Retail is the process of selling consumer goods and/or services to customers through multiple channels of distribution to earn a profit. Retail is starting to move out of the city centers into the suburbs on the edge of towns and cities.
Decentralisation is the process of redistributing or dispersing functions, powers, people or things away from a central location or authority. Central Business Districts are facing a decline in retail and services as counter-urbanisation and sub-urbanisation occurs. Although decentralisation can be negative for some cities such as Manchester, some areas are …show more content…
In the early 20th century all the retailers were small independent businesses, which occupied the ground floor areas of residential buildings. From the end of World War 1 (1918) and to the 1960’s there was a growth in national chains leading to shops with corporal designs. This progressed to specific pedestrianized areas and indoor shopping until the 1980’s. From then 1980’s onwards the development of out of town shopping centres has been prominent.
The progression of shops has gone from large food superstores in the outer town areas to non-food retail parks emerging such as IKEA and B&Q. By the 1990’s fully developed shopping centres had been developed such as Bluewater and the Trafford Centre. All of these areas have been constructed with easy access to main roads, with a warehouse style design. Also the centres have been built on derelict land, which means it was cheaper and easy to get planning permission although the cost of cleaning up this derelict area would be …show more content…
As there is a greater number of shops and services are out of the town centre and an increased wealth since the 20th century people are starting to move out of the city and create “edge of city” settlements. This leaves an area in the centre of the city with the poorer people who can’t afford to move to the suburbs and therefore creates a division of class. This is an increasingly major impact, which is a social issue, which is only going to get worse as out of town shopping centres increase and expand their services. One way this is happening is by transport services increasing meaning the out of town shopping centres are better connected to the city centre allowing more people to live away from the city and to commute to work if that is based in the