Customer Movement and Shopping Centre Structure: A Study of a Central Place System in Northern Durham

Abstract

Thorpe D. and Nader G. A. (1967) Customer Movement and Shopping Centre Structure: A Study of a Central Place System in Northern Durham, Reg. Studies 1, 173–191. This article examines empirically a number of features of a central place system which frequently have previously only beeen outlined in general terms. It indicates the level of consumer orientation to different types of shopping centre. It shows how the trading areas of shopping centres vary by examining in turn the form of their trading fields, the nature of the interpenetration of over-lapping (or competing) trading fields, and the extent of the areas dominated by particular centres. These aspects of spatial relationships are followed by a consideration of the populations which are tributary to each centre and by the establishment of the threshold levels between centres of different rank. The centres examined range in size from a major provincial centre to the local group of four shops, with most emphasis being placed on centres of intermediate...