ABSTRACT
Within the European Economic Community there are 2.5 million shops. In the USA there are a further 1.75 million. Numbers in the developing countries are more difficult to estimate as few countries have undertaken retail censuses, but estimates by Lakdawala et al. (1963) for Bombay, in the early 1960s, suggest around 100,000 shops which suggests, for India alone, shop numbers far in excess of those for the EEC (NEOO, 1973). These figures relate only to shops. There is also a wide range of other types of retail establishment both fixed and moving. Hong Kong has at least 50,000 hawkers and pedlars (Tse, 1974; McGee, 1970, 1974); the market in Tananarive, capital of the Malagasy Republic, has in excess of 3,000 stall holders (Donque, 1965). Ukwu, in studies in Nigeria, estimates that in Onitsha main market there are around 3,000 stalls, with many used by more than one trader, and when non-stall traders are included the market has at least 8,000 sellers (Hodder and Ukwu, 1969). Generally, national estimates of the total number of all types of retail establishments are not available, even in Western industrialised countries. A probable underestimate is provided in the USA with almost 20 per cent of registered firms being classified as in the retail trades. Farmers sell produce at the farm gate, automatic vending machines are becoming common in public places and mail order supplies account for an increasing share of retail trade in many countries. In considering the retail institutions in the market channel, therefore, there appears a great variety of business types. The total numbers involved are simply not known but they are extremely large compared with other economic sectors.
