Effects of Competition on the Pattern of Retail Districts in the Chattanooga, Tennessee, Metropolitan Area

Southeastern Geographer Vol. 29, No. 1, May 1989, pp. 26-41 EFFECTS OF COMPETITION ON THE PATTERN OF RETAIL DISTRICTS IN THE CHATTANOOGA, TENNESSEE, METROPOLITAN AREA Donald W. Buckwalter Retail districts outside central business districts (CBDs) have been part of the land use patterns in metropolitan areas of the United States for a long time. (1) Patterns have changed repeatedly during the 20th century with conspicuous reorganization away from CBDs since 1950. (2) The location and arrangement of retail districts result from ubiquitous competitive processes of retailing that operate within the idiosyncratic constraints of a local area. Competition between districts consists of attempts by stores to attract customers and attempts by real estate interests to attract stores that pay the highest rents. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the effect of competition between districts on the retail structure of a medium-sized metropolitan statistical area (MSA). Recent studies of urban commercial structure have not analyzed the effects of competition. Even though Baltimore and Minneapolis/St. Paul were used in detailed studies of new urban nucleations and Seattle was used in a thorough study of the distribution of retail districts, competitive location strategies were not analyzed in any of these cases. (3) Medium -sized MSAs, ones with populations between 250,000 and 1,000,000, are especially useful for comprehensive analysis because they can be studied in their entirety more easily than large MSAs. (4) The Chattanooga (Tennessee, Alabama, and Georgia) MSA is used to analyze the effect of inter-district competition on retail structure. The period from 1958 to the present is analyzed by examining census data, land use patterns, and transportation development. Census delineations of CBDs and major retail centers (MRCs) document retail district development . RETAIL DISTRICT DEVELOPMENT MODEL. The effects of changing location strategies on medium-sized MSAs can be generalized into three periods of retail district development: "CBD dominance" from 1900 to Dr. Buckwalter is Assistant Professor of Geography and Regional Planning at Indiana University ofPennsylvania in Indiana, PA 15705. Vol. XXIX, No. 1 27 1945, "careful retail district development" from 1946 to 1970, and "speculative retail district development" from 1970 to the present. Dates of the three periods are later than they would be in large MSAs. (5) Each is associated with a distinctive pattern of retail districts. Period of CBD Dominance, 1900-1945. The predominant strategy of the period of CBD dominance was competition for access to a central location in the metropolitan area. Shopping goods, the most prestigious and profitable functional category in retailing, was dominated by CBD cores. (6) Central business district dominance was established by a reliance on railroads and streetcars that concentrated accessibility at the hub of the transportation system. Competition among stores for proximity to a central location persisted for several decades after automobiles had become common, although outlying districts emerged at railway stations, streetcar line intersections, and highway junctions by the 1920s. (7) Outlying retail districts emphasized convenience and automotive goods, consisted of small stores, and provided only indirect competition for CBDs. The CBD's share of metropolitan sales declined during the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s, but no radical change occurred in the locations of particular retail functions. Outlying districts gained because automotive sales increased more rapidly than sales of shopping goods, but department stores remained concentrated in the CBD. The distribution of department stores changed when mass merchandising chains, notably Sears, exploited the mobility of an automotive clientele with freestanding "interceptor" stores located along heavily travelled access routes leading to and from CBDs. (8) These were located to provide an intervening opportunity for customers driving from outlying areas to shop in CBDs. The viability of interceptor stores was dependent on traffic patterns generated by CBD dominance of the metropolitan retail structure. Some were so close to the CBD that retail land use was contiguous . Interceptor stores were, therefore, a variation of the location strategies responsible for CBD dominance, not a radical departure from those strategies. Period of Careful Retail District Development, 1946-1970. The predominant strategy of the period of careful retail district development was to place modest replicas of CBD functions in outlying locations that 28Southeastern Geographer served proven trade areas. Déconcentration of retail...