Analysis of sphere of influence in different shopping centres

From the car registration data, I can see that the settlement with the largest average distance travelled is Kidderminster (old), with 142. 83km. This is followed by Dudley (131. 10km). This is then followed by Merry Hill (111. 312km). The settlement with the lowest average distance is therefore Kidderminster (new), with 93. 44km. Most of the cars visiting Merry Hill came from Birmingham with 17 cars, followed by Worcester with 7 cars. Most of the cars visiting Kidderminster (old) came from Worcester with 9 cars, followed by Birmingham with 4 cars.

Most of the cars visiting Kidderminster (new) came from Birmingham with 8 cars, followed by Worcester with 4 cars. Most of the cars visiting Dudley came from Worcester and Birmingham with a tie of 7 cars each, followed by Leeds with 3 cars. The furthest place that cars came from for Merry Hill was Dundee with 364. 8 miles. The furthest place that cars came from for Kidderminster (old) was Keith with 482. 5 miles. The furthest place that cars came from for Dudley was Glasgow with 286.

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9 miles.

The furthest place that cars travelled from for Kidderminster (new) was Glasgow with 296. 2 miles. There are no anomalies for Merry Hill. There is one anomaly for Kidderminster (new) and that is Glasgow. There is one anomaly for Dudley and that is Glasgow. There is one anomaly for Kidderminster (old) and that is Keith. My hypothesis is therefore false. In my original hypothesis, I had said that Merry Hill will have the largest sphere of influence and therefore be at the top of the hierarchy. Therefore my hypothesis is false.

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I think this is because my data couldn't have been very accurate because as we used car registrations to show the sphere of influence. My results clearly show where the car was registered from, however this is not the best indicator as it cannot support us in telling us where the car has actually traveled from, as a person may live in a different area to where the car was registered. I also think that from the way we collected the car registrations, my results aren't random because we didn't pick the car registrations randomly and this could have affected my results.

I think that this is because people look at other factors such as environmental quality, shop quality etc. instead of size and population. This would be true for Kidderminster (old) as it had a good environmental and shop quality and it didn't have a very high population or very big in size and yet it clearly has a larger sphere of influence than Merry Hill, therefore people must look at all the other aspects of Kidderminster (old) instead of just looking at the size of it.

I think it could also be because shopping habits have changed from the past few years and people tend to prefer looking at comparison and convenience shops as they prefer a wide range of variety and since Merry Hill mainly consists of comparison shops, maybe this influenced shoppers and it could explain why Kidderminster (old) has a larger sphere of influence as it has a wider range of comparison and convenience shops , therefore showing variety and influencing people to travel farther to shop.

Kidderminster (old) however doesn't have the facilities that Merry Hill has such as clean toilets, car parks with free parking and all should influence people to travel farther to shop. Merry Hill has many other facilities such as air conditioning, restaurants, toilets, cinemas and benches all attracting many people daily. Merry Hill has a high threshold as well as a high range . Merry Hill is also the second largest shopping centre in the UK, this makes it makes it well marketed by TV adverts, leaflets, brochures and therefore a very well known shopping centre that many people are willing to visit often.

Implications of my Findings However there are many problems that Merry Hill has to face on a daily basis. Having over 6 million people visiting constantly throughout the year resulting in the majority of the local roads around Merry Hill becoming congested leading to air and noise pollution. The free car parking in Merry Hill attracts many car owners resulting in the car parks becoming very packed, which increases the crime rate in Merry Hill as the majority of cars contain valuables leading to the cars being stolen or broken into.

Reports show that car theft has increased by a 5%, from the original 18% to 23%. Something not many people are fond of. Another complication is that shoplifting has risen by 3%, from 24% to 27% over the last year, especially during the holiday seasons, such as Christmas and Easter. The building of Weavers Wharf has taken a surprisingly bad effect on Kidderminster, something I'm sure nobody anticipated. It has taken customers from other parts of Kidderminster to the new areas, areas where customers aren't very desperately needed.

