Types of Services

Consumer Services Business Services Public Services Nearly 1/2 of all jobs in the US provide a consumer service Retail and wholesale Health and social services Education services Leisure and hospitality services Business Services Business services facilitate the activities of other businesses Accounts for 1/4 of jobs in the US Professional services Transportation and information services Financial services Public Services Public services provide security and protection for all citizens and businesses Most jobs are in federal, state, and local governments.

Changes in Job Sectors In recent decades, the US has seen an increase in service jobs and a decrease in primary- and secondary-sector jobs The service sector was the most impacted by the severe recession that began in 2008

New Patterns of Economic Activity Technology, such as GIS, can help to model the best locations for new businesses, office complexes, gov’t centers, or transportation connections Major retailers change the economic prospects and physical environment of places Locational influences on quaternary services are more diverse Those who work in the quinary sector tend to be concentrated around governmental seats, universities, and corporate headquarters

Origins of Services and Settlements

Origin of Services Early consumer services Bury the dead 1st settlements needed services (tools, clothing, pots) Early public services Religious activities, political leaders, defenders of the town wall Early business services Food, goods

Clustered Rural Settlements Families live in close proximity and the fields surround the village Circular rural settlements The houses and structures of the village surround the fields Linear rural settlements Houses on the road Fields are in long strips behind the houses Colonial American clustered settlements Houses surround a common Families have outer fields to grow food Plantations developed in the South in the 1700s

Contemporary Rural Settlements Dispersed Rural Settlements Farms in isolation from neighbors, spread out across the landscape Most common in the US People were not as unified Wanted to work large tracks of land, not discontinuous fields Enclosure Movement Agricultural efficiency; bad village life

World Cities Ancient Cities Athens - City-State Rome - “All roads lead to Rome” Medieval World Cities Releasing the serfs Better roads and power centers Walls Dense and compact Modern World Cities Business transactions Transportation Communication

Distribution of Services

Central Place Theory Walter Christaller proposed the central place theory to help explain how the most profitable location can be identified Market Area of a Service A central place is a market center where people cluster to buy and sell goods and services To represent a market area (or hinterland) in central place theory, geographers draw hexagons around settlements Range of a Service The range of a service is the maximum distance people are willing to travel to use it Threshold of a Service The threshold is the minimum number of people needed to support the service

Market-Area Analysis Profitability of a location Need to know range and threshold Optimal location within a market Minimizes distance to the service for the largest number of people The gravity model predicts that the optimal location of a service is directly related to the number of people in the area and inversely related the distance people must travel to access it.

Rank-Size Rule Many developed countries conform to the rank-size rule, in which the country’s nth-largest settlement is 1/n the population of the largest settlement Many less-developed countries follow the primate city rule, in which the largest settlement, called the primate city, has more than twice as many people as the second-ranking settlement

Services in Global Cities Business Services in Global Cities Product of the industrial revolution Financial services for corporate headquarters Consumer Services in Global Cities Extensive market areas Leisure services Public Services in Global Cities Centers of political power Foreign corporations

Services in Developing Countries Offshore Financial Services Taxes - tax breaks include little to no taxes on income, profits, and capital gains Privacy - bank secrecy laws can help individuals and businesses evade disclosure in their home countries Business-Processing Outsourcing Back-office functions can be performed at a lower cost if they are performed by workers in developing countries

Economic Base of Settlements A settlement’s distinctive economic structure derives from its basic industries, which export primarily to consumers outside the settlement Nonbasic industries are enterprises whose customers live in the same community A community’s unique collection of basic industries defines its economic base