Locational Changes of Wholesale Establishments within Cities

Abstract

The location of wholesale establishments was characterized by the agglomeration in central zone of cities. Keeping pace with the rapid growth of cities after the Second World War, many wholesale establishments have moved from central zones to outer zones in both metropolitan cities and local cities. Traffic congestion and lack of space for enlarging establishments in central zones were pointed out as main reasons for the above phenomenon.As for such locational changes of wholesale establishments in cities, some geographical studies have been done in recent years. All of them, however, dealt with at the levels of metropolis or reginal cities; none of them were concerned with the level of local cities. In addition, those studies did not take up the difference of character of wholesale establishments. Particularly, the stage of channels of distributions was not considered in previous studies.So, this paper tried to analyse the locational changes of wholesale establishments in local cities with reference to the difference of character of wholesale establishments. Both Shizuoka and Hamamatsu Cities in Shizuoka Prefecture were chosen for local cities to analyse.The results are summarized as follows;(1) In Shizuoka and Hamamatsu cities, a large number of wholesale establishments moved from central zone (Zone I) to outer zone (Zone IV) (Figs. 3 and 5). Some kinds of wholesale establishments, particularly those of medicine and cosmetics, however, mainly moved within Zone I.(2) A large part of locational changes of wholesale establishments had happened during the period 1963-73. After the recession caused by high oil price in 1973, so-called Oil Shock, we found only a small number of locational changes.(3) 31.0% of wholesalers changed their locations in Shizuoka and 17.6% of them in Hamamatsu have made their storage and delivering functions and selling function spatially separate. The former function were moved from central zones to outer zones, and the selling function was located in central zones as before. The other wholesalers which changed their locations have moved all their functions from central zones to outer zones.(4) In Shizuoka the higher the stage of wholesale establishments of secondary industry products is in channels of distributions, the more remarkable the separation of functions of wholesale establishments is. In Hamamatsu, however, the same tendency could not be found. We could recognize the relationship between the stage of wholesale establishments of secondary industry products in channels of distributions and the movement pattern of wholesale establishments. The establishments of primary stage were high in percentage among wholesale establishments which moved to Zone I or II in Shizuoka, but we sound not find the tendency except for textile products of local industry in Hamamatsu.It may be due to some factors that the locational changes of wholesale establishments of Shizuoka are different from those of wholesale establishments of Hamamatsu in movement pattern or functional separation. Firstly, we can point out that Shizuoka city in the prefectural capital with a population of 458, 341 in 1980 census and Hamamatsu is the prefectural subcenter with 490, 824, so that they have different urban structures. It may have affected the locational changes of these cities. We emphasize the functional difference of wholesale establishments within central zones of these cities. That is, the offices of big enterprises, particularly of secondary industries, which are low in percentage among wholesale establishments, are located in Zone I in Shizuoka, but the wholesalers of textile products are located in Zone I in Hamamatsu.Finally, we conclude that the functional differences of wholesale establishments of these cities have affected the locational changes in movemnt pattern of functional separation of wholesale establishments.