Kidderminster contains many transport links, the majority of which are linked to the town centre causing an increase in air and noise pollution. Kidderminster is very easily accessible and because it has links surrounding the town centre, leading to a dense population with customers and tourists, all of this leads to the discouragement of people from visiting the area due to the crowdedness. Like Merry Hill and Kidderminster, Dudley has problems as well. The shops in Dudley are being closed down as many shoppers visit Merry Hill instead of Dudley resulting in a loss of businesses and a very poor income.

This has a negative multiplier effect on the inhabitants of Dudley as more and more people become unemployed leading to fewer and fewer job opportunities for the majority of the people living in Dudley. Dudley has an unattractive appearance, grey and dull in colour with very few greenery causing people to have a very unattractive and low opinion of Dudley itself. Dudley also has few or no CCTV cameras causing shoppers to fear for themselves, and it encourages crime. Solutions to the above problems: For Merry Hill's congestion problems, Merry Hill could invest some of their money into using a park and scheme.

This would mean that owners of vehicles would park their cars a further distance away from Merry Hill and so reducing congestion and as the owners would probably have to pay for parking their cars, which in turn would reduce the number of people visiting Merry Hill everyday, and that in turn would help reduce congestion in the area. It would also help solve the noise and air pollution problem because with less cars traveling to Merry Hill this means less noise in the area and less cars also mean less air pollution.

For a reduction in crime rates, Merry Hill could hire more security guards, which helps reduce the unemployment rate near Merry Hill, and they could also buy more CCTV cameras to catch the criminals committing the crimes. New transport links could be made linking many of the smaller settlements to Merry Hill, including Kidderminster and Dudley. More bus lanes and metro links could be made within Merry Hill encouraging people to use other forms of transport rather than car, these forms of transport such as buses and trains are forms of public transport and would therefore reduce congestion and pollution in the area.

As Kidderminster has a limited number of toilets and car parks and because people have a view that it is unhygienic, perhaps, money should be invested in making the area look cleaner. TV adverts, brochures, leaflets etc. could be used to publicize Kidderminster, as it is not very well known, all the above would help enhance Kidderminster's popularity resulting in an increase in customers and visitors to the area. Rent payments, and product prices could be lowered to prevent business losses and the closure of some businesses and shops.

For Dudley I would suggest that new transport links could be developed, all of which should be linked to all major shopping centres around the UK, making Dudley more accessible, which would attract more visitors and customers to Dudley, and therefore an increase in business. I think that one of the advantages of the park and ride solution for Merry Hill is that the number of people visiting Merry Hill on a daily basis will decrease massively, therefore reducing the congestion near the settlement, which in turn would help reduce the air and noise pollution in the area.

However a disadvantage to this solution would be that the park and ride scheme will cost a lot to install and further more will cost Merry Hill a lot of its customers as many people might not like using public transport as a form of transportation into the shopping centre and many customers might not want to pay for parking as they are used to free parking. All this would cost Merry Hill a lot of money and would therefore make the park and ride scheme not very effective.

I think that an advantage of having more CCTV cameras and hiring more security guards will reduce the crime rates in Merry Hill causing shoppers to feel safer and more confident while shopping in Merry Hill. On the other hand though, CCTV cameras and security guards cost money and therefore Merry Hill is again losing money to ensure the protection and safety of customers, but I think that Merry Hill will gain more customers from this solution as people will feel safer and shop more often in Merry Hill with friends and family.

I believe that an advantage of having more and new transport links in Merry Hill will encourage people to use other forms of transport such as buses and trains, reducing the noise and air pollution along with congestion on the roads, but one big disadvantage to this solution is that installing new links would again mean more money spent on improving the shopping centre and an increase in the losses gained annually by Merry hill. Road works will mean more pollution until the finishing of the road work and till then an increase in noise, air and visual pollution, all of which contribute vastly to the global warming problem.

I believe that an advantage to establishing new transport links is that it will make Dudley more approachable and accessible, therefore causing the shopping centre to become more popular and causing more people to visit the shopping centre. However a disadvantage to this problem is that money will have to be spent on building the transport links and road works will cause noise and air pollution making the settlement seem very unattractive and unwelcoming for the time it takes to build the new transport links.

Another problem is that congestion will increase while road works are in progress as there will be some roads blocked in the process causing the congestion. I think that an advantage to having cleaner facilities such as cleaner toilets in Kidderminster (Old), will mean that more people are likely to visit the shopping centre and use the facilities. This would increase Kidderminster's popularity resulting in more people coming to the shopping centre.

