1. Chapter 12 Section 2 Why are consumer services distributed in a regular pattern?

2. Distribution of Consumer Services Central place theory – Market-area of a service – Size of market area Market area analysis – Profitability of a location – Optimal location within a market Hierarchy of services and settlements – Nesting of services and settlements – Rank-size distribution of settlements

3. Service Distribution Patterns Consumer, business, and public services don’t have the same distribution patterns Consumer services follow settlements Business services cluster in specific settlements with businesses Consumer services must be near consumers- the more consumers, the more services

4. Central Place Theory A central place is a market center for the exchange of goods and services by people attracted from the surrounding area It is centrally located to reach the most people Central place theory explains how services are distributed and why a regular pattern of settlements exists It was proposed in the 1930s by Walter Christaller based on Germany It applies in most MDCs

5. Central Place Theory The area surrounding a service from which customers are attracted is the market area or hinterland It is a nodal (aka functional) region- a core/node that reaches a certain area surrounding it on all sides Most people get services from the nearest location These usually are like circles, but so no area is left out or have major overlaps geographers use hexagons on maps instead of circles

6. Market Areas as Hexagons Fig. 12-5: Hexagons are often used to delineate market areas because they are a compromise between circles, which have edges equidistant from the center but leave gaps, and squares, which don’t leave gaps but whose edges are not equidistant from the center.

7. Central Place Theory Fig. 12-7: Market areas are arranged into a regular pattern according to central place theory, with larger settlements fewer in number and further apart.

8. Central Place Theory The size of the market area varies for all services To determine the extent of the market area- geographers need to know about its range and threshold The range is the maximum distance people are willing to travel for the service The threshold is the minimum number of people needed to support the service

9. Market Areas for Stores Fig. 12-1.1: Market areas, ranges, and thresholds for department stores in the Dayton, Ohio metropolitan area. Stores are closer together in areas with higher incomes.

10. Market-Area Analysis Retailers and consumer service heads need to analyze an area to tell whether a market would be profitable in that area of not They need to look at the profitability of a location (use the range and threshold together to determine if a good or service can be profitable in a particular location) and the optimal location within a market (then if it is profitable, determine where to locate it)

11. Market-Area Analysis Best location in a linear settlement example: Many beach towns are linear settlements To figure out the optimal (best) location in these cases, geographers use the gravity model 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 to the distance people must travel to access it The more people the more customers The farther people are from a service the less they are likely to use it (kind of like migrational distance decay!)

12. Optimal Location (for Pizza-Delivery Service) Fig. 12-6: The optimal location for a pizza delivery shop with seven potential customers in a linear settlement (top) and with 99 families in apartment buildings (bottom).

13. Supermarket & Convenience Store Market Areas Fig. 12-8: Market area, range, and threshold for Kroger supermarkets (left) and UDF convenience stores in Dayton, Ohio. Supermarkets have much larger areas and ranges than convenience stores.

14. Market Areas for Supermarkets Fig. 12-8a: Market area, range, and threshold for Kroger supermarkets in Dayton, Ohio.

15. Market Areas for Convenience Stores Fig. 12-8b: Market area, range, and threshold for UDF convenience stores in Dayton, Ohio.

16. Central Place Theory Best location in a non-linear settlement example: Still use the geographers’ gravity model 1. find a site 2. figure out range 3. measure distance to users 4. divide potential user by the distance to the site 5. sum all of the results of users divided by distances 6. compare to other sites 7. pick the site with the highest score- most users and best location

17. Hierarchy of Services and Settlements Small settlements are more limited in services offered than bigger settlements The more people you have, the more potential customers- you can provide more services Often have small settlements inside large settlements so you have services that have large ranges/thresholds amidst those with smaller ones They nest (one inside the other often) and overlap

18. Central Place Theory Fig. 12-7: Market areas are arranged into a regular pattern according to central place theory, with larger settlements fewer in number and further apart.

19. Hierarchy of Services and Settlements Rank-size distribution of settlements Geographers observe in MDCs that ranking settlements from largest to smallest in population produces a regular pattern or hierarchy This is the rank-size rule- it says that the country’s nth-largest settlement is 1/n the population of the largest settlement So the 2 nd largest city is ½ the size of the largest The 4 th largest city is ¼ the size of the largest If graphed, it produces a linear order- straight line

20. Rank-Size Distribution of Cities Fig. 12-9: Cities in the U.S. closely follow the rank-size distribution, as indicated by the almost straight line on this log scale. In Romania, there are few settlements in two size ranges.

21. Hierarchy of Services and Settlements If a settlement hierarchy doesn’t work out like that and graph a straight line, it doesn’t fit the rank-size rule These countries tend to follow the primate city rule The primate city rule states that the largest settlement will have more than twice as many people as the second-ranking settlement The largest city is called the primate city

22. Hierarchy of Settlements and Services LDCs tend to follow the primate city rule MDCs are more likely to follow the rank-size rule, but some follow the primate city rule like Denmark Copenhagen (Kobenhavn), Denmark has 1 million people and the 2 nd largest city, Arhus, has only 200,000 It isn’t random that it’s like this

23. Hierarchy of Settlements and Services MDCs are wealthier and have a regular hierarchy This indicates that the society has enough wealth to provide services throughout its country, not just in key cities The absence of rank-size rule (and many large settlements in a hierarchy) in LDCs shows that there is not enough wealth to pay for a variety of services throughout the entire country

24. Hierarchy of Settlements and Services To make up for the lack of certain services in LDCs and rural areas of MDCs, periodic markets exists In these, vendors travel to areas to offer services periodically to the people There isn’t enough demand to justify constantly providing it But there is enough demand in rural areas and LDCs collectively to justify periodically offering the service