(What Drives the Attractiveness of Commercial Streets; Case Study: Beheshti Street in Bojnord (Iran

Abstract

<span class="AbstractKeywordsBOLD">Beheshti Street in Bojnord is one of two main arteries in the city's commercial system, which is located in the city centre. Behashti Street, unlike most commercial streets, has no restaurants, coffee shops, fast-food stores, or any place to sit for recreation; however this street is too crowded every day, especially in the morning and in the period before the Persian new year, in March. This research studied the factors underlying the commercial attractiveness of this street from the consumers' point of view. The data have been collected using semi-structured interviews. According to the subject of this study, we have used a general inductive approach for qualitative data analysis. The results of this study show that consumers on this street are mostly the rural population. The results also suggest that the commodities have a greater impact on the commercial attractiveness of Beheshti Street. For rural customers, low price is the first priority, and then the variety of goods that are not found elsewhere. For the local customers, the most important factor was the existence of specialized shops. The environment of the street was of a lower importance. Very few respondents referred to the traditional atmosphere of the street as their motivation to go there. The interviews show that the consumers of this street have mostly utilitarian motivations and hedonic consumers are rare on this street. Therefore, we can say that the reasons of attractiveness of Street lay in its ability to meet the needs of its customers. </span>