By Dr. Jim Simmons and Dr. Tony Hernandez

This research paper is part of a continuing series of CSCA publications that have examined the growth and evolution of big box/power centre retailing in Canada.  The first of these publications, New Formats in the Canadian Retail Economy was published in 1994 and was funded by the International Council of Shopping Centres.  Since then, the Centre has distributed 5 other publications through 2004 that have dealt directly with the power centre phenomenon.

This research report looks at the variation in power centre development for four of Canada's Major Metropolitan Markets - Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver and Calgary.  It examines three central questions.  How has power retail development located in relation to the traditional retail concentrations? To what degree are the big box stores concentrating in power centre and power node rather than other types of locations?  How has power retail evolved over time?  These questions are examined using the database and GIS technologies that are central to the research output of the CSCA.