By Dr. Tony Hernandez and Jim Simmons

The Canadian retail landscape has been transformed over the last decade by waves of development of power centres.  At the CSCA, we are well positioned to report on power retail as we have been field surveying and mapping power centre locations across the country for more than five years now.  This report takes a holistic perspective on power retailing in Canada and explores ways in which this form of retail activity can be classified into different types.  The resulting typology provide insights into how power centre development has evolved over recent years, and highlights the difficulties in neatly compartmentalizing power retailing into distinct categories.  The report concludes by discussing the possible future trajectories for power retail development in Canada.

It should be noted that data for the study is limited to 2006 in order to match census data. Trends since 2006 mirror the findings reported in this study.