ABSTRACT
Regional centers are one of the most spectacular recent evidences of the dynamism of the retail structure and of the American economy. The average American city is still twenty or twenty-five years behind adjustment to the automobile. Automobile dealers, furniture stores, and nearly every other type of consumer goods merchandiser can be found along the main business thoroughfares of most American cities. The community center includes, in addition to the service stores found in neighborhood centers, a complete range of convenience-goods outlets, shopping and specialty goods stores emphasizing apparel and home furnishings in the middle price ranges, professional offices, and usually a branch bank. In some instances merchants are cooperating to obtain improved transportational and parking facilities for central business districts. It appears probable that population and transportational forces responsible for the increase in regional centers after World War II continues unabated for at least the next few years.
