September the 12th, 2026 – A new 14,000 square metre shopping mecca for Croatia has opened up more shopping and job opportunities near Samobor.
The opening of the new complex is a significant contribution to the local labour market and new employment opportunities for the residents of Samobor and the surrounding area, stated Joško Piteša, Director of Operations for Croatia. The 22nd retail park of this type is opening in Croatia; it will offer 23 well-known brands and around a hundred jobs. Poslovni reports that Samobor has now become richer with another shopping mecca. On 14,318 square metres of sales space, the Stop Shop retail park is being officially opened. This is already the 22nd concept of this type in Croatia, and it will offer 23 well-known brands, 429 parking spaces, and it should also be noted that each new location is expected to create around 100 new jobs.
a contribution to the local market
“This is our largest location in Croatia so far, so we expect the number of jobs to be even higher than the average of our network. It is certainly a significant contribution to the local labor market and new employment opportunities for the residents of Samobor and the surrounding area,” says Joško Piteša, Director of Operations for Croatia. The doors are being opened by well-known domestic and international brands such as TEDi, Mana Moda, LC Waikiki, Plodine, CCC, BabyCenter, Sinsay, Action, Optika Anda, Vitapur, dm, Znanje, Bipa, NKD, Admiral Bar, The Fitness, Le Mas, Zoo City, s’Oliver, Vacom, Europa 92, Mambino and Sport Vision.
expansion and development
By the end of the year, projects in Bjelovar and the expansion of the park in Vinkovci will continue. This opening in Samobor is a continuation of the brand’s expansion on the Croatian market, and Piteša says that they do not view the new location exclusively through the prism of competition with the existing offer, but as its complement.
“Our advantage is in the concept of simple and practical shopping – good traffic accessibility, parking, direct access to stores and the possibility of doing different types of shopping in one location. We expect that precisely this combination of diverse offer, accessibility and practicality will make Stop Shop Samobor attractive not only to the residents of the city, but also to customers from the wider surrounding area,” he says, adding that by the end of this year they will continue with the planned projects in Bjelovar and the expansion of the existing retail park in Vinkovci.
He also emphasised that ambitions on the Croatian market do not stop there and that they intend to continue expanding the network in the coming years, especially in areas where they recognize the need for a practical retail offer. “Croatia remains an important market for us with potential for further investments and development.”
The retail park concept has proven to be extremely resilient and popular with customers, so we ask whether he sees saturation of this model in the future or room for more? “Previous experience shows that on the Croatian market there is still interest from both customers and tenants, but we believe that further development must be thoughtful and based on the real needs of each local market. We do not believe in expansion just for the sake of increasing the number of locations – each project must have a clearly defined catchment area, appropriate traffic infrastructure, a quality mix of tenants and long-term potential.”
Stop Shop in Croatia systematically chooses medium-sized cities, so we ask what they expect from Samobor? “The focus on medium-sized cities is an integral part of our concept and long-term development strategy. Precisely in cities like Samobor we see space for accessible retail content that enables residents to do a large part of their shopping in their immediate vicinity,” he says, adding that the goal is not to concentrate the offer exclusively in the largest urban centres, but to bring retail infrastructure closer to customers in smaller and medium-sized cities. “Samobor fits very well into this strategy thanks to its size, economic activity, good traffic connections and proximity to Zagreb, but also a strong local community and a wider catchment area,” he concludes.
