A Note on the Intraurban Location of Wholesalers and Local-Market Manufacturers

Abstract

In their seminal study of spatial economy of New York Metropolitan Region, Hoover and Vernon [1959] argue that industries which ship to local consumers [such as] newspapers, bakeries, breweries, bottling works and milk plants ... have sought out comparatively central locations in in order to minimize both average delivery time, since deliveries must be closely timed at peril of missing sales, and average distance traveled to customers, since the cost of transport must be held to a minimum because of comparatively low value of delivered product [pp. 36, 37]. They note, however, that these industries, though seemingly locked to a central point, since the center of an area, generally speaking, is least-cost point from which distribution can be made,.., .have shown a tendency to move outward in recent years. In case of national-market industries, Hoover and Vernon attributed increasing decentralization to advent of motor vehicle, but they do not do so with local-market industries. Instead they suggest that, one reason for outward shift is that consumers are gradually spreading out from center of Region. Another reason, it is now becoming evident, is that, after all, center of Region is not always least-cost point for distribution, because center is more highly congested than surrounding market areas [1959, p. 37]. At another point in study, Hoover and Vernon argue that congestion in central area is also assumed to be a factor causing decentralization of wholesalers. Wholesalers covering whole Region will find advantages in locating their distribution points outside central nub of congestion, following pattern of bakeries and other local market manufacturers [p. 81]. In this note I demonstrate that