ABSTRACT
The aim of this chapter is to focus attention on the recent academic literature relevant to the analysis of spatial patterns and processes associated with consumer shopping behaviour in Western industrial societies at the intra-urban scale of investigation. The literature relevant to this subject is extensive and a considerable variety of approaches and methods of investigation exists. This review describes and evaluates the range of approaches adopted and suggests the manner in which they are interrelated. Particular attention is paid to the recognition of significant gaps in current knowledge and, where appropriate, suggestions are made to direct future work to topics deemed to be of academic or practical planning significance. The emphasis of the review is on geographical sources, but the increasing interdisciplinary nature of this topic is recognised and appropriate excursions are made into the marketing literature — which emphasises economic, psychological and sociological concepts and methods — and into psychology and anthropology. However, no attempt is made to cover the growing literature emerging from the field of urban modelling. This work involves the development of highly sophisticated mathematical and statistical models and aspects of this work, as exemplified by Wilson (1974), Batty (1978) and Openshaw (1975, 1976), are clearly relevant to the investigation of consumer spatial behaviour. This work is beyond the scope of this particular review, which tends more towards an empirical emphasis, but it is more fully covered in the next chapter.
