to apparel shops and women's wear stores. They hesitate to pioneer, waiting until a shopping area is well established before locating there.

Corner locations and the shady side of the street generally are considered somewhat more desirable than mid-block and sunny sites, yet the advantages of such locations are not sufficient to warrant a much higher rent.

The location procedure of one of the well-known national variety goods chains will serve as a good example, inasmuch as the location specifications of the large retail organizations in this field are quite similar.

When this company was about to decide on a location in a southwestern town, two sites were available, one at a high rent and one at a considerably lower rent. The high rent site was in the 100-percent block which was in the newer section of the downtown business area and close to a national variety goods chain and several specialty goods chains. The lower rent site was a corner building in a block where the buildings were old, some in noticeable need of repair and all of old-style architecture.

This corner site was, however, just across the street from the 100-percent block and across from a well-known automotive supply chain. On the side street a local furniture store and a women's ready-to-wear shop were expanding and doing a good business. Before the real estate manager reconciled the strip map with the city map he did not fully appreciate the possibilities of this older location. It was only by examining the city map on which his field man had indicated highways and the source of the traffic that he realized that all the north-south traffic used this side street.

He then went to the town and studied the trends, traffic flow, habits and customs of the people and talked with other businessmen. He was able to convince several other stores to move to this block and to the side street. He made arrangements for an extensive remodeling job in order to modernize the building.

After figuring all costs of rent and remodeling and distributing them over the period of the lease, the yearly cost as a percent of net sales was less than 4 percent, which was appreciably lower than the rent would have been for the site in the 100-percent block. At the time that this survey was made the store had been in operation about a year and was satisfying the expectations of the executives.

Mail-Order Stores

There are two types of locations used by mail-order stores, namely, downtown and outlying or drive-in locations. The question usually is not whether to locate downtown or in the suburbs, but rather where to locate downtown and where to locate in the suburbs. In other words the question of location is, in the main, one of rent and parking space.

In choosing an outlying location they consider the direction in which the town is moving, the condition of the buildings, the rents charged, and the parking space available.

The trend is at present very strong toward suburban stores. However, in the downtown section there will be stores for some time to come because most of them have 100-year leases.

Restaurants

The type of restaurant that is planned has a very important bearing on the selection of the neighborhood. The prospective operator must first determine, therefore, what people he expects to serve and then locate his restaurant where they are at meal time, or where they are willing to go. In the selection of a location, most successful operators make a practice of examining areas or sections of a city prior to an intensive study of a particular or specific location. Table 5 suggests the relative importance of various types of areas for 18 kinds of eating places and for different meals.

Restaurant clientele may be, and generally is, quite varied at different hours of the day and night. A good location for a luncheon business may be very poor for breakfast, dinner and night meals. Almost any restaurant in the office district can get enough business for lunch. It is desirable, however, for this particular type of restaurant to choose a location which will also be convenient to other customers.

One large restaurant chain of this type spends many months or even a year or two observing an area before a location is chosen. Several executives visit the town to learn as much as possible about the eating and living habits of the people. They clock and analyze traffic at intervals all day and night.

Because this restaurant caters to office employees they carefully count the number of employees in buildings within a radius of 4 or 5 blocks. In addition they investigate present and future vacancies, obtaining the information from rental agencies, the landlords themselves and city officials. They also find out the age and condition of the buildings in the vicinity in an attempt to judge the direction of movement of the business center.

These restaurants also cater to working people on night shifts. The location must be selected with this in mind. The site must be convenient to public transportation, as near as possible to transfer points or railway depots, and accessible to automobile patrons. They want a prominent location as close to a 100-percent spot as they can afford. Six percent of sales is the maximum rent which they will pay.

For most restaurants competition is one of the most important factors to consider in selecting a community or neighborhood. Any section, no matter what it merits, may be an unprofitable one in which to locate if there are already too many good eating places in that area. The mere presence of a number of eating places is not necessarily unfavorable, however, if all are doing a good business, or if they are poorly operated or of the wrong type for the neighborhood.

