Retail Areas Research Articles

Human Factors: Added Value to Retail Customers

This paper describes the role played by Human Factors in providing ergonomic added value to IBM customers in the retail point-of-sale area. Serving primarily in a consulting role, Human Factors assists the retail customer in the areas of cashier workstation analysis and redesign, field evaluation of equipment, employee training, on-line interface design, and education in other ergonomic-related topics. Human Factors expertise in task analysis, anthropometry, experimental design, and data analysis, combined with engineering tools such as computer-aided design, has proved to be much desired among retailers. The added value perceived by the retailer from the services and expertise provided by Human Factors is matched by the benefits perceived by Human Factors from its increased knowledge and experience in the retail area.

TEASE AND SYMPATHY: Exotic Dancers and Their World

This paper is the result of an exercise in ethnographic investigation. Data was collected in fieldwork in a local northend strip bar. To lend support to my analysis I have used as comparison the institution of geisha in modern Japan. The bar is located in the north end of downtown Hamilton. This section of the city comprises several Mediterranean ethnic neighbourhoods along with light manufacturing and a thriving ethnic retail area. The county detention centre and the city's largest hospital are located nearby. It is a large building with oversized signs advertising 'EXOTIC DANCERS', and 'FRENCH TABLE DANCERS'. One can enter through the front door, the lesser- used entrance, or the back door which opens on a parking lot. When you enter through the back door, you are in a short, darkened hallway (a liminal area of transition from the normal ... ) and have to go through another door to enter the bar ( ... to the exotic). The room is large and is generally darkened, with strategic lighting. To the right is a large T.V. screen continuously showing sports broadcasts. Further to the right is a raised section of the room with a number of pool tables. To the left of the door is the back of the stage which protrudes about a third of the way into the room. At the front of the room is a heating table for hot food service, and the bar. On the left hand wall there is a sign lit in red lights with the names of the girls as they appear in their stage routines. In the remaining space are about seventy tables, each with three or four chairs.

Distribution – The Contract Approach

In recent years, retailers have come to the fore in the development of distribution systems in the UK. With this move has come the greatly accelerated use of “distribution service companies” to provide tailored, dedicated, contractual solutions to the distribution needs of retailers. This article reviews the development of this trend, identifies the major causes of it, considers the advantages and drawbacks of contract solutions, examines a number of specific cases and speculates as to what further penetration dedicated contracts may achieve in both retailing and other distribution areas.

Entrepreneur Human Capital Endowments and Minority Business Viability

This study analyzes the relationship between entrepreneur human capital endowments and minority enterprise profitability. The better educated subset of entrepreneurs earns high profits relative to their minority business counterparts, and the lines of business in which they are concentrating lie outside the retail and personal service areas that have traditionally dominated minority business activity. In addition to fostering industrial diversity by creating and expanding firms in heavy construction, manufacturing, and skill-intensive services, the better educated entrepreneur group is found to be utilizing effectively both its financial and human capital inputs.

A factor analytic comparison of outshopping behavior in larger retail trade areas

Three patronage factors appear to motivate outshopping behavior across larger retail areas. The results are supported by research which has typically concentrated on smaller retail trade areas. This correspondence suggests a generalized outshopping behavior which may be attributable to the inability of retailers to completely satisfy all dimensions related to the shopping experience.

Distribution Systems and Distribution Research in the Federal Republic of Germany: A Synopsis

Distribution research was an important field of research in Germany especially in the 1920s and 50s. After that, the major research interests in the area of marketing and internal trade shifted to other topics. Retailing and wholesaling institutions became more powerful and new technologies supporting physical distribution activities began to attract researchers to deal with distribution problems. Distribution as treated in this synopsis covers the areas of retailing, wholesaling, industrial selling and physical distribution.

Retail redevelopment in the inner city: A case study of springburn, Glasgow

Abstract Retail planning in post‐war Britain has been characterised by a concentration on existing resources and severe limitation of suburban expansion. A central part of this strategy is the redevelopment of older inner‐city retailing areas. The morphological, organisational and structural changes generated by these developments are of considerable interest to urban geographers with an interest in retailing. The present study seeks to extend our knowledge of the processes underlying such changes by means of a detailed empirical examination of the redevelopment of an inner‐city retailing centre in Glasgow.

SHOP LAYOUT

Selling more to your customers is one area of modern retailing examined in a new study The Way Ahead for Sports Retailing published by Storeplan, shop interior specialists from Gravesend, Kent. In this extract, Justin Ashbourn discusses the importance of correct shop layout and merchandise presentation in the quest for increased sales.

