Les commerces de proximité comme agents activateurs d'espaces économiques relationnels. Le cas de Castellón de La Plana

The proximity stores, and especially food stores, contribute to the social life and dynamism of the neighbourhoods of any city. At the same time, traditional local commerce, which functions as an activator of a relational economic space at the micro-scale of the neighbourhood, is often considered a relic distribution system as opposed to the so-identified modern distribution system. The latter is a retail trade system in which companies are characterised by greater size, greater availability of economic capital, and greater entrepreneurial resources, allowing them to diversify their offer and to provide competitive prices thanks to the increasing returns to scale. In this study it is argued that the decline of small proximity shops, which generate economic relational space at different degrees of intensity, in favour of the considered more developed sales models (large surfaces, online retail, vending machines, franchise stores, etc.), although it may represent an element of evolution in terms of economic value produced, it can also lead to a loss of intangible assets, which are often hidden and not quantifiable. Starting from this assumption, this working paper is inspired by the creation of a multimedia map prototype of the small neighbourhood proximity trade in the city of Castellón de La Plana (Spain). This mapping constitutes a first and effective tool to represent and make visible the intangible values embedded in the relational networks generated by the proximity trade, as well as to initiate further investigations.