Irena Chudzyńska

Abstract

One major prerequisite for generalizations concerning the internal structure of a city, which is viewed as a relatively isolated settlement system composed of interlinked subsystems, is to have an adequate knowledge of the structural regu-larities specific for each of the subsystems. The steadily rising importance of the service sector vindicates paying special attention to the structure and development of that subsystem. If we consider that retail trade tends to have a focus-creating effect on the emergence of service centres in cities it seems useful to pinpoint the interest of empirical studies in this respect on the search for the regularities governing the distribution of shops.

Irena Chudzyńska, Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization Polish Academy of Sciences, Twarda 51/55, 00‑818 Warszawa, Poland