CORRELATES OF THE FUNCTIONAL STRUCTURE OF URBAN RETAIL AREAS: AN APPROACH EMPLOYING MULTIVARIATE ORDINATION

This paper considers the appropriateness of typologies of urban retailing areas based on multivariate functional data. The findings of a case study in which statistical and graphical methods were employed within the framework of multivariate ordination are presented. It is shown that the functional attributes of retail areas are closely associated with their location, accessibility, quality, morphology, size, period of development, and socioeconomic character.

The Multivariate Functional Structure of the Urban Retailing System: A British Case Study

The complex nature of functional associations and variations occurring within intra-urban retailing systems is examined in this paper. It is suggested that retail geographers have over-emphasized the importance of the size differentiation of urban retailing centres as a consequence of their efforts to validate the existence of hierarchies or continua. As a result, the types of non-size-related functional specialization embodied within Berry's threefold typology of urban commercial areas have been virtually ignored. The findings of a multivariate analysis of the functional structure of the retailing system of the case study area, Stockport, are then presented. It is argued that distinct functional sub-components exist and that these exhibit decipherable spatial patterns amongst the centres. Thus, a series of hierarchical, arterial and specialized functional type retail areas can be identified. It is concluded that in broad terms at least the Berry typology is of relevance to studies of British urban retailing structural patterns and that it takes into account the size, functional, locational and other salient properties of intra-urban retailing areas. BACKGROUND It is a simple truism to state that retail centres exist in order to supply consumers with the manifold goods and services which they need and want. The functional attributes of retailing districts thereby constitute their raison d'ftre. Thus, examination of the functional characteristics of the constituent elements of the urban retailing system is of paramount importance, for the functional domain represents the heart of the structural organization of the urban commercial system. This is reflected by the growing realization on the part of retailing geographers that simple univariate classifications of urban retailing areas, based on a particular variable such as the total number of establishments or functional outlets, are likely to provide few insights. The earliest detailed empirical studies of the functional disposition of urban retailing areas were pioneered by Berry and his cohorts in the North American urban context. This research provided a number of valuable insights and it is surprising therefore that little work has been completed in the United States during the intervening twenty-year period. In particular, these investigations, largely carried out in the late 1950s, did much to suggest that classical central place theory can only explain in part the nature of functional variations occurring within the urban retailing system. For example, the fixed k value central place systems advanced by Christaller (1933) imply that large retailing areas perform all of the functions carried out by smaller centres. Thus, functional variability is envisaged as being confined to the occurrence of hierarchical sets of complementary functions, so that the only type

CHANGES IN LOCATIONS OF IMPORT-EXPORT FIRMS AND THEIR RELEVANCE TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE CORE AREA OF KOBE CITY

The purposes of his ar idle are o inves iga e he changes in geographical dis ribu ion of the impor -expor_??_ firms during the last one hundred years, and to relate these changes to the process of development of the central business district (CBD) in Kobe. During the period from 1868 to 1899 the residential quarter for foreigners, which later became a foreign trade district, had been divided into 126 lots delineated on the basis of the European-style planning. Trading firms, financial and insurance businesses, information and transportation services, and a self-governing institution, were closely located each other, and they formed special business district isolated from the main built-up area of Kobe city. Therefore, Kobe city had had two core areas specialized in administration and retail trade in the west and in wholesale and import-export business in the east until World War II (Fig. 1). In 1919, 70% of the import-export firms located in the former foreigners' quarter were owned by aliens. Thereafter, a mixed land use district with factories, import-export firms and workers' housing were developed on the east of the foreigners' quarter. A trade business district with a large number of import-export firms, financial and insurance businesses, and transportation facilities was formed on the west of the quarter (Fig. 2). The locations of import-export firms at the time of 1936 were on the southern side of the National Railway line extending from the Kobe station to the Shin-Ikuta River, where a number of tall buildings had been built; and this district almost coincides with the boundary of the CBD in 1970 delineated by Komori, et al. (1970) (Fig. 3). In 1977, import-export firms extended to the east and north compared with their distribution before the War. The CBD delineated by Komori et al. (1979) also showed its extention to the east and north. Therefore, it can be said that the location of import-export firms has played an important role in the formation of the CBD (Fig. 4). After World War II, the western core has gradully declined in consequence of the fact that the administrative organizations such as City Hall had moved to the former foreigners' quarter. The factor that changed the structure of Kobe city from two-cored to one-cored city, was the large-scaled redevelopment program of the CBD carried out, to a large extent, by the governmental investiment. Chronological changes in total floor space of banks, offices, retail and department stores, and warehouses are investigated for the seven districts of the CBD (Fig. 5), and the seven districts are classified into the following five specialized areas (Fig. 6): (1) the old international trade area (districts A and B), (2) the retail business area (districts C and D), (3) the new international trade area (district E), (4) the restaurant and amusement area (district F), and (5) the administrative and retail area (district G). From these examinations, it can be concluded that the nucleus of the present CBD is the former foreigners' quarter and the import-export firms have played an important role in the formation of the foreign trade districts within the CBD.

