STRUCTURAL FEATURES OF WEST EDMONTON MALL

This article addresses the question of how West Edmonton Mall (wem) may be a new and distinctive component of retail spatial structure by analysing the retail and service attributes of the mall in the context of (I) Edmonton's retail structure at the regional shopping centre level, and (2) the internal structure of the mall. It is suggested that wem has added a new level to Edmonton's retail hierarchy, rivalling the downtown as the city's primate centre. The analysis of tenant changes leads to the conclusion that these changes tend to reflect a movement from unconventional to conventional tenant mix, and that wem is not much different, other than in sheer size, from most large regional shopping centres. The only unique structural characteristic appears to be the existence of enclaves not usually found in other malls.     

A Partitioning Model of Urban Retail Structure

A model based on renewal theory generates the number of retail establishments in a place as the outcome of a competitive partitioning process. The available market, measured for example by population or by existing retail sales, is shared among businesses until no market potential market remains. Competing businesses obtain different shares of the market, and the number of establishments is predicted as a discrete random variable. Several alternative formulations are presented of varying generality. One version is successfully tested, using GLIM, on ten business types (SIC two-digit classes) in 232 cities of New York State for 1977 and 1987. The model correctly predicts the form and the variance structure of the relationship between number of establishments and place size. It is shown how the model may be combined with models of city-size distributions to predict aggregate frequency distributions of retail establishments across urban systems.     

WEST EDMONTON MALL AS A CENTRE FOR SOCIAL INTERACTION

The emergence of a mega-mall - with its increased scale, size, and ensuing annexation of much of a city's retail and social life - intensifies the need for research about the social functions of shopping centres. Profiles of mall social life are necessary to understand the larger geographical, legal, political, and social issues accompanying the proliferation of such privately owned, publicly used indoor urban environments. Social interaction at West Edmonton Mall (wem) is characterized through an examination of its physical design and operation and an assessment of attitudes and uses of its local patrons, including adolescent 'ma/ies. wem is not as successful in orchestrating visitor satisfaction as one might expect, due partly to the amplification of tension between mall owners I designers and the desire of local residents to engage the mega-mall on their own terms.     

GEOGRAPHIC IMPLICATIONS OF MEGA-MALLS, WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO WEST EDMONTON MALL

West Edmonton Mall (wem) is an internationally known shopping mall I leisure complex comprising approximately 4 million sq. ft. of leasable retail and service space. It contains more than 600 shops, plus a hotel and leisure and recreational facilities that are unmatched in any previous shopping centre. The superimposition of a single, massive development on a pre-existing urban structure has created both opportunities and problems for Edmonton, while the emergence of such an urban phenomenon, unprecedented in scale and character, should raise new questions and stimulate new thinking among academics. This introductory article provides a context for the articles that follow by outlining the developmental history of wem and assessing its significance as a mega-ma/ prototype, and by identifying themes to be addressed in detail in the subsequent articles.     

Evolving retail landscapes: power retail in Canada

During the last fifteen years the Canadian retail landscape has been transformed by the growth and clustering of big box retailers into a range of 'power retail' developments. This has brought new retailers into Canada (predominantly U.S. retailers) with different business strategies that have lead to different consumer behaviour. The power retail phenomenon encompasses all aspects of the retail offer (price, product, service, etc.) and is not simply about the size of stores. These developments have led to new types of commercial clusters—power centres and power nodes—that have challenged both planning policy and the existing retail hierarchy across Canada, and conversely, provided substantial scope for retailers and developers to exploit market opportunities. The article discusses the alternate definitions of power retail, estimates the magnitude of this activity, and examines the spatial pattern and preferences of these new retail locations. The development of power retail is tracked across Canada and regional variations examined. The key trends in power retail growth are identified and potential directions for future development suggested.     

