ABSTRACT
In Morocco, as elsewhere in the Middle East and North Africa, the division between traditional and modern retailing has been too readily accepted as meaningful. Just as agriculture and industry have been divided between traditional and modern sectors, so retailing appeared to be similarly dualistic. Overlooking the arguments as to whether retailing ever fitted neatly into the two categories, the classification is no longer valid within present-day Morocco. In effect, there is increasing functional interaction between the commercial sectors usually considered ‘traditional’ and ‘modern’ resulting from several major trends-the progressive urbanisation of rural marketing; an expansion of new types of commercial centres into the countryside as well as in the urban areas; the upgrading of retail centres and a specialisation in the types of urban trade. Collectively these trends have resulted in considerable changes in retailing institutions, blurring the distinctions commonly made between urban and rural, traditional and modern, and, formal and informal types of retailing.
