What is a shopping hierarchy?
Shops can be placed into a hierarchy based on the services they provide. At the bottom of the hierarchy are small shops selling low order, convenience goods (e.g. bread and milk). At the top are the shops selling high order goods (e.g. furniture and electrical goods). What was the British shopping hierarchy of the 1960’s and 1970’s? The diagram above shows the shopping hierarchy for Britain in the 1960s/70s. At the bottom are corner shops. These sell low order goods. They are greater in number than any other shopping area. Above the corner shops are suburban parades and secondary centres. These sell middle order goods. This is usually a mixture of convenience and specialist goods. There are usually several of these areas within a large settlement. At the top is the CBD (central business district – town/city centre). There is usually only one CBD in a town or city. The CBD contains shops which sell comparison goods (shops containing goods which you will compare the prices of – due to th
