The topic of contemporary commercial buildings concerns an interesting and current issue surrounding an architectural type with a long history, but with a new and more than ever socio-economic significance and a contradictory architectural and aesthetic value. The development of the image of commercial buildings for both Bulgaria and most countries is multi-layered and long. Although the functions and significance are constant throughout the long development, the image is one of the most variable architectural searches. Often the specificity of the activity leads to the rediscovery of known and already used techniques. Enrichment with additional functions always leaves an imprint on the form formation of these buildings. The fact is that trade and the architecture that embodies it are the oldest and most sustainable forms in which the symbolic meaning is part of the intercultural bridge throughout all historical moments in the development of humanity. The presence of commercial buildings and complexes, regardless of their positioning in the center or on the periphery of settlements, from ancient times to the present day has always attracted public attention. The search for a suitable location, architectural image, connection, identity and recognition is only part of the history of a commercial structure. The change in the socio-cultural situation, economic factors and management are the other side of the problem under consideration. These objects change the urban environment, the architectural image and the generally accepted perception of them. They are simultaneously the embodiment of a new culture, a new generation, a new generation, but at the same time a cultivator of all this. At such a moment, it is even more urgent to comment on the essence, significance, and message that these buildings carry both as an architectural and as a social phenomenon.