Evolving information technologies are creating new points of contact along the supply chain—enriching points of contact along the supply chain. But the shopping trip is here to stay. Accessible destinations for shopping, health care, culture, or education will reinvent how we shop, learn and socialize.  Central Ohio recently ranked 18^th in the nation for broadband connectivity which is good and bad news.  We were the only city in Ohio to make the list but we are behind regions such as Raleigh and others we consider our true economic competitors.  How can the region that grew Compuserve and has 100,000 college students stay on the leading edge of technology ?

Yaromir Steiner, Founder/CEO of Steiner + Associates and ULI Columbus Governance Committee Member, answers the key questions for Click, Learn, Go, Get.

Key Questions:

1)   How will the internet and smart phones continue to change the retail experience?

[Yaromir Steiner] The internet and smart phones will create more transparency between the retailer and the consumer. The shopping trip or the choice of a retailer or the selection of the purchased item will be made with maximum knowledge and will be optimized by the customer. To continue playing a role in our communities, both the shopping districts and the retailers will have to become experientially relevant to their consumers. The monopoly of the retailer controlling the distribution and selection of goods presented to the customer will be replaced by experience providers, who will see their roles well beyond the distribution of goods, but as partners providing services of value to the customer. These services can range from festive and high energy dining environments, to knowledgeable advisors (in fashion or electronics), to the ability to try before buying (food or clothes), to a place to see and touch or a place to learn how to use the merchandise. The shopping districts of the future will be a collection of these experiential service providing merchants.

2)   What role will the big box play?

[Yaromir Steiner] The big box will be part of warehouse distribution districts. They will be well parked, accessible and conveniently located. From an urban planning standpoint they will be hidden or segregated from the urban fabric.

3)   What role does the historic district play?

[Yaromir Steiner] Well planned urban districts, those with good urban planning bones, historic or not, will be readapted and reused. The poorly planned areas will require fundamental urban surgery. As compared to the past, we will see in general more infill development, higher densities and less expansion in green areas.

4)   How will civic spaces be programmed differently? Who will take the lead?

Civic spaces must be programmed by the community. This can be done through the local governments directly or through delegation to ad hoc community organizations. Those benefiting from the quality of life created will have to pay the costs as well as control the programmation. If the scale of the Civic space relates to the City as a whole then the whole city must support the cost. If the space relates to a neighborhood, then the neighborhood should pay for it. One may think even at the scale of a street or square.

5)  Are health care facilities and employment centers the new or the old retail anchors? How do they fit into the new “retail” mix?

[Yaromir Steiner] Health care facilities and employment centers are not retail anchors. Retail is attracted to where people live. This proximity is relative to the trip length that the retail concentration will justify. For example an outlet center’s definition of proximity to living areas is very different from the one of a grocery anchored shopping environment. Good retail environments, like good living and working environments are anchored by the quality of their externalities. These externalities are the quality of their public spaces, of the surrounding civic assets both in their physical and their experiential subliminal qualities very often due to their animation.