Estonian Department Store Sector, 1999-2024: A Quarter Century of Opportunities, Success, and Unexpected Threats

• In Event: Responses to Contemporary Crises and Change

Abstract

“The Death of the Department Store”; “Department stores continue to close up shop”; “Landmark UK department stores at risk as Covid changes city centres”. These and similar comments in the popular press, represent significant challenges to the traditional department store sector. But one department store market seems to continue to contradict this doom and gloom. After over three decades of emergence from its Soviet past, Tallinn, the capital city of Estonia, endures as a vibrant Department store marketplace.

The focus of this study is to present the analysis of 25 years of store data collected by the author through six waves of consumer surveys (1999; 2004; 2009; 2015; 2019; 2024). The survey findings provide a longitudinal insight into retailing performance metrics and department store societal trends. The surveys asked shoppers a series of questions about retail service quality and store country of origin and shopping experiences. The research also provides insights as to how the Estonian retail sector dealt with the duo hazards of COVID19 in 2020, and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Specifically, this study compares, and contrasts, the major domestic department store brand, Tallinna Kaubamaja, and the major foreign brand, the Finnish department store Stockmann.

This study represents one of the only known pieces of research that examines longitudinal, comparative consumer data, of the Department store sector in Estonia. Furthermore, the findings provide a greater understanding of both the similarities and differences in how a domestic and foreign retail brand have positioned themselves in shaping Estonian consumer society.

Short Bio

Dr. Brent McKenzie holds a Ph.D in Marketing from Griffith University, and an MBA from Dalhousie University. He is a Professor in the Department of Marketing and Consumer Studies in the Lang School of Business and Economics, at the University of Guelph. Dr. McKenzie is a leading expert on Marketing (Retail Sector) and Management (Dark Tourism; Transition Economies) theory and practice in the Baltic States of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. He has engaged in extensive research fieldwork, and conducted a number of academic and industry workshops, presentations, and seminars in the Baltic States, and Central and Eastern Europe. He has also served as Associate Editor and Regional Editor for several academic journals. Professor McKenzie is a two-time recipient of the AABS Emerging Scholars Grant.

Author

• Brent McKenzie, University of Guelph, Lang School of Business