Change of Retail Area and Structure of Shopping Street on Some Cities in Yamagata Basin

The retail structure has changed with big stores opening and varying consumer behavior for last ten years, and it is the most important to study the changing retail area and the structure of shopping street, especially the vertical structure of sphopping street in the city centers where multifloored buildings are growing.The purpose of this paper is; 1) to analyse the change of retail area with the opening of big stores, and 2) to analyse the vertical structure of nine shopping streets in Yamagata Basin.The author analysed the change of retail area comparing the rate of shopping dependency, the rate of retail sales and the index of retail activity (I. R.), whereI.R.=(Ri/∑Ri-Pi/∑Pi)×1000Ri: retail sales of the city i Pi: population of the city i.The results are summarized as follows.(1) Two remarkable tendencies are clarified in the change of Yamagata retail area; extending as to high-level goods and diminishing as to lower-level goods. The latter is due to the opening of big stores in other cities. The shopping streets in Yamagata city have inclined to high-level goods and have been distinguished from the shopping streets in other cities in function and chracter.(2) Except big stores, the specialized stores in Yamagata central shopping streets, those are of the highest level among the above nine, are using up to the third floor of the building, and the second and third floores are apt to be used for amusement-service function.

Spatial and Structural Variations in the Quality Characteristics of Intra-Urban Retailing Centres

This paper considers an aspect of urban retail structural organization which has received relatively little attention in the past, namely, the quality characteristics of elements of the intra-urban retailing system. At the outset, the overall significance of quality variations within intra-urban central place systems, the factors contributing to retail quality levels and the criteria which may be employed to assess these are examined. Subsequently, the findings of an empirical study of the nature of variations in the assessed quality levels of shopping centres in Stockport are presented, employing a modified version of a quality grading scheme originally devised by Davies (1968). The quality characteristics of retail areas are shown to vary according to their distance from the town centre, position in the intra-urban retail hierarchy, period of development, location with respect to the road network, morphological attributes, fabric contiguity and the socio-economic character of their tributary areas. The implications of these findings are examined in relation to the distinction between nucleations and ribbons, the existence of income-related subcomponents within the urban business pattern and the evolution of sound theories and models of the structure of British urban retailing systems.

Landusc of C. B. D.

The C. B. D. of modern city is characterized by variegated pattern of landuse. The writer has selected five cities-Sendai, Fukushima, Morioka, Ishinomaki and Furukawa in Tohoku which range from 50, 000 to 630, 000 in population and studied comparatively the changing pattern and character of land use in the C. B. D. s according to the city size. The delimiting C. B. D. in this paper followed the detailed study of Murphy and Vance (1954).The results are as follows.(1) The component retail zones from the hard cores in each C. B. D. and the civic centers are located at the highest land prices. (Fig. 1- 4)(2) In Sendai (population: 630, 000) nearly 30 per cent of the C. B. D, area is occupied by the financial and business land use, superior to retail land use. It shows about 20 per cent in Fukushima (230, 000) and Morioka (210, 000), and it approximates the retail areas which are predominant in landuse. In Ishinomaki (110, 000) and Furukawa (50, 000), the retail areas are the widest (40 per cent or over) and the office and business areas are under 10 per cent (Table 1).(3) Land uses of some functions are altermate in locality one with another, but there are several quaters with predominant single land use. The rate of such quaters 50m×50m or over in area measures in each of office, retail and service fuctions over 60 per cent. Total area of such quaters is over 43 per cent of C. B. D. area in Sendai, 24 per cent in Fukushima and 27 per cent in Morioka. The retail area shows 28 per cent in Ishinomaki and 36 per cent in Fukushima, but the area of other functions are very low in rate (Fig. 6).

Shoppers' Movements outside Their Local Retail Area

What types of shoppers are most loyal to their local retail area? What types are most likely to travel long distances in order to shop in other areas? What do these out-of-town shoppers buy? This analysis of out-of-town shopping by the residents of a small Pennsylvania city investigates the relationship between shoppers' personal characteristics and attitudes toward local market conditions and their movements outside their local retail area.

Shoppers' Movements outside Their Local Retail Area

Shoppers' Movements outside Their Local Retail Area

Consumer Convenience and Retail Area Structure

Consumer Convenience and Retail Area Structure

Consumer Convenience and Retail Area Structure

This article presents five behavioral propositions to a model of retail area structure. A method is illustrated for using Census data to evaluate changes in the pattern of commercial dominance within a metropolitan retail trading area.

Future Directions in Retail Area Research

Future Directions in Retail Area Research

Future Directions in Retail Area Research

Future Directions in Retail Area Research