Shopping has become one of the main activities of the city life. The number of supermarkets, shopping centers, and large, small retail sale places number have been increasing in the entire world. ‘The concepts of ‘Age of consumption’ and ‘’Consumption Society’ are becoming physically true day after day. Those who live in the city pass more and more time in these shopping places. As a result of their increasingly growing number and sizes of retail stores, the production of store, the production of supermarket display equipment and the decoration services for the internal designs of the stores   has become an important industrial branch.   

Turkish economy, which has focused itself on the development of heavy industry, has experiences constructional changes after the structural reforms of 1980. The liberalization of the economy has created different production and consumption attitudes. A larger number of factories have started to produce various consumption goods, more companies have penetrated to the retail sector and the consumers who have become more selective have started to spare larger sums for shopping/consumption. These developments have resulted in a demand for a larger retail sector and for more store equipments.  The local and foreign investors have noted the gap in the market and have started to invest more to this area. As a result of the demand for a modular and more spacious location the retail store decoration services have entered a fast developing phase.

Today the store equipments and decoration services is one the fastest growing sectors in Turkey. The Turkish producers are able to produce all product varieties ranging from the simplest to the most complex   for every size and type of retail stores. Some of these products: all types of commercial refrigerators, horizontal and vertical types of freezers, bottle coolers, pastry display cases, display type and other types of ice cream machines, cooling rooms etc.; electronic and classis weighing apparatus, other promotion devices, rack systems (wooden, steel, aluminum, glass etc.) display benches, rack systems, storing systems, cash registers, counters, display cases, digital and classical safety systems, garment hangers, shop windows for garments, display figures, busts, three-dimensioned logos, billboards , sausages and salami slicing machines, packaging machines for stores etc.   

Sector’s Exports
Although it is a young sector the sector companies are advancing at a high speed in the area of exports. Turkish store equipments and decoration services sector meet the domestic demand and also realize a remarkable quantity of product exports.  

The key point in the success of the sector is the customer-oriented approaches of the sector’s companies. The products are specially designed in accordance with the customer requirements. The priorities of the final users (retail sector) are taken into account at every stage of the production and design. 

The chart given below indicates the primary production of the store equipment sector and their exports figures. As there is no differentiation in the trade classification (Harmonized System) it has not been possible to include to the chart many products in the sector. The sub sector of commercial refrigerators is the main sector in the export.  

The number of countries to which the Turkish store equipments and apparatus sector is exporting has reached 150 in the year 2005. The EU countries, which are the main exportation market, import approximately the half of Turkey’s exports in the listed products.   (93 million USD Dollars, EU 25).