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Floorspace to worker ratios in shopping centres: A note
Abstract
The characteristics of employment within the retailing sector are still poorly understood. This short paper expands on a previously presented study of Canberra (Geoforum10, 407–425) by reporting on the systematic variation between the ratio of floorspace to employees and type of shopping centre, and the different relationships between floorspace per worker and size of store by type of shopping centre. The planning implications in terms of employment provision are briefly discussed.
Most research and writing in the area of retail store location and market analysis has been undertaken by marketing researchers and urban geographers. The purposes of this review are to present this eclectic area of study as a unified body of knowledge, to encourage real estate researchers to become more involved in this area, and to indicate where recent research in real estate and urban economics is an outgrowth of study in this area. The field can be viewed as a hierarchy of investigations, including modeling consumer behavior at the micro level, using models of consumer behavior in models of store location, and developing approaches for choosing among markets at the macro level. The hierarchy of investigations should in turn be viewed as the study of economic activity in space. Recent research in the areas of allocation of space in shopping centers and price discrimination in retail leasing is an outgrowth of work in the area of retail store location and market analysis.
There have been many studies of the retail industry in recent years, and of the impact that retailing has had on the spatial arrangement of urban areas and on consumer behaviour. Little attention has been paid, however, to employment in retailing, which is disturbing in view of its growing importance and its rapidly changing nature and composition. This paper examines the nature of the broad structural changes within the industry, and investigates their spatial consequences through a case study of employment generation within a system of suburban retail centres in Canberra, Australia. It is shown that the evolution of suburban centres, particularly those of a regional variety, has had an important and enriching impact on the suburban labour market. The regional centres are also seen to be the focus of the major structural employment changes currently affecting the retail industry. This has some important implications for urban planning.
Productivity in distribution
- George
Labour and employment
- Dawson
Productivity and capital expenditure in retailing
- George