However a disadvantage to this is that a lot of time and money will be spent on the cleaning of the facilities and less time spent on looking at improving other problems in the settlements. A benefit of reducing the price of rents of businesses and of reducing product prices means that there will be no closure of shops and businesses meaning that there is a higher chance of shop owners getting a high profit from selling products cheap and paying a cheap rent.

However a disadvantage to this is that a reduction in rents prices will mean an increase in taxes. I think that the best solution for Merry Hill would be that more CCTV cameras and security guards should be placed around the shopping centre because not only will there be a decrease in crime rates, but there will be a reduction in unemployment rates as more security guards will mean more job opportunities for the unemployed, which will also cause a decrease in unemployment.

I believe that the best solution for Dudley would be to have the new transport links because this would make Dudley more approachable and therefore more people will travel to get there. I t will also make Dudley well known so more and more people will come, increasing the popularity of the shopping centre and so the shopping centre can therefore gain the money that it lost while building the new transport links.

I believe that the best solution for Kidderminster would be to have cleaner facilities such as public toilets because this would mean that the shopping centre looks more attractive and as people are more than likely to use the new facilities it would mean that more and more people will come to the shopping centre and will stay to shop resulting in an increase in customers causing the shopping centre to profit from the new facilities. Analysis 2 - Environmental Quality : From the environmental surveys that we did, I found out that Merry Hill had the highest overall average score, with 3. . This was followed by Kidderminster (New), with an overall average score of 3. 6. Then in third place was Kidderminster (Old), with an overall average score of 3. 03.

The place with the lowest overall average score for environmental quality was Dudley, with a score of 2. 4. From my environmental survey that we had done, I found that Merry Hill had its highest average score for litter and shop quality with a tie of 4. 6. It had its lowest average score for Greenery, with an average score of 1. ; however as it is an indoor shopping centre this is not very surprising. I found out that Kidderminster (New) had its highest average score from litter and Greenery with a score of 4. It had its lowest average score for Air Quality with a score of 3. From my results I found out that Kidderminster (Old) had its highest average score for Air Quality, with a score of 3. 6.

It had its lowest average score for Planning with a score of 2. 2. From the results I found out that Dudley had its highest overall score for Noise with 3. . Dudley had its lowest overall average score for Greenery with a score of 1. 6. I think that there was one anomaly and that was that Merry Hill had the highest average score for most of the criteria's that we marked all of the locations on, however it had the lowest average score for greenery, with 1. 2, this was very surprising and not something that people had anticipated, however as Merry Hill is an indoor shopping centre this anomaly can be over looked. My hypothesis is therefore true.

I think that my hypothesis is true; this is because as I had said Merry Hill is an indoor shopping centre, it is therefore undercover and so because of this reason people are sure not to drop litter, money would have also been invested on bins and cleaners to ensure that the cleaning of the shopping centre is maintained. As it is indoor the air quality is constantly checked and monitored and the shopping centre has air conditioning giving the shopping centre a high quality level of air, also the weather won't affect the shoppers, another factor that will encourage people to favor Merry Hill as a better settlement than the others.

Merry Hill has greenery all around the car park, however as the environmental surveys were conducted inside the shopping centre and not outside, this will tell us why my data may not be accurate for the greenery and it will also explain the anomaly that I noticed in my results. Merry Hill also contains CCTV cameras and security guards and if anyone was noticed, who happened to be destroying the environmental conditions of Merry Hill then they will be banned from the shopping centre and thrown out immediately.

Merry Hill has around 250 cleaning staff just to ensure that the shopping centre is kept clean, safe and secure at all times for all of Merry Hill's customers. With over 6 million shoppers coming to visit Merry Hill per year it is the noisiest settlement out of all three, as it has over 10 000 free car parking spaces, noise and air pollution is constantly created from the cars that visit Merry Hill, all of which contributes greatly to Global Warming. The air outside the shopping centre becomes thick with car exhaust fumes and the noise pollution is overwhelming.

