ABSTRACT
If shops had similar market requirements irrespective of their trading characteristics and organisation the external economies which they derive from agglomeration would result, given a homogeneous market, in a uniform spacing of shopping centres each comparable in its retail provision. But because shops vary in both trading characteristics and organisation and because markets vary in their composition there evolves a pattern of shopping centres varying in size and structure. In a rural landscape the pattern is made up of a scale sequence from general store, and in an urbanised landscape from corner shops, to the most highly centralised and sophisticated shopping area. In both landscapes the system is subject to similar agglomerating forces but the patterns differ in the market conditions under which the forces operate. Normally a system comprises interrelated interurban and intraurban components. This chapter examines against the background of the preceding discussion some considerations basic to the delimitation and classification of these components.
