caused the closure of not just one major shopping centre, but three of the country’s biggest – Central World, Siam Paragon, and Siam Center. It was part of a broader street action by anti-government protestors that included occupying government ministries, seizing tv stations, cutting off electricity to police headquarters and setting fire to vehicles. Only the last of these seemed to result in any arrests. Despite the breathtaking scale of the despoliation, there was still time for refreshment. Near Central World, a popular Starbucks became a watering hole where protestors took time out to slake their thirst and recaffeinate before rejoining the fray. This is hardly the kind of environment in which high quality retail typically thrives. Perhaps this is why Thailand doesn’t make it into the top 30 of AT Kearney’s 2013 Global Retail Development Index, bested even by those beacons of enlightened democracy and consumerism, Saudi Arabia and Albania. Junk research aside, the signs are that Bangkok is shaking off the country’s perennial political volatility to turn itself into a genuine shopping mecca that rivals anything in the Asia/Middle East region. Few cities in Asia or the Middle East have such a vibrant retail scene. In fact, Bangkok already puts hyped shopping megalopoli like Dubai (not to mention Riyadh and Tirana) in the shade with its sheer variety of shopping options that pitch to every kind of budget and lifestyle. Variety of easily accessible shopping options is a quality that is valued by many consumers. Unfortunately, variety is often stymied because it involves greater risk-taking; it’s far easier to revert to the mean and do what everyone else is doing. But in developing countries like Thailand and China, variety is inbuilt because people still cling to the old even as they are being increasingly enveloped by the new. In Bangkok, as in Mumbai, options range all the way from the traditional through to the luxe, and the quality is high. Traditional shopping options include some of the world’s best street markets, like the Chatuchak market that is reputedly the largest weekend market in the world. Going up a notch in market positioning is the MBK Centre, a 90,000sqm, eight level, 2000 shop extravaganza of mostly locally sourced products in a strictly functional design ambience that has few airs and graces. Also pretty functional is the five level wholesale mall, Platinum Fashion Mall. In the Siam Square area are Central World, Siam Paragon, and Siam Center, the aforementioned three centres that were closed during the height of the demonstrations. Siam Center is perhaps among the most original design concepts to hit Western-style shopping in the past few years. Rather than bringing along cookie cutter store formats, each of the tenants has designed a unique shop exclusively for the centre. Local Thai brands stand next to internationals without any inferiority complex. Siam Center is inspired not by another shopping centre but by New York’s SoHo neighbourhood – and it shows. Modern Bangkok retail is not without its cheesy side though. Terminal 21, for example, is a vertical mall with each level themed according to a different city. The San Francisco level has a cable car, the London level a double decker bus and so on – you get the idea. The existence of high quality variety in places like Bangkok raises the question of how mature markets might incorporate some of the same. In Australia, one of the chief complaints made even by industry insiders is the homogeneity of the retail landscape. The answer is not necessarily to try to create new shopping centre types (the planning and investor communities either wouldn’t get it or wouldn’t want it), but rather to incorporate unconventional formats into conventional ones as part of the ongoing retenanting and redevelopment processes. This enables shopping centres to differentiate, freshen up and broaden their appeal. Really difficult questions are going to be asked of the shopping centre industry in the next few years. Some will be answered by technology, but format evolution will be crucial. Planners are like Galapagos tortoises – venerable but slow moving and tedious. You can’t hurry them up, but you may be able to do things quietly without them noticing. That may just be the best way to go forward, a centimetre at a time. Michael Baker is principal of Baker Consulting and can be reached at michael@mbaker-retail.com and www.mbaker-retail.com.