Investigating the differences in shopping patterns between out of town shopping centres and the Central Business District. Why is out of town shopping increasing in popularity?

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F.Mackinnon        Geography coursework        10/05/2007

Investigating the differences in shopping patterns between out of town shopping centres and the Central Business District.  Why is out of town shopping increasing in popularity?

Introduction:

My case study will be Edinburgh.  I will compare South Gyle Shopping Centre to an area of Princes St. - Edinburgh’s CBD.  In this project I will investigate what makes each place more appealing for retail and what influence this has on shopping patterns in the city.  I will address issues such as location, attractions, spheres of influence and what socio-economic groups use both or either.  This will hopefully provide an answer to my main question - why are out of town shopping centres increasing in popularity in Edinburgh?

showing Edinburgh’s national position.

Edinburgh is the capital of Scotland and is situated on the Firth of Forth in the south east of Scotland.

  It has good motorway links to the south and Scotland’s biggest city Glasgow.

                

A Map showing the areas I will be studying, and other important features.

Edinburgh has good access to sea shipping with the port of Leith.

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This is the out of town shopping centre I will be studying at South Gyle.

Access to town centre is relatively easy but traffic congestion causes a problem at rush hours. To the Gyle however there is easy access via the City bypass.

                                                                                                     Princess street

This map identifies the block of streets, in the Central business district of Edinburgh that I will be investigating.

It is situated close to Princes St. Gardens, and is close to especially Waverley station

This map shows The South Gyle shopping centre - the out of town area I will be investigating.  

It is situated next to The South Gyle Business Park.

There are excellent, immediate road links to the rest of Britain.

My project will attempt to look at the differing shopping patterns in these two areas and from this and other physical information I will assess what makes each area appealing for shoppers.  From this I hope to deduce why more shoppers are hitting the ring-road rather than heading inwards to do their shopping.  With greater transportation and minimal leisure time people are in a greater hurry and I will address why out of town shopping is more convenient for the typical employees of today.  Who prefers the CBD?  Is it a question of attractions, or availability of time that is having this interesting affect on shopping patterns in Edinburgh and what has each place to offer regarding this?  

Wider issues:

The geographical issue surrounding shopping patterns.

In most cities retailing was initially located in the city centre and has remained there. However city centre shops are under increasing threat from decentralisation

 At the start of the last century very few people had cars and freezers which meant that they did their shopping locally, and in all small amounts.  The Local greengrocers or a walk into town was good enough; this need was fulfilled with the start of private and council estates, designed and built with their own small shopping centres- often in a row of 20-30 shops on a main road. Nowadays these shops help cater for local needs and sell low-order convenience goods, such as milk, newspapers, cigarettes and sweets.  During the redevelopment in the 1960s and 1970s these shops closed for good for most but with the greater industrialization of the country has meant more people can afford items such as cars and freezers, and can reduce their hectic lifestyle by doing a big shop once every week or so.  This resulted in the first out of town developments as supermarkets in the 1970’s.  Many people realised the convenience of these stores and other shops cottoned to the idea of land being cheaper out there, and them receiving more customers by developing massive superstores with huge storage space, aesthetic appeal and plenteous parking.  It was therefore more worthwhile for companies and the majority of customers to do their shopping out of town.

These developed into hypermarkets and the multiplier effect encourages the growth of other shops around them - these develop into large shopping centres and recently, centres have been developed originally - with space for further growth and shops rent out areas of these centres for retail.  People preferred to do their shopping in these huge stores which sold clothes, food, electronic goods and all the other things they needed.  The general reasons for the movement of these shops are:

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  1. People have better transport means - most people have at least one car and out of town shopping centres are developed with very regular bus services.
  2. Out of town sites are easily accessible for customers and good transport as motorways, ring roads, and occasionally stations often build them.
  3. For the development of these hypermarkets there has to be huge open spaces which cannot be achieved in the CBD.
  4. Land in the suburbs was cheaper when they moved and in some places still is but because of the increasing popularity and greater demand, has increased in price.
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