ABSTRACT
The processes manifest in the distribution of consumer or producer services have been largely explored within the context of geographical space dominated by private sector location decisions. A competitive environment ensures that service firms are anxious to provide the best possible facilities for their clients; they will endeavour to do so from those locations where viability is both assured and likely to provide the largest margins. It has already been shown how efforts to reduce uncertainty when making a location decision have created a certain ‘conservatism’ about where to locate, with the result that certain established agglomerations of producer services or particular types of location for consumer services have been able to perpetuate their initial advantage. In short, the market has tended to foster the development of an imbalance in the spatial distribution of service industries.
