Developing and applying a disaggregated retail location model with extended retail demand estimations

The spatial interaction model (SIM) is an important tool for retail location analysis and store revenue estimation, particularly within the grocery sector. However, there are few examples of SIM development within the literature that capture the complexities of consumer behavior or discuss model developments and extensions necessary to produce models which can predict store revenues to a high degree of accuracy. This article reports a new disaggregated model with more sophisticated demand terms which reflect different types of retail consumer (by income or social class), with different shopping behaviors in terms of brand choice. We also incorporate seasonal fluctuations in demand driven by tourism, a major source of non-residential demand, allowing us to calibrate revenue predictions against seasonal sales fluctuations experienced at individual stores. We demonstrate that such disaggregated models need empirical data for calibration purposes, without which model extensions are likely to remain theoretical only. Using data provided by a major grocery retailer, we demonstrate that statistically, spatially, and in terms of revenue estimation, models can be shown to produce extremely good forecasts and predictions concerning store patronage and store revenues, including much more realistic behavior regarding store selection. We also show that it is possible to add a tourist demand layer, which can make considerable forecasting improvements relative to models built only with residential demand

Visitor expenditure estimation for grocery store location planning: a case study of Cornwall

Visitor expenditure is an important driver of demand in many local economies, supporting a range of services and facilities which may not be viable based solely on residential demand. In areas where self-catering accommodation is prevalent visitor demand makes up a considerable proportion of sales and revenue within grocery stores, yet this form of visitor consumption is commonly overlooked in supply and demand-side estimates of visitor spend. As such, store location planning in tourist resorts, decisions about local service provision and the local economic impacts of tourism are based on very limited demand-side estimates of visitor spend. Using Cornwall, South West England as a study area, we outline a methodology and data sources to estimate small-area visitor grocery spend. We use self-catering accommodation provision, utilisation and visitor expenditure rates as key factors driving visitor spend. We identify that the use of visitor accommodation accounts for the spatial and temporal complexities of visitor demand that may be overlooked when using alternative approaches, such as the up-scaling of residential demand. Using a spatial interaction model, we demonstrate that our expenditure estimates can be used to generate store level revenue estimation within tourist resorts, and we make a number of recommendations for service provision and store location planning in these areas

Death of the high street: identification, prevention, reinvention

Location is of paramount importance within the retail sector, yet defining locational obsolescence remains overlooked, despite significant concerns over the viability of parts of the complex sector. This paper reviews the existing literature and, through this, explores retail locational obsolescence, including the multi-spatial nature of the driving forces that range from the global economy, local markets and submarkets, to individual property-specific factors; and, crucially, the need to disentangle locational obsolescence from other important concepts such as depreciation and functional obsolescence that are often mistakenly used. Through this, a conceptual model, definition and diagnostic criteria are presented to guide future studies, policy development and the allocation of resources. Importantly, three stages are presented to enable the operationalization of the model, essential to future academic and industry studies as well as the ongoing development of policy in this economically important, complex and contentious area

The economy and the property market Europe

SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre-DSC:f99/3760 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo

Funding London's transport needs

Includes bibliographical referencesAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre- DSC:m03/24887 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreSIGLEGBUnited Kingdo

Exploring the regional politics of 'sustainability': making up sustainable communities in the South East of England

This paper sets to explore and clarify the nature of the politics associated with the institutional shift from government to governance, in the context of the rise of sustainability and sustainable communities as governance discourses. After critically considering the extent to which this represents a move to some sort of post-political settlement, it turns to reflect on the notion of assemblage as a means of interpreting emergent forms of politics and governance and exploring the ways in which different priorities may be negotiated in practice. It highlights the processes by which new political realities are assembled around particular concerns without necessarily ever being fully integrated into some overarching unified set of understandings. And it highlights continued tensions and divisions around sustainability and its implications, which undermine attempts to build a governing (or post-political) consensus. These issues are informed by a review of some aspects of the 'sustainable communities plan' and its implementation, with a particular focus on the South-East of England

