Measuring the Impact of Inner City Markets on CBD Retail Sales

[Excerpt] Observers of Central Business District (CBD) retailing performance have reported many adjustments in recent decades. Sales have steadily declined, relatively and absolutely, since World War II. The function and trade area of the CBD has changed, the clientele is different, and retail establishments have adopted new locational strategies. Contributing substantially to the changing character of CBDs has been the pervasive and continuing decentralization of the metropolitan population. Nearly two decades ago, Vance (1962) conceptualized the impact of this decentralization process as one of relegating the CBD to that of (1) a seller of mass appeal goods to an inner city market and (2) a seller of specialty goods to the metropolitan market. More recently, it appears that a scaling back has also occurred in the specialty goods area. Increasingly, specialty goods sales have been sustained by those who are downtown because of employment or business