The Formation and Sustainability of same Product Retail Store Clusters in A Modern Mega City

Abstract

© 2016 Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG Compared with manufacturing locational analysis, relatively few scholarly researchers have demonstrated serious interest in examining the forces responsible for same store retail clustering in large cities. The centrifugal and centripetal forces influencing retail locations were once the subject of serious intellectual debate. Same product retail store (SPRS) clusters, which were once common in the retail landscape of Manhattan and other Western primary cities, are now in severe decline. However, there remain modern megacities where similar retail store cluster phenomenon is resurgent. This paper attempts to examine the formation and sustainability of the SPRS clustering phenomenon illustrated by Bangkok, Thailand. The authors find 14,468 SPRS permanent retail outlets located in 299 clusters. The data were mapped and then classified according to the North American Industrial Classification System. Locational Gini coefficients were computed to permit an analysis of the city's retail clustering within and between its fifty administrative districts.