The income of the people in the community is not an important factor to some types of restaurants. It is the opinion of the executives of the chain

mentioned above that if they locate in a town with a large enough population there will be a typical distribution of wealth with a preponderance of the middle to low income classes from which they draw their patronage. The minimum size of town in which they will locate is 200,000 population and they prefer to locate in well-balanced towns of at least a quarter of a million where no one industry predominates.

Tire and Automobile Accessory Stores

Although these stores differ in character, in general the following factors are considered when choosing a location:

1. Number of automobiles-a sufficiently large car population is the
most important requisite.

2. Population characteristics (i. e. age and race).
3. Number of stores of same type.

4. Sales of competitors.

5. Kind of competition.
6. Income of the people.
7. Size of the trading area.
8. Local habits of the people.
9. Stability of the community.

In earlier years these stores were located in larger cities and selecting a site was a simple matter because there was little competition. About 7 or 8 years ago the location problem became an increasingly difficult one because competition was growing and the retail market in the larger urban centers was rapidly reaching the saturation point.

At present the practice of most of the companies in this field is to go into trading centers already well established. The first location in a large city is on the fringe of a downtown area, especially where parking facilities are adequate. Three type of retail outlets are being built-the pedestrian store, the drive-to store and a combination of the two. Adequate parking space is of considerable importance in the location of all 3 types but it is of paramount importance for the drive-to store.

The factors which most of these stores consider when selecting a specific site may be set forth in a series of statements to the prospective dealer as follows:

1. Select a site on a main thoroughfare preferably on one of the main streets leading from the good retail shopping district to the better-class residential area of the city. Be sure that traffic is not too fast.

2. Keep as close as convenient to the retail shopping district without encountering conditions of traffic congestion.

3. Your location should be on the right-hand side of the street going home from work, on the near corner if there is a traffic light—on the far corner if no light. Two-way streets are best.

4. A mid-block position is not as good as a corner location provided

there is no constant traffic congestion at that particular corner.

5. Be sure that the property has sufficient space available for, and that the speed of traffic will not impair, easy entrance and exit. (Loca

tions where the speed of traffic exceeds 20 to 25 m. p. h. should be avoided.)

6. Keep in mind the facts of visibility. It should be possible for the people who walk or drive by to see the store and to see the provisions made for service.

7. Make certain that local ordinances or zoning laws will not interfere with your projected operations.

8. Make sure that curb passage for cars entering or leaving your establishment can be arranged. (Check with the city street department).

9. Do not locate too close to a fire house where the street may be frequently blocked with fire apparatus.

10. Watch for rear alleys which may often be crowded with trucks and vans from near-by warehouses.

11. Be sure that the property will accommodate all of the service facilities you propose to operate.

12. Be sure the property is large enough for your purposes now and can be easily modified to meet your needs in the future.

13. An insurance broker should be consulted to be sure that the property is insurable.

14. Check into the building construction to make certain that it will be strong enough to stand the required load stress.

15. Carefully investigate the condition of the heating plant, electric wiring, plumbing, roof, ceilings, floors, basement, toilet and disposal facilities.

16. Be sure to verify the type of electrical service for a. c. or d. c. 17. Insist on toilet facilities for both men and women.

18. If the building is in a poor condition and the landlord agrees to make repairs and replacements, see that these jobs are clearly defined in the leases. Do not depend on verbal promises.

19. If you intend to modernize the property, permission to do so must be incorporated in your lease. (The cost of such modernization should be considered as a rent expense to be amortized over the period of the lease).

20. If the landlord agrees to bear the whole or a part of the modernization costs, see to it that these provisions are adequately incorporated in the lease.

21. The rental rate should be specific and the rent you pay should range between 2 and 5 percent of your projected sales volumedepending on size of market (the smaller the markets, the lower the rent ratios).