Review Articles: What We Know About Shopping Centers
Abstract
Suburban shopping centers were the most successful retail establishments of the twentieth century. They almost completely supplanted the central downtown department store retail businesses, which had been the primary retail establishments of the nineteenth century. Urban economics has explained to a great extent the reasons for shopping centers' success over the ways retailing had formerly been done. It all has to do with what is called the internalization of inter-store externalities. All aspects of shopping center retailing are affected. This article takes the reader through the research on shopping centers, explaining issues that were especially important and how initial research led to further findings and the general resolution of the problem.