The Resilience of Urban Retail System in the Face of the COVID-19 Pandemic. The Case Study of Poland

Urban retail systems in Poland have been changing constantly during the last 30 years. When it seemed that the consumption lifestyle of Poles became stable, and likewise the relations within the urban retail system, it was placed under the strain of the shock of the pandemic. The aim of the study is to discuss challenges that the urban retail systems face as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic, how the relationships within those systems have changed and how the resilience of entities that create urban retail systems has changed. The article focuses on the case study of Poland, the largest and the fastest growing country in Central and Eastern Europe. To achieve the research goal, a broad and detailed critical literature review was used: literature, scientific articles, reports and daily press with a business profile were analyzed. Complementary to a qualitative approach was an analysis of quantitative data from the Central Statistical Office of Poland and Eurostat regarding the period from 2007 to 2021. The COVID-19 pandemic constitutes a unique occasion in which to conduct a stress-test of the concept of retail resilience in the lively organism of a city; it also delivers a useful framework for analyzing processes occurring in the Polish retail trade. The undertaken research contributes to these concepts by indicating how the shock of COVID-19 could affect components of the urban retail system in ambivalent ways as they express different levels of resilience. Some elements of the system had no problems with adjustments to the shock of the pandemic, whereas others with more rigid structures had problems with adaptation.