Retailing

This textbook is about shops and shopping, and the retailing industry which supports them. Its purpose is threefold. To describe the contemporary retailing system and to show why it exists and how it seeks to meet consumer needs; to describe the relationships between these needs and the built environment, concentrating on those factors which lead to spatial patterns in shopping provision; and to describe the dynamic nature of retailing, emphasizing the relationships between retailers, consumers, developers and land-use managers, whose combined influences affect the visible character, style and ambiance of townscapes.