I don't know what's happening with gambling, but last 2 years, the amount of gambling advertisement is ridiculous.

They fit into the "15-minute city" idea, where you have 90 % of daily/weekly need of basic goods and services within 15 minutes of walking distance, so you don't have to have a car to buy food if you can't afford the car or if you simply don't want to own one.

the topsport betting places are extremely annoying, in my local center after they renovated the building they got rid of a small flower shop inside and made the betting place bigger

I've lived in a town of <10k people and we had 4 shopping centers. One big, one medium and two small. The medium was Norfa XL and it was my favorite. I went there every morning to get breakfast. Freshly cooked meat and freshly baked bread, fresh tomatoes. It was the best.

Well ofc it's good, since it fits some level of social activities and item specific shops for whom otherwise you'd have to go further away from your home. Since majority of them are in a way compact, it's an almost fool proof model that allows businesses to plop one down no matter the size of a settlement both in and outside the city limits. It's also serves as mini social gathering place both inside but more often outside - which is good either way.

prekybcentriai are definitely convenient part of Lithuanian daily life

I am very glad that those shopping centers are at a walkable distance, of course. I go where everyday, so I don’t have to store plenty of stuff at home.

'The Prekybos Centras' reminded me of something that you might be interested to learn about the Lithuanian language :)

Great video, as usual.

i only noticed the paštomatai around 2019

I did not expect Lithuania Explained to declare himself an Urbanist, but I like it.

It was so crazy to me that this type of planning isn't just everywhere, I though this was sort o a basic need, but turns out even the most "prosperous" and "happiest" countries doesn't really have the basic conviniene "poor" and "backward" Baltic countires have. I never felt happier in Lithuania after going abroad.

Congrats on 10k subscribers! I really do love the neighborhood shopping centers, there is a MAXIMA on the other side of the road where I live. It isn't big, but you can find several supermarkets only walking 10-20 minutes.

even Kaisiadorys has one! Pasazas! Nice little place, exactly as you described: walking distance from everywhere with just enough shops/services to meet your needs!

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Some supermarkets are good for both entertainment and shopping, I sometimes go to my local one to just spend time and relax

I find it funny how almost any neighborhood grocery store can be called a "shopping center", even if inside is just the store itself and a pharmacy.

It is also the delivery of food and groceries that are growing in Vilnius. When I am there, I order most of my food to be delivered.

they operate like strip malls in US. they are owned by an investor landlord who buys the land and constructs the building and then collects rent from each shop every month. you have one anchor tenant usually its a big food retail shop like you pointed out, and the corporate mother company of that shop often IS the landlord of the whole thing or at least co-owner, and mainly they build a location for themselves but they add some small spaces and then offer them on the open market for anyone who wants to rent, so that besides their main business they can also generate predictable passive income flow to pay for fixed costs of the building like mortgage, electricity, water etc. It wouldn't be too dissimilar to a person buying a house a bit bigger than you need and then renting out a couple of rooms so the tenants pay all your monthly bills and you just live in your house for free

In our small town we have both Norfa and Maxima but they are nowhere big as the ones in Vilnius.