Market Rules and Spatial Outcomes: Insights from the Corporate Restructuring of U.S. Food Retailing

In this paper a study of the corporate restructuring of the U.S. food retail industry, during and following the period of regulatory relaxation and high-leverage capital transformations of the 1980s, is used to interrogate the complex relationships between market regulation, investment regimes, corporate strategies, and spatial outcomes. It is shown that changes in the “rules” governing investment and competition in the United States in the 1980s triggered countervailing spatial processes in the food retail industry. Those processes took more than a decade to work themselves through, but by the late 1990s a radically altered corporate landscape was beginning to emerge. In particular, consolidation of the industry had finally gained momentum–creating an industry whose leading firms are likely by 2002 to have a market share double the level of the early 1990s. The paper concludes by considering the insights which a consideration of corporate restructuring and regulation in this U.S. industry offers for some important areas of conceptual debate in economic geography. In particular, it is argued that industries in which capital structure transformations of the firm must be confronted and treated as a central issue have an intrinsic, but until recently neglected, importance in theoretical debate in the discipline.     

互联网技术应用对零售业空间组织影响研究进展

互联网技术应用对零售业空间组织的影响已成为当今学术界研究热点。本文利用文献资料法和对比分析法,梳理了国内外互联网技术应用对零售业空间组织结构、零售企业区位选择与布局、市场空间等方面的影响研究,并提出了未来人文地理学须进一步强化的研究内容。结果表明：20世纪90年代中期以来,互联网技术应用对零售业空间组织影响的研究成果日益丰富,且涉及到经济地理学和商业学等学科,研究方法主要以定性为主,且定量研究日益增多,但对互联网技术应用对传统零售业区位选择和销售腹地的影响、中小网络零售企业空间组织、运输距离对网络零售企业销售空间影响以及出口跨境网络零售企业销售空间格局等方面研究还需完善,未来研究应注重吸收其他学科理论和方法,强化实证研究结论的科学性。     

The new face of development: The ‘bottom of the pyramid’ entrepreneurs (Respond to this article at http://www.therai.org.uk/at/debate)

In recent years, ‘bottom of the pyramid’ (BoP) initiatives – from Grameen Phone Ladies and Solar Sister, to Women First and Living Goods – have captured increasing attention, not only in corporate boardrooms where the desire for untapped revenue streams looms large, but also in the arenas of development policy and practice, where entrepreneurship is celebrated as a way to repurpose ‘informal’ and/or ‘subsistence’ workers through new forms of private sector engagement. Based on fieldwork with BoP schemes in Bangladesh and South Africa, and cases drawn from other regions, this paper explores how development is outsourced through the figure of the BoP entrepreneur, the ‘poor’ woman who travels door‐to‐door delivering a range of branded manufactured goods across the ‘retail black spots’ of developing countries. These women are actively converted into entrepreneurial subjects through a set of ideological and material practices that aim to produce and hone the requisite traits of industry, market discipline and entrepreneurial distinction to succeed in global business; subject positions that can bring tangible rewards to those who successfully assume them. However, the process of outsourcing development to a reservoir of ‘informal labour’ unsettles BoP claims of ‘inclusive capitalism’, as an ethos of meritocracy and individual responsibility not only deflects the responsibility for development onto the poor themselves, but remakes their subjectivities in service to global brands.     

MEGA-CHAINING, CORPORATE CONCENTRATION, AND THE MEGA-MALLS

This article provides a framework for the evaluation of West Edmonton Mall within the broader context of the national regional shopping centre system. A particular focus is placed on the tenant mix and functional structure for those 37 shopping centres with a minimum gross leasable area of 750 000 sq. ft The analysis illustrates the similarity in the degree of chaining and corporate ownership in these major shopping facilities and describes their structural characteristics. The article concludes by evaluating both the development of the mega-mall phenomenon and speculates about the future position of these malls in the retail system.     

