The distribution of retailers in Turin.

Retail businesses compete in an oligopolistic market providing specific goods or services to consumers at observable market prices. Retailers decide how similar their product may be with respect to competitors and decide their best location. Location in the retail sector is meant to be more than just a geographic position. It is the relative position that a retailer can occupy given the proximity to other stores,  and to potential consumers. It is an evaluation of social, economic, and even morphological aspects of urban life, such as centrality and accessibility, layout and design, visibility and popularity, cluster attraction, and spill-over. Hence, commercial city patterns are the result of a long process in which retailers deal with urban morphology, given that space is a scarce resource to be allocated with competitors.

The main objective of the research is to investigate the position of retailers in the municipality of Turin and the drivers that influence this fundamental decision process. The work is focused on the real estate and urban flow of people to indagate how these factors impact the commercial city pattern.