Big Boxes versus Traditional Shopping Centers: Looking At Households’ Shopping Trip Patterns

Authors: Gjin Biba, Franc¸ois Des Rosiers, Marius Theriault and Paul Villeneuve

Start Page: 173
End Page: 202
Volume: 14
Issue Number: 2
Year: 2006
Publication: Journal of Real Estate Literature

Abstract: In this paper, the competition between, on the one hand, regional and super-regional shopping centers and, on the other hand, ‘‘category killers’’ and ‘‘big boxes’’ is analyzed using discrete choice modeling (logistic regression). An extensive Origin-Destination phone survey in the Quebec Metropolitan Area in 2001 provides detailed information on both households’ socioeconomic and demographic profiles and daily trip patterns, making it is possible to identify and model customers’ shopping destination choices. The findings suggest that several trip and household attributes impact customers’ choice for either big boxes or traditional shopping centers: trip purpose, transportation mode and car ownership, day of the week, departure time and place as well as trip length and, finally, respondent’s gender, age and type of household.