北京市集贸市场空间分布特征研究

集贸市场在我国已有悠久的历史,但目前对我国集贸市场空间分布的研究还较欠缺。本文在阐述集贸市场概况的基础上,对北京市集贸市场的分布状况进行空间现状分析和变迁比较。文章分两部分进行分析比较,其一是对集贸市场的总体进行分析比较,其二是单独选取成交额超亿元的集贸市场进行分析比较,并对个别集贸市场的区位优势和劣势进行了典型分析。在比较分析的基础上,初步得出北京市集贸市场分布的空间特征。     

北京区县消费品零售市场差异探析

在探讨北京消费品零售市场总量变化的前提下,以吃、穿、用商品构成为出发点,利用集中化程度指数、聚类分析、回归分析等手段,着重分析区县市场的结构性变化,特别是近十几年来的发展趋势,以揭示在社会主义市场经济条件下,区域商品流通的特征,并提出有利市场发展的建议。     

浅析上海市大卖场的空间区位选择

以大型超市、仓储式商场组成的大卖场是上海近几年来迅速发展的一种新型业态。在经济全球化背景下,国外的各类商业零售业将大举进入,对中国的零售业市场带来了一定的冲击和新的机遇。本文以上海大卖场为着手点,在分析了大卖场布局的区位因子的基础上,研究了上海大卖场空间布局特征从而提出了合理布局大卖场的建议。     

WEST EDMONTON MALL AS A TOURIST ATTRACTION

Recent years have seen the mega-phenomenon assume increasing significance in tourism; it is not surprising, therefore, that West Edmonton Mall, the world's first mega-mall, should be viewed as a tourist attraction. This
article discusses the role of shopping as a tourist activity and the opportunity to shop as a facet of the appeal of a location to tourists. It examines the relative attractiveness of West Edmonton Mall as a tourist destination in this context and concludes that it has few outstanding characteristics beyond its unique size and range of leisure facilities. The permanence of its appeal beyond the regional scale is therefore unikely. The long-term appeal of shopping and related facilities is discussed in the context of a model of tourism development.     

Problems in the Study of Domestic Commerce of the USSR

Greater attention to the study of the Soviet internal commerce is proposed, with particular emphasis on the geographical differences in retailing. The sources of marketable goods in any particular region are locally produced consumer goods, farm produce and forest products as well as goods shipped in from other parts of the USSR and from abroad. Regional economic-geographic factors affect both the volume and the structure of retail trade. Volume is affected by such factors as the size of population, income levels, regional prices, and the availability of retail outlets. Structure of retailing is affected by regional differences in production and consumption, income levels, ethnic preferences and seasonal changes.     

Edmonton's Wholesale Relationships With Northwest Canada

The paper addresses conceptual propositions by Burghardt on gateway cities and by Vance on wholesaling. Two objectives were sought: to measure the gateway role of Edmonton using wholesaler linkages; and to ascertain if Edmonton is still the unravelling point for distribution to northern markets. Evidence from a 1975 survey of the structure and linkages of the wholesaling industry in Edmonton and in northern communities proved that the city remains the main gateway to the north-west despite a challenge from Vancouver. It is also the main unravelling point despite minor northern competitors.
Cet exposé présente des propositions conceptuelles émises par Burghardt sur les villes servant de portes et par Vance sur la vente en gros. On a recherché deux objectifs: mesurer le rôle de porte joué par Edmonton en utilisant les liens de la vente en gros et vérifier si Edmonton est encore un unravelling point pour la distribution vers les marchés du nord. Une etude fut faite en 1975 sur la structure et les liens de l'industrie de la vente en gros à Edmonton et dans les communautks au nord. L'Cvidence obtenue par cette Ctude a démontré que la ville d'Edmonton reste la principale porte vers le nord ouest malgré le défi representé par Vancouver; l'ktude a aussi dkmontrt qu'Edmonton est le principal unravelling point malgré les compétiteurs moins importants situés au nord.     

The Transformation of Retail Markets in Lisbon: An Analysis through the Lens of Retail Gentrification

The relationship between cities and retail is strong and historical. This article focuses on the analysis of traditional retail markets, a retail concept that has lost its relevance in previous decades. However, more recently there has been a reversal of this trend following increased interest in the rehabilitation of these markets. This reinvestment follows the divestment stage and is characterised by the active role that private interests play in the management and operation of these retail precincts. This evolutionary process challenges the capacity of traditional retailers to continue their operations in these markets and the ability of disadvantaged customers to continue shopping there. Furthermore, this development may be indicative of retail gentrification. In this article, the ongoing process of market rehabilitation in Lisbon is analysed to determine whether evidence of retail gentrification has occurred. The use of case studies forms a significant part of the methodology. In addition, eleven retailers were interviewed in three traditional retail markets in Lisbon. The article concludes that direct displacement did not occur in the markets studies. However, because of the divestment in these retail precincts, indirect displacement did affect several retailers.     

