Trade Area Modeling and Retail Site Selection

The shopping center system of a city is characterized by such attributes as size, layout, goods/services offered, number/type of stores, and trade area characteristics. There is a strong relationship between trade area characteristics of a shopping center and its attributes. A thorough analysis of these relationships helps developers select the best locations for shopping centers and public officials make appropriate commercial zoning decisions. These characteristics can be assessed by demographic and socioeconomic attributes, along with housing patterns, and the nature of retail competition in the trade areas. This book aims to propose a practical modeling technique to analyze the relationships between shopping center attributes and trade area characteristics. The conceptual framework is based on Oppenheim's retail allocation model. A large database is assembled using proprietary and public databases. The results are helpful to decision makers and developers for commercial zoning policy making, and for shopping center site selection.