Merry Hill has an overall population of 11,893, which isn't a lot and this affects the environment a lot, because a low number of people living in the area permanently means that there are less cars and less people will be suffering from unemployment because the shopping centre has to be the largest employing settlement in the area. This helps reduce crime rates in Merry Hill. Kidderminster (New) on the other hand is outdoors and is therefore affected by the weather, so people are less likely to go to the shopping centre in the rain compared to the number of people that would go their in the sun.

Weaver's Wharf was built to increase the popularity of Kidderminster and therefore the quality of environment will be high as people will not want to destroy something that a lot of money has been spent on, something that was built for the benefit of the settlement itself. Money will have been invested very definitely on bins and cleaners, which is shown clearly from the results as Kidderminster (New) received a scoring of 4 for litter, which is very high, so this proves that the majority of people are using the bins provided, with a few exceptions.

Kidderminster (New) also received a 4 on the greenery in the settlement, showing that the settlement is very eco friendly, which would draw more people in towards the settlement. As people have to pay for their car parking, this encourages people to use more forms of public transport, reducing the congestion on the roads and also reducing the noise and air pollution in the settlement. Kidderminster has a population of 55,200 which is very high compared to Merry Hill; this would tell us that the population of the area affects the environmental quality of the settlement. Kidderminster (Old) received its highest mark for air quality with 3. ; this could tell us that as there weren't many people visiting the shopping centre, the noise levels were bound to be low.

Kidderminster (Old), like Kidderminster (New) is outdoors this shows that the weather would affect the number of people visiting the shopping centre. We went to the shopping centre on a windy day which would be why there were very few people there, and even though on the particular day that we went, it was a market day, there were still very few people out shopping. Kidderminster (Old) had a lot of greenery compared to D7udley, which is why it received a 3. 4 for its average score for greenery.

However the planning for the settlement could be improved because during our visit we found that there were no benches, no other facilities that would make a visitors visit all the more worthwhile. Dudley like Kidderminster is an outdoors shopping centre and will therefore also be affected by the weather. Dudley has a population of 194,919 people which is a lot more than Kidderminster and Merry Hill. This proves my earlier point that the environmental quality is therefore affected by the population size of the settlement.

Dudley received its lowest average score for greenery, with 1. , this tells us that the town is not very eco friendly as it is not very forthcoming and doesn't want to help the environment and help reduce the global warming problem by planting more trees and plants. As Dudley has such a high population and yet very few of the shops in Dudley are still open because most have closed down during the credit crunch in the UK and as most people can't afford businesses, the unemployment rates for Dudley increase rapidly and as the unemployment rate increases so does the crime rates. All this makes Dudley a very hostile settlement, environmental wise. Implications of Findings:

The quality of environment will have a massive impact on businesses and populations. Many shoppers look at the environmental quality of a shopping centre before they shop in that particular shopping centre, this is why many people prefer Merry Hill to Dudley. Because merry hill is environmentally, very friendly and because people get drawn to the cleanliness of the settlement, this is why businesses in merry hill are so successful, however as Dudley has such a low environmental quality, this could prove why it incurs so many losses annually and why the majority of businesses in Dudley are now closed or facing closure.

Solutions to Problems : As Merry Hill already has a practically perfect environmental quality, I think that the only aspect that needs to be looked at is the greenery, as that is the main problem in Merry Hill. To solve this problem money could be invested in planting more plants around the shopping centre and maybe buying more pot plants or trees. This would help improve conditions in Merry Hill remarkably well, making the settlement look perfect in all aspects environmentally and making people feel even more welcome and drawn to the shopping centre.

I think that Kidderminster (New) like Merry Hill is doing remarkably well, environmental wise and that the only aspect that needs boosting up is the air quality and I think that the reason this is, is because of the weather and the effect global warming is having on various areas of the world. This is a similar problem as that of congestion so I would suggest that Kidderminster (New) increases the public transport in the area and they should also the quality of the public transport should be increased.

This would encourage people to use publics transport more often, and it would also cut down on the amount of pollution coming from the exhaust fumes from people's cars. I think that Kidderminster (Old) has litter problems and therefore I would suggest that money is invested on bins which would help improve the quality of environment in the settlement, litter wise. Kidderminster (Old) also needs to develop the planning of the settlement as there were hardly any benches, information boards, sign posts and lifts/disabled accesses in the settlement.

