Abstract:
The traditional corner shop is one that is usually family-run and managed with part-time assistance. The shop hours are usually long and it is almost a necessity that it remain open on Sunday.This traditional shop is growing out of its time, but should not be abandoned. The notion of the corner shop and its social implications cannot be lost. What is needed is a new form of the corner store.The demand for the small shop has dropped and can be recognized in several ways. One way is in that the small shop's role has become such that it is only a source of supplement to the major amount of goods that are purchased elsewhere. This is not only true for food items but for other goods as well. Another way is that the loyalty to the small shop has diminished except for those among the poor and the elderly. Their loyalty is most likely a response to the lack of access to larger stores. Also, the population's change of residential location is a factor which probably has the greatest effect on the diminishing demand for small shops.It seems that the majority of the contributors to these types of shopping habits is the American middle class. The wide spread suburbanization of the population during the last two decades, and the reduction of the concentration of people living in the inner-city, has perhaps been the biggest motion for the change in retail. The old occurrence of the regular trips to the corner store only exist in memory, and for some it doesn't even exist in that. It seems that it only remains in areas in the inner-city where there are concentrations of the elderly and the poor. This shift in residential location caused an enormous shift in the place of retail shopping, with a great number of shopping centers that were built in. the outlying areas of suburban neighborhoods. This caused a great decline in the number of retail establishments which could survive in the inner city. This change of residential location also caused more regular, planned, shopping habits than had previously existed. Trips to the store were less frequent and the availability to immediate shopping needs no longer existed. If one wished to purchase an item on a moment's notice, it was no longer a short venture. It was a venture to the closest available store which could often be several miles away.This immediate problem which exists in suburbia could become the precise line that is needed to begin to replace what was left out when designing these suburban neighborhoods.