Beyond the Territorial Fix: Regional Assemblages, Politics and Power

Allen J. and Cochrane A. (2007) Beyond the territorial fix: regional assemblages, politics and power, Regional Studies 41, 1161-1175. The idea of regions as territorially fixed in some vital political sense is a stubborn conception, one that is both mobilized to pursue selective interests and to establish regional identities. To assert that regions are political constructs, however, is not to say that such bounded, territorial entities enclose all the political relations that produce them. This paper puts forward a relational view of the region based upon an assemblage of political actors, some public, some private, where elements of central and local government are 'lodged' within the region, not acting above or below it. Using examples drawn from governing agencies across and beyond the south-east of England, it is shown how a more diffuse form of governance has given rise to a spatially discontinuous region. This is grounded in an exposition of the political assemblage that is Milton Keynes today, with its provisional, cross-cutting mix of institutional agencies, partnerships, businesses and interest groupings engaged in a 'politics of scale' exercise to fix the region. Allen J. et Cochrane A. (2007) Au-dela de la delimitation territoriale fixe: les regroupements regionaux, la politique et le pouvoir, Regional Studies 41, 1161-1175. D'un important point de vue politique, l'idee que la region constitue une zone bien delimitee fixe est une notion obstinee, dont on se sert afin de poursuivre des interets particuliers et d'etablir des identites regionales. Cependant, affirmer que la region est une structure politique ne veut pas dire que de telles delimitations territoriales embrassent tous les rapports politiques qui les creent. Cet article cherche a avancer un point de vue relationnel de la region fonde sur un regroupement d'agents regionaux politiques, les uns publics, les autres prives, ou des elements des administrations centrale et locale se sont 'loges' au sein de la region et n'agissent ni au niveau superieur, ni au niveau inferieur. A partir des exemples puises dans des agences publiques a travers et au-dela du Sud-est de l'Angleterre, on montre comment une forme de gouvernance plus diffuse a donne naissance a une region geographiquement discontinue. Cela est fonde sur une presentation d'un regroupement d'aujourd'hui, a savoir Milton Keynes, etant donne son melange provisoire d'agences institutionnelles, de partenariats, de commerces et de groupes d'interet qui se chevauchent et qui s'engagent dans une action de 'politique a l'echelle' afin de bien delimiter la region. Region;Regroupements;Pouvoir;Politique;Gouvernance;Reseaux Allen J. und Cochrane A. (2007) Jenseits der territorialen Festlegung: regionale Versammlungen, Politik und Macht, Regional Studies 41, 1161-1175. Die Idee der Regionen als in einem wesentlichen politischen Sinn territorial festgelegt ist eine hartnackige Vorstellung, die sowohl zur Durchsetzung selektiver Interessen als auch zur Festlegung regionaler Identitaten mobilisiert wird. Die Feststellung, dass es sich bei Regionen um politische Konstrukte handelt, besagt jedoch nicht, dass in solchen eingegrenzten territorialen Einheiten samtliche politischen Beziehungen angesiedelt sind, die sie hervorbringen. Dieser Beitrag enthalt eine relationale Perspektive der Region aufgrund einer Versammlung politischer Akteure aus dem offentlichen und privaten Bereich, wobei die Elemente der Zentral- und Lokalregierung innerhalb der Region, untergebracht' sind, also nicht ober- oder unterhalb dieser Ebene wirken. Anhand der Beispiele von Regierungsbehorden im Sudosten Englands und daruber hinaus zeigen wir eine diffusere Form der Regierungsfuhrung, die eine raumlich unterbrochene Region hat entstehen lassen. Diese Darstellung beruht auf einer Beschreibung der politischen Versammlung, aus der Milton Keynes heute besteht: einer provisorischen, ungeordneten Mischung aus institutionellen Agenturen, Partnerschaften, Unternehmen und Interessensgruppen, die sich an einer Ubung der, Massstabspolitik' zur Festlegung der Region beteiligen. Region;Versammlungen;Macht;Politik;Regierungsfuhrung;Netzwerke Allen J. y Cochrane A. (2007) Mas alla de una seguridad territorial; reuniones, politica y poder regionales, Regional Studies 41, 1161-1175. La idea de las regiones como territorios fijos en algun sentido politico vital es un concepto persistente que se usa para apoyar intereses selectivos y establecer identidades regionales. Sin embargo, sostener que las regiones son construcciones politicas no significa decir que estas entidades territoriales y confinadas contienen todas las relaciones politicas que las producen. En este ensayo proponemos una vision relacional de la region en funcion de un conjunto de protagonistas politicos, algunos publicos y otros privados, en el que los elementos del gobierno central y local estan 'alojados' en la misma region sin que actuen ni por encima ni por debajo de este nivel. Con ejemplos extraidos de organizaciones gubernamentales en el sureste de Inglaterra y mas alla de esta region, demostramos que una forma mas difusa de gobernanza ha desembocado en una region espacialmente discontinua. Esta representacion se basa en la descripcion de reunion politica que en Milton Keynes consta de una combinacion provisional e intersectorial de agencias institucionales, sociedades, negocios y grupos de interes que participan en un ejercicio de 'politicas de escala' para asegurar la region. Region;Conjuntos;Poder;Politicas;Gobernanza;RedesRegion, Assemblages, Power, Politics, Governance, Networks,