Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
In the UK, the distinction between systems of
traditional retail areas and of car-oriented one-stop
destinations such as
hypermarkets
and
retail warehouses
emerged during the 1970s (Guy 1994). The
influence of car ownership was seen to be
important: consumers who regularly use cars for
shopping are much more likely to patronise off-
centre stores with free car-parking facilities (e.g.
Bromley and Thomas 1993b). Those without cars
are nowadays associated with use of traditional retail
areas, which are slowly declining in size and quality
as their more affluent customers desert them for
the off-centre stores (Thomas and Bromley 1995).
Studies of relationships between shopping
destinations have become yet more complex in
recent years because of the growth in importance
of so-called
leisure shopping
outlets. These include
factory outlet centres (Fernie and Fernie 1997),
and speciality shopping centres such as the 'festival
marketplaces,' which first appeared in the United
States during the 1970s (Frieden and Sagalyn
1989). These centres form systems of retailing
different from the traditional retail areas and the
'one-stop' centres referred to above. This is
because they tend to attract families taking part in
mixed shopping/leisure trips, often associated with
holidays and tourism.
Figure 33.2 summarises ways in which various
forms of retail development have become related
to different types of shopping trip purpose.
Plate 33.2
A typical suburban 'retail area' in Cardiff.
regions (for a review, see Brown 1992a: pp. 40-
51; Carter 1995: pp. 66-77). Central place
theory, originally conceived as an explanation
for the spatial distribution of settlements in
southern Germany (Christaller 1966), was
adapted by North American geographers in the
1950s and 1960s to the study of urban business
location. Berry's (1963) study of Chicago was a
classic in this respect, identifying several separate
systems of retail and business provision. Berry's
work was important in identifying a separate
hierarchy of planned shopping centres, which
had been built in the suburbs of Chicago from
the 1930s onwards and were even then
replacing the older 'traditional' retail and
business areas (Guy 1998a).
Figure 33.2
Relationships
between shopping trip
purpose and type of retail
destination.
