ABSTRACT
This chapter describes a new set of circumstances surrounding the structural characteristics of the retail system in British cities. These emanate primarily from the demographic and economic changes of the second half of the 1970s, the differential growth of new types of retailing developments, and what we might refer to as a retreat from past forms of planning intervention. The general result has been the emergence of a heterogeneous physical environment than has hitherto been seen and a glaring set of socio-economic problems that will need to be resolved. The traditional themes of geographical research appear to have provided a firm foundation from which the changes in the physical environment can be monitored and explained. At the same time, we lack for the moment a detailed knowledge and understanding of the changes taking place in retail employment; and the current love affair with the potential impact of technological change looks to be more flirtatious than the outcome of serious thought.
