Neighbourhood shops, desertification hits social strongholds

There is one factor that e-commerce bigwigs have not yet managed to steal from their physical counterparts: the human relationship. The data collected by the Osservatorio Reciprocità e commercio locale (promoted by Nomisma together with Percorsi di Secondo Welfare), are very clear: for four Italians out of five, neighbourhood shops are social garrisons that guarantee the resilience of territories and communities. Yet, according to Confcommercio data, to date there are 206 Italian municipalities that do not have any retail outlets.

The study, anticipated by Il Sole 24 Ore, reports the voice of citizens, who not only believe that neighbourhood activities favour the social economy (in 84% of cases), but also perceive them as essential tools for bringing urban centres to life (81%) and generating a positive social impact (72%). And the proof can be seen in the property market: according to Confcommercio, houses located in neighbourhoods affected by commercial desertification lose attractiveness, causing a loss in value of 16% (but the differential reaches 39% compared to a property located in a neighbourhood rich in shops).

These data suggest how city planning - urban, demographic, social - should go hand in hand with business planning. With the peculiarities of the individual municipality: if the larger cities have problems in the historic centres and are moving to repopulate them, the rural areas have not even had the political and demographic strength to try to counter the closures. "Everything has been closed, and no one has been able to protest," explains Francesco Capobianco, head of public policies at Nomisma, which curates the Observatory. "When you go so far as to close a post office, it means that the country simply no longer exists."

But those suffering most are the medium-sized cities: 'To be clear, not Bologna but Forlì. Where there was no strong industrial fabric capable of sustaining wages and the city was very much tied to commerce, as soon as this came to an end, problems emerged: of urban security, real estate income, social protection'. Confcommercio's estimates to 2035 seem to confirm the trend: Ancona could lose 38.3 per cent of its business by 2024, Trieste 31.1 per cent, Ravenna 30.9 per cent.

Local authorities are moving as they can: from the hubs of Emilia-Romagna to veritable 'festivals of proximity'. Actions that risk being short-lived, however, if mechanisms capable of feeding themselves over time are not found. One of these, according to Nomisma, is reciprocity, i.e. "a positive action carried out without a direct return being established, activating a virtuous circle that will benefit all those involved", explains Capobianco. A principle, according to the Observatory, that if applied to local businesses could act as a 'concrete lever to activate collaborative networks and generate shared value in the territory'. In this regard, 91% of those interviewed by the study stated that they considered the principle of reciprocity important.