This could be why people would prefer Merry Hill to Kidderminster (Old), I think that to solve this problem money should be invested on information boards, benches and lifts/ disabled access. This would help shoppers because shoppers can sit on the benches when tired, new visitors to the shopping centre can use the information boards and sign posts to find out where different areas of the shopping centre are and it would also help enhance Kidderminster (Old)'s reputation.

Apart from the above problems Kidderminster (Old) has a good environmental quality. Dudley has a major problem with the quality of their shops. The shops look really shabby and ugly, unattractive and really grey, making people stay away from them because most people want to go to shops that look new, colourful and clean. To improve the shop quality I would suggest that the shops are given a complete makeover, they are redecorated so that the shops look cleaner and more welcoming, drawing more and more people towards the settlement.

Dudley also has a problem with the Greenery in the settlement because from our results I can see that Dudley ad an overall average score of 1. 6, for greenery, which in my opinion is very poor. I would therefore suggest that money is invested in planting more trees and plants, to help increase the greenery levels in the settlement, because a lack of greenery in the settlement making the settlement look more eco friendly, this will help boost Dudley's self esteem and also help with more people coming to the shopping centre because the settlement looks really friendly and safe.

I think that an advantage of Merry Hill investing money in more pot plants or trees and by planting more plants inside the shopping centre would help improve conditions in Merry Hill, as all environmental aspects of the settlement look perfect, making the settlement seem really friendly, safe, causing people to feel even more welcome and drawn towards the shopping centre.

However a disadvantage to this is that if people felt so keen about the environment they would protest against deforestation, and would do something about the worldwide environmental problems, instead of just being so difficult about the environment in a shopping centre, so therefore people can argue that it will be a waste of money, if you are buying plants and trees.

I think that an advantage of Kidderminster (New) investing money in increasing the public transport and by improving the quality of the public transport, is that it would help encourage people to use public transport more often, therefore the number of cars coming into Kidderminster (New) will be reduced and therefore the amount of pollution coming from the exhaust fumes off from the cars will be reduced. The air quality in Kidderminster (New) will be better and cleaner.

However a disadvantage to this is that it is really expensive to improve the quality of the public transport and it costs a lot to have more public transport in the settlement, and if people have a certain unchanging view of something, then the money will have been wasted as people will continue to travel using cars and this would not help reduce the problems, it will just increase the problems as then the settlement will have economical problems as well.

I think that an advantage of Kidderminster (Old) spending money on bins is that the litter problem in the settlement will be reduced extraordinarily making the settlement look cleaner and more welcome.

Though a disadvantage of this is that if people can't be bothered about the environment and just throw their litter on the ground, then the bins would be a waste for them and so I would suggest that cleaners should also be hired to pick up the litter that is dropped at the end of each day and during the beginning of each day as well, this would ensure that when the first people come into the shopping centre they can see how clean the shopping centre is, of course a disadvantage of hiring cleaners is that money will be spent on the labor that they put in every day.

I think that an advantage of developing the planning of the settlement by placing more benches, information boards, sign posts and lifts/ disabled access is that the benches would help people feel more at home as they have somewhere comfortable t sit, the information boards or sign posts would help people find out where different areas of the settlement are and they would also help enhance the popularity of the settlement.

However a disadvantage to this is that it is really time consuming to place the benches and information boards in the shopping centre and they also cost money. However I think that they will make the settlement look more appealing and attractive to the shoppers, and will cause an increase in customers. I think that an advantage to placing more litter bins for Dudley is that it would help make the settlement look more attractive as there would be less litter in the settlement as shoppers are more than likely to throw their rubbish in the bins than on the ground.

The cleaning staff employed to help clean the area will mean that there will be less litter on the ground causing a decrease in the visual pollution in the area. Another advantage to placing bins in the area is that more people will be attracted to the shopping centre causing an increase in the number of shoppers and customers in the settlement which would cause an increase in the profit for the area.

However a disadvantage to the placing of more litter bins n the shopping centre is that some people might not be bothered about the environment and therefore throw the litter on the ground anyway, resulting in money los for Dudley as people still won't be throwing their litter in the bins. An advantage to investing in information points and sign posts will mean that tourists know where to go sightseeing and it helps people to locate where all the different areas are.

