Bigger stores, more stores, or no stores: paths of retail restructuring in rural America

Abstract

Changes such as the development of large international retail chains, retail concentration, locational changes, technological innovation, new labor practices, and the increasing scale of individual stores, have revolutionized the retail sector. This broad restructuring will have profound impacts in rural America because employment in retail is a major component of the rural economy. Presented here is an analysis on the varied paths of retail restructuring between 1988 and 1999, with a focus on changes in the geographic distribution and size of retail establishments in America's nonmetropolitan counties. The results show that the restructuring process in retail differs throughout the US, and that broad generalizations on the nature of restructuring, and its impacts, must be reconsidered.