Mega (shopping malls)
Mega or MEGA ( Russian МЕГА ) is a chain of large shopping centers ("Megamalls") in Russia . It is operated by the Swedish IKEA group, which has the mega-malls built next to existing IKEA furniture stores or those being built at the same time. The mega-malls are currently the largest shopping centers in Russia and are also among the largest in Europe .
General
Mega-Mall is a concept of very large shopping centers that was developed by the Swedish furniture company IKEA for the Russian retail market. All mega-malls are designed in a similar way: in addition to the actual shopping arcades, which combine hundreds of small and large shops, hypermarkets , cafes and restaurants, multiplex cinemas , service providers and an art ice rink that works all year round , the two count under one roof Anchor tenant IKEA and the Obi hardware store to the complex. The centers are being built in the surrounding area for reasons of space and cost; this also creates sufficient parking spaces and a convenient motorway connection enables.
Locations
The first mega-center (Tjoply Stan) was built in Moscow at the end of 2002 , on the southwestern part of the city's outer motorway ring just beyond the city limits; its sales area is 150,000 m² on a total area of around 53 hectares. The second center, which was built in 2004 in Khimki near Moscow, was once again larger than the first. A few months later, a mega-mall opened in Kazan on the Volga . In autumn 2006, four shopping centers were opened in Russia: two in Saint Petersburg and one each in Yekaterinburg and Nizhny Novgorod . The third Moscow megamall (Belaja Datscha) in the south-eastern area followed in February 2007.
Currently (as of October 2011) there are 14 malls in the greater Moscow (3), Saint Petersburg (2), Kazan, Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Novgorod, Krasnodar (Tachtamukay in Adygeja ), Rostov-on-Don , Novosibirsk , Samara , Omsk and Ufa in metropolitan areas Business.
Further locations in Perm , Kaliningrad and Tomsk were planned until the financial crisis in 2009, but have not yet been implemented.
