Assessing the role of malls and commercial centers for changing urban regions in terms of consumerism: A case study on Tabriz Metropolis

Trade centers in different countries have been formed according to the needs of the industrial market since the second half of the nineteenth century onwards, when mass production caused creating goods. Over time, a large area of urban lands was allocated to commercial uses and its physical appearance in the form of shops, bazaars, passages, new commercial centers and malls. In addition, these centers have been considered as one of the main reasons for changing and improving urban spaces. Therefore, with the development of urban economy, malls have had a significant impact on the production of new urban spaces and change and improvement of surrounding urban spaces. In this regard, commercial centers and malls like other phenomena have positive and negative effects. However, the negative effects of the commercial centers changes the role of urban consumerism. Hence, in this paper, the impacts of commercial centers and malls have been assessed on the consumption of Tabriz Metropolis. This practical research uses a descriptive-analytical approach and a quantitative method. The statistical populations of this study are customers of Setare Baran, Royal, Laleh Park, Atlas and Palladium Rushdie Malls. The sample size was selected based on Cochran's formula among 400 interviewee randomly. In addition, cultural, social, economic, physical and environmental indicators have been used in analyzing this issue in Stata Software. Moreover, Structural Equation Model (SEM) has been applied for analyzing the data and overall reliability of the questionnaire was obtained to be 0.754. The findings indicate that commercial centers and malls are effective in urban consumption, and these impacts encompass social, economic, physical and environmental dimensions