A Quick Tour Of The City Center + Stories About Retail & Other Businesses

This is Hämeenkatu towards the east.

Rauhankatu towards the north. The western end of the market square is between the low building in the middle and the yellow building in the background.

Rautatienkatu torwards the south and towards the highest point of the esker in the city center.

Rautatienkatu towards the north. The street rises before the park in the end. To the left of that is the meeting place of the go club. What I should do is find out if that pub is actually in business any longer. It had to close last November because of water damage. Then it couldn't open because of the corona restrictions in the spring. It would be a pity. I like the owner.

The crossing ahead is that of Hämeenkatu (that we're on) and Vesijärvenkatu. On the left you see the entrance to the car park of the Sokos department store. That store belongs to the S group, which is a co-operative that has a large market share of all retail. The group is a co-operative of the store owners and of every loyalty card carrying customer. You can get up to 5% of the money you spend on the purchases back as bonuses. The other large co-operative is the K group. Together, the two have the majority of the market share of all retail. The S group even has a bank of its own. It is not quite like a keiretsu in Japan as its ownership and control does not span entire value chains from mining to retail. But in retail they and the K group are dominant. That's actually a bit of a problem because while according to Transparency International, the Nordic countries are among the least corrupt in the world, the evaluations do not cover things like what goes on in the retail sector. Namely, the governing bodies of the local co-operatives of the S and K groups are often manned by local politicians who also control local zoning. It's been difficult for large competing retail chains to enter the market. So far, only Lidl has been capable of doing so, which has forced the S and K groups to lower their prices quite a bit in recent years.

Kauppakatu towards the north. You can actually see the sign of a Lidl supermarket on the right hand sign in the middle.

Rautatienkatu towards the north. I love how that kid is pointing at something while talking to his mother. :)

Approaching the market square

The eastern end of the market square. I think there will be vendors until the end of the month, or perhaps even a bit longer, weather permitting.

The old concert hall. The new one is Sibelius Hall at the harbour, the big wooden box in a big glass box you may have seen many times before in my posts.

The main ice hall. It's called Isku Areena because its construction was sponsored by Isku, a large furniture manufacturer based in Lahti. Why it was founded here is no co-incidence. After the construction of the Helsinki - St. Petersburg railway in the late 19th century, Lahti became a transport hub. Timber was transported via Lake Vesijärvi, connected through a channel to Lake Päijänne 25 km to the north. Lake Päijänne is about 120 km long and it used to be a major transportation route connecting this region with areas hundreds of kilometers north of here in the central parts of the country. It is no longer relevant for that purpose as road transportation became dominant since the 1960's. Lake Päijänne is mainly used for recreation these days. About a million and a half people in the capital region get their water from the lake through a 130 km long tunnel. The water is of very high quality in the southern end of the lake.

This supermarket is a member of the S group. The store itself is privately owned but the co-operative helps with logistics and marketing. Like millions of other people, I'm a loyalty card carrying member of that co-operative as well as the other big one.

That's one candidate for my lunch. That's a chicken-avocado wrap. 270 grams. A bit expensive.

Here's another one. That's a chicken-bacon wrap. 200 grams. A lot cheaper per kg as well. I'm having that.