Streetlife: Urban Retail Dynamics and Prospects

Description

Our street-level economy is undergoing dramatic change. Retailers are reeling from the rise of e-commerce, rising rents, and increasing storefront vacancies, along with a cultural shift from material to experiential consumerism. Today, the COVID-19 pandemic is contributing to economic upheaval as commercial corridors and the small businesses they house face sweeping closures, bankruptcy, and job losses. Streetlife brings together scholars who have been trying to make sense of the changing retail landscape at street level and what it means for urbanism’s future. Streetlife pays special attention to the varied responses and policies that have emerged to address the competing realities of small business loss and neighbourhood needs. With case studies from the United States, as well as contributions covering Canada and Europe, this book demystifies the logic behind street-level urban retail and calls for better plans, designs, policies, and innovations to bolster sales. Streetlife shows that now, more than ever before, we need to understand what makes our storefronts tick, what awaits them, and what we can do as planners, designers, developers, entrepreneurs, and policymakers to maintain retail as integral to urban lifestyle. Cover Half-Title Page Title Page Copyright Page Contents List of Figures and Tables List of Business Profiles Introduction: The Urban Retail Predicament Part 1: Retail Trends and Transformations 1 The Life and Death of Retail: Insights from Firm Demography 2 The Ups and Downs of Retail, 2000–2015 3 Commercial Gentrification: What Happens to Businesses and Services When the Neighbourhood Changes? Part 2: The Case of E-Commerce 4 Bricks and Clicks 5 The Changing Demand for Urban Retail Space: Evidence from Canada 6 Online Sales and the British Urban Retail Hierarchy Part 3: The Survival of Mom-and-Pops 7 Small Business Survival: How and Why? 8 Can Mom-and-Pop Stores Survive? A Survey of Small Retailers in Chicago 9 What’s in a Chain? On Hipness, Corporate Stores, and False Dichotomies in Urban Life Part 4: Retail, Place, and Place-Making 10 Retail Scenes 11 Main Street Morphology, Adaptability, and Resilience 12 Retail in the Mix Part 5: Toward Solutions 13 Curating Main Streets: The Factors of Success 14 The Spatial Logic of Urban Retail 15 The Future of American Urban Retail Real Estate Conclusion: Urban Retail Redefined Contributors Index