However a disadvantage to this is that new information points will cost money, and turning the settlement into a tourist attraction will result in over crowdedness causing densely population in the shopping centre, meaning traffic jams, noise pollution and congestion in the settlement. If the shops in Dudley were given a makeover and new trees and plants were planted, this would result in making the settlement look more attractive and eco friendly, causing more people to get attracted towards the shopping centre resulting in more customers for the settlement which would mean more profit for the settlement.

However a disadvantage to this would be that the makeover and the plantation of trees will cost money and it will take time to have the whole settlement re-painted meaning that some of the shops will be closed until the shop has been re-painted, resulting in some losses while the shopping centre is redecorated, but I think that this is an effective solution because after the redecoration the settlement will look more attractive and will therefore cause more people to get drawn to the shopping centre, resulting in more profit for the shopping centre.

I think that the best solution for Merry Hill is that money is invested on plants and trees that should be planted inside the shopping centre because this would increase the number of plants found inside the shopping centre, it would make the shopping centre more welcoming causing more people and customers to get drawn to the shopping centre, resulting in an increase in profit for Merry Hill.

I think that the best solution for Kidderminster (New) is that the quality of public transport is increased because this would encourage more people to use public transport, reducing the congestion on the roads, which in turn would help reduce the air and noise pollution in the settlement, helping improve the air quality of Kidderminster (New).

I think that the best solution for Kidderminster (Old) is to develop the planning by placing more benches and information boards around the settlement because the benches would allow the customers some comfort and a place to rest when tired and the information boards will tell new visitors and tourists where all the different parts of the settlement are and would be really helpful, therefore resulting in more people coming to the shopping centre and an increase in profit for the settlement.

I think that the best solution for Dudley is that the shops in the settlement should be redecorated because it would help colour up the town and make it more attractive, causing more people to get drawn towards it, which would cause an increase in profit for Dudley and the settlement will be able to gain back the money that was lost during the redecoration of the town. There will also be an increase in customers. Analysis 3 - Types of shops :

From the shop surveys, I can see that Merry Hill has the highest number of comparison shops, with (101). This is followed by Dudley with, (64) comparison shops. This is followed by Kidderminster (Old), with (45) comparison shops. The place with the lowest number of comparison shops is Kidderminster (New), with (27). The place with the highest number of convenience shops is Dudley, with (36). This is followed by Merry Hill, with (15) convenience shops. This is followed by Kidderminster (New), with (9) convenience shops.

The place with the lowest number of convenience shops is Kidderminster (Old), with (5) convenience shops. My hypothesis is true because I had predicted that Merry Hill will have the highest percentage of comparison shops, however my hypothesis is also false because I had predicted that Dudley will have the lowest percentage of comparison shops. I think that my hypothesis is false because in my original hypothesis I had predicted that Dudley will have the lowest percentage of comparison shops.

However my hypothesis is also true because I had predicted that Merry Hill will have the highest percentage of comparison shops. Therefore I think that my hypothesis is true and false. I think that my hypothesis could be false because as Dudley has other attractions in the area such as the Dudley zoo and Dudley castle, all of which attracts tourism and because tourists will visit theses areas they will then also stay to shop in the shopping centre, therefore that could be why Dudley has the second highest percentage of comparison shops.

I think that my hypothesis is true because as Merry Hill is a new shopping centre and because most comparison shops from neighbouring settlements have moved to Merry Hill in search of better business, and as Merry Hill has over 6 million people visiting annually, this then provides all the comparison shops that moved to Merry Hill to have a better and more profitable business.

Implications of Findings: As Merry Hill has more comparison shops than convenience shops, this affects the number of people visiting the shopping centre because shoppers like a variety of shops, and as Merry Hill has a lot more comparison, than convenience shops this might affect the number of people visiting Merry Hill. Other than that I really found no problems with the shops in Merry Hill.

The building of Weavers Wharf has had a surprisingly bad effect on Kidderminster (Old), because as more and more customers lose interest in the old shops, more and more visit Kidderminster (New), this results in loss of business for Kidderminster (Old) and also result in unemployment in the area due to loss of businesses. I believe that the majority of low order goods shops will suffer due to all the new anchor shops and supermarkets that have opened up in Kidderminster (New).