Une histoire de résidus : à propos des facteurs généraux et locaux de croissance régionale au Canada,de 1971 à 2001

Starting from an econometric model of local employment growth, applied to Canada (1971–2001), residuals—relative to model predictions—are analyzed over time and over space, in turn allowing us to draw a distinction between general explanatory variables and factors of a more local, cyclical or accidental nature. The model's explanatory power grows over time, founded on variables such as urban size, market access and industrial structure, allowing us to conclude that local employment growth in Canada follows an increasingly geographically predictable pattern. However, an examination of the residuals reveals more localized processes. Growth volatility is most manifest in Alberta and British Columbia, home to the most erratic local economies. Emerging patterns are visible in the last period, most notably the underperformance of Northern Ontario and of non‐metropolitan communities between Windsor and Québec City, lying along the Great Lakes and the Saint Lawrence. The over‐performance—compared to model predictions — of small and mid‐sized towns in south‐eastern Québec can, on the other hand, be interpreted as a sign of truly local social processes, generally associated with a particularly dynamic local entrepreneurial class.     

IS THE ART MARKET MORE BOURGEOIS THAN BOHEMIAN?

Most research on the art market focuses on the high end, composed of auction houses and a few well‐known dealers. In this paper, we use a new database to examine the industry structure and location patterns of the New York art market, which consists largely of small, independent, relatively unknown galleries. We find that Manhattan galleries are highly spatially concentrated, and that clustering reflects both agglomeration economies and preferences over location‐specific amenities. New galleries are more likely to open in neighborhoods with existing gallery clusters, and proximity to other galleries increases establishment lifespan. New galleries also locate in neighborhoods with high population density and more affluent households, consistent with location models of luxury retail. The results are not consistent with the hypothesis that galleries locate in cheap, “bohemian” neighborhoods.     

Spatial inequality and dynamics of foreign hypermarket retailers in China

The globalisation of retailing has intensified since the mid‐1990s with the rise of a group of international retailers. Foreign retailers have greatly impacted the Chinese retail market since the opening up of the retail sector in 1992. This study aims to examine spatial inequality and dynamics of foreign hypermarket retailers at different geographic scales in China. Although the relative gaps in foreign hypermarkets among Chinese regions are narrowing, the absolute gaps are widening. Logistic regression models are used to identify locational determinants of foreign retailers Carrefour, Wal‐Mart, and RT‐Mart at the intercity level. Carrefour prefers cities with larger urban district populations, longer time of being open to international retailers, and more foreign investment. While urban district populations are significant to Wal‐Mart and RT‐Mart as well, they favour cities where people have higher annual salaries and aim to achieve internal economies of scale at the provincial level. The three leading foreign retailers also have different first‐city and city size preferences in their provincial expansions.     

Entrepreneurial Ecosystems and Regional Policy: A Sympathetic Critique

Regional policies for entrepreneurship are currently going through a transition from increasing the quantity of entrepreneurship to increasing the quality of entrepreneurship. The next step will be the transition from entrepreneurship policy towards policy for an entrepreneurial economy. The entrepreneurial ecosystem approach has been heralded as a new framework accommodating these transitions. This approach starts with the entrepreneurial actor, but emphasizes the context of productive entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship is not only the output of the system, entrepreneurs are important players themselves in creating the ecosystem and keeping it healthy. This research briefing reviews the entrepreneurial ecosystem literature and its shortcomings, and provides a novel synthesis. The entrepreneurial ecosystem approach speaks directly to practitioners, but its causal depth and evidence base is rather limited. This article provides a novel synthesis including a causal scheme of how the framework and systemic conditions of the ecosystem lead to particular entrepreneurial activities as output of the ecosystem and new value creation as outcome of the ecosystem. In addition it provides a framework for analysing the interactions between the elements within the ecosystem. This offers a much more rigorous and relevant starting point for subsequent studies into entrepreneurial ecosystems and the regional policy implications of these.