ABSTRACT
The determination of new locations for individual shops and other business establishments has long been regarded as the cornerstone of Marketing Geography, particularly in the USA. A wide range of analytical and forecasting techniques have been developed which collectively provide a distinct methodology for store location research. This is mainly attributable to the experience of a group of marketing geographers working in actual business practice. Applebaum 1 has suggested that its origins may be traced back to the turn of the century when a number of chain companies and especially tobacco shops began to conduct detailed surveys of pedestrian flows along streets in order to identify the most desirable sites within the main centres of towns. A second advance came in the 1930s when much more emphasis was given to measuring the broader trade-area characteristics of stores and estimating the likely sales and/or share of the market that could be. captured in towns as a whole. A third, and perhaps the most dramatic advance came in the 1950s when attention shifted to conducting both internal and external surveys of the new suburban shopping centres that materialised from the massive postwar decentralisation of retail trade throughout the North-American continent.
