SOME ECONOMIC VARIABLES AND THE EXPANSION OF RETAIL FACILITIES

Abstract

This report examines a few of the economic variables that should be considered when assessing the advantages and disadvantages of a major retail mall opening. No attempt is made to assess the economic impact of such a mall in Lawrence, but rather the attempt is to provide information so that better decisions may be made.

The report contains three parts. The first section examines what happened to retail employment after a mall opening. Retail employment in 28 cities was examined over a period of eleven years. The average growth compared to the state was computed before and after a mall began operations. On the average it was found that after a mall opened a town's retail employment did grow somewhat faster than that of the state. The second section deals with retail sales in college towns. Here we found that sales of shopper goods in Lawrence rank very low in comparison to other college towns. The last section reviews academic and applied literature. Trends in shopping center development were examined. It was found that developers will be concentrating more on small and medium markets or revitalization of existing shopping areas. Another part of the literature review deals with estimating economic impacts and retail sales. A main conclusion of this literature is that it is a mistake to focus solely on economic impact: environmental and social impact should be considered equally as important.

Finally , it should be noted that this report derives no conclusions regarding Lawrence. It simply describes some effects of mall development in similar communities and examines some variables that may be important in retail expansion.