Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
33
Retail location analysis
Cliff Guy
Simmons (1990). More recently, geographical
techniques have been widely used in town
planning practice to assess the impacts of proposed
retail developments upon existing shopping
provision (BDP Planning 1992; Bromley and
Thomas 1993a).
This chapter has two broad purposes. First, it
sets out some broad principles of marketing
geography, relating these to the UK context.
Second, it explores two areas of applied practice
in retail geography: the forecasting of retail store
or shopping centre sales; and the analysis of the
impacts of major new shopping developments.
Examples are given of ways in which geographical
techniques can be used to assist these objectives,
using British case studies. The economic and social
contexts for these applications are also examined
in some depth. The chapter ends with a brief
examination of possibilities for further research, in
the interests of integrating retail location analysis
more firmly with current concerns in human
geography.
INTRODUCTION
Shopping is one of the most commonplace human
activities; shops and shopping centres characterise
most settlements in the developed world. It is not
surprising, therefore, that retail location has for
many years been a prime concern of geographers.
Following the development of central place
theory in the 1920s, the spatial patterns formed
by periodic markets and urban settlements became
a subject for study. Much empirical research of a
descriptive nature was carried out into these
patterns, increasingly linked with studies of
shopping travel (for reviews see, for example,
Beaujeu-Garnier and Delobez 1979; Carter 1995).
More recently, research into retail location has
become informed by theories of consumer choice
behaviour and strategic decision making by retail
organisations (Guy 1980; Brown 1992a; Jones and
Simmons 1990). There are signs now that the
subject is forging renewed links with mainstream
concerns in economic and cultural geography
(Wrigley and Lowe 1996).
There has been a strong tradition of applied
research in retail geography, in developing
methods of analysis and forecasting that can be
applied to enhance the profitability of commercial
organisations in retailing. These methods, which
first appeared in the United States in the 1920s,
later became established as 'marketing geography'
(for a historical review, see Thrall and del Valle
1997). They are summarised well in texts such as
Davies (1976), Davies and Rogers (1984), Wrigley
(1988), Berry and Parr (1988), and Jones and
ESSENTIAL CONCEPTS IN RETAIL
LOCATION ANALYSIS
Retail location analysis is founded upon a series
of interrelationships, which have strong
geographical reference. This section summarises
these interrelationships as a prelude to the case
studies.
