Trade in Tuscany: between structural changes and new challenges

The report was edited by Chiara Agnoletti and Valentina Patacchini and pertains to the Production Sectors and Enterprises Area coordinated by Simone Bertini. The retail trade, in a fixed location, is an extremely varied sector which includes both small businesses, spread more or less uniformly throughout the region, and large commercial attractions, which on the contrary have a much more concentrated presence in the areas higher population density. The structure of the sector has transformed over time, both in reference to the progressive increase in the average size of the establishments and to the introduction of innovations linked to the diffusion of digital technologies, which have considerably expanded the range of products and at the same time extended the audience of subjects who can directly place goods on the market. There are many perspectives from which to analyze the sector; among the most relevant can be indicated the territorial concentration and the typological differentiation. While on the one hand the trends of the recent past have seen the consolidation of the presence of large commercial spaces, food and non-food, in specific territorial portions (in the most urbanized areas of the region and more specifically in the metropolitan systems), on the other there has been a progressive contraction of the commercial presence in peripheral areas and a greater diffusion of small and medium formats in the main urban centres. During the period of the health emergency, the sector was affected by the crisis connected to those of urban economies and by the transformations resulting from the renewed concept of proximity. The new concept of proximity has tended on the one hand to enhance the physical proximity between consumer and goods, in line with the diffusion of the post-Covid urban model, on the other it has strengthened the concept of digital proximity, connected to technological development and the diffusion of carrying out a series of activities remotely, smart working in primis. Hence the need to analyze this economic sector in more detail in relation to the opportunities and critical issues that distinguish it today and the main changes that have occurred and are underway.