As the products in these new shops aren't expensive resulting in closure of smaller shops that sell products with a higher price compared to the price rates of products in the new supermarkets and anchor shops. Dudley has problems similar to that of Kidderminster (Old). The shops in Dudley are being closed down as many shoppers visit Merry Hill instead of Dudley resulting in a loss of businesses and a very poor income. This has a negative multiplier effect on the inhabitants of Dudley as more and more people become unemployed leading to fewer and fewer job opportunities for the majority of the people living in Dudley.

The unemployment rates also increase crime rates in the settlement. Solutions to problems: I think that as Merry Hill is losing customers due to a lack of variety in the types of shops, therefore I would suggest that money should be spent on having more convenience stores installed in the shopping centre. I think that as Kidderminster (old) is losing customers, I think that to attract more tourists and visitors to come to the area, more anchor shops should be opened, such as Asda, Tesco, M&S etc.

These would help to attract more people to Kidderminster. As Dudley is losing customers due to the opening of Merry Hill and is therefore also losing business, I would suggest that as the majority of shops in Dudley have already closed down due to a lack of customers, therefore I would suggest that to get more people visiting Dudley, the settlement could perhaps enhance its tourist attractions, which would cause more people to come and visit the shopping centre.

This would mean developing Dudley and pushing it so that it becomes a popular tourist attraction. Dudley already has several tourist attractions such as the Dudley Zoo and Dudley castle and therefore has many visitors coming to the settlement. If Dudley becomes well known because of its tourist attractions then more people would visit the settlement, this would be a good way of advertising Dudley itself as well.

I think that an advantage of Merry Hill investing money in building more convenience shops in the shopping centre is that it will result in more shoppers coming to the shopping centre because people tend to like having a bit of a variety in all things and therefore if the number of comparison and convenience shops are evenly balanced it will result in more people coming to the shopping centre.

However a disadvantage to this is that the money that will be spent on building new convenience stores might cause business losses for the shopping centre as parts of the shopping centre will have to close while the new shops are being made, this will also cause shoppers to stay away from the shopping centre during the building works, resulting in more business losses for the shopping centre. I think that an advantage of having more anchor shops and supermarkets opened in Kidderminster (Old) is that, it will mean more customers coming to the shopping centre meaning an increase in customers, which will benefit Kidderminster vastly.

However a disadvantage to this is that the opening of new shops will mean money is spent and because Kidderminster will need to advertise the anchor shops, the cost of advertisements will need to be added to the cost of building the anchor shops and supermarkets. I believe that an advantage of turning Dudley into a tourist settlement is that it will result in thousands of people visiting the settlement.

As Dudley already has some tourist attractions such as the Dudley zoo and Dudley castle, I would say that not a lot of money needs to be spent on building new tourist attractions, but these attractions could just be cleaned and made more inviting for visitors. There also wouldn't be any need to familiarise people with the town and many people would visit the settlement from all over the UK, therefore money also wouldn't need to be spent on advertisements for these tourist attractions. However a disadvantage of this is that it will require money to have the attractions cleaned and made presentable.

I think that the best solution for Merry Hill is investing money in building more convenience shops in Merry Hill, firstly because it will attract more customers to the shopping centre and secondly because it will also reduce the unemployment rates in Merry Hill and in neighbouring settlements. I think that the best solution for Kidderminster is having new supermarkets and anchor shops opened in the settlement because they will result in more customers, and increase in business and also reduce unemployment rates in the settlement, therefore reducing the crime rates in Kidderminster as well.

I believe that the best solution for Dudley is to turn the settlement into a tourist town because firstly it will attract more visitors into the area, secondly the money spent on hiring the cleaning staff will mean that the unemployment rates will decrease as more people will be hired to maintain and look after the settlement, and thirdly as the unemployment rates decrease so will the crime rates.

Updated: Aug 11, 2021
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Analysis of sphere of influence in different shopping centres. (2020, Jun 01). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/analysis-sphere-influence-different-shopping-centres-new-essay

Analysis of sphere of influence in different shopping centres essay
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