The Atelier Parisien d’Urbanisme (a city agency) is making a periodical census of retail establishments in the city since 2000, that allow not only to follow the progression in number but also in specialities and conditions. The last one was realised in april 2011 and published in 2000, with the collaboration of the Chamber of Commerce.

Paris had in 2011 some 84.000 establishments in ground floors, 61.232 being active shops. The number of shops has gone down some 900 since 2007, but this is also aproximately the number of shops that have been enlarged through anexations. The gross leasable area is estimated at some 4 million sq m, with a vacancy rate of 9,6% in 2011.

The study identifies 15 atractive nodes at city level, and a rich retail structure going from large department stores to small specality shops. One of the most interesting features is a graph of ups and downs by speciality, with, for instance, jewelers diminishing and motorbike sellers on the rise.

Having studied the urban implications of retail for some Spanish cities, I can tell that this is a good study on the isue, as it explains well a relevant issue: the continuous evolution of the retail sector, that requires flexibility in rules that, on the other side, must guarantee a good relation with other land uses, configuring a complex problem to be solved by good urban regulations.