Comparison of Location Potential for Customer Attraction of a Central Business District and a Large Suburban Shopping Mall Considering Residents’ Behavior When Shopping in Multiple Stores at a Time

Abstract

This study analyzes the attractiveness of commercial areas expressed by location potential considering residents’ behavior when shopping in multiple stores at a time (SMSAT). For SMSAT, a cluster of stores may be more convenient and attract more customers even if the stores are somewhat far away. In particular, in regional cities, residents may visit large suburban shopping malls (LSSMs) for SMSAT instead of visiting the central business districts (CBDs). Therefore, determining which attracts more customers considering SMSAT, the CBDs located in the center of the urban area or the LSSMs, depending on their relative location and degree of store concentration, will provide useful information for urban planning, such as the reorganization of the CBDs. To this end, this paper built a location potential model considering both the travel cost from residences to the commercial area and the circulation travel load of SMSAT. The sensitivity analysis indicated the following trends. The effect of circulation travel load is large. For SMSAT, LSSMs, with larger travel costs from the residences, are more advantageous than CBDs when the circulation travel load is considered. If the CBD can be concentrated, it can compete with the LSSM.