toulouse in 1973 and 1994, as well as identifying the optimum for supermarket density in European cities.  All reports are available on request.  See contact page for price list.

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