Volume : 2, Issue : 5, MAY 2016

IS REILLY'S LAW OF RETAIL GRAVITATION PERTINENT IN SUB-URBAN AREAS OF WEST BENGAL? - A STUDY

Debayan Nandi

Abstract

The Law of retail gravitation is a heuristic idea conceptualized by William J. Reilly in 1931, which depicts that “customers are willing to travel longer distances to larger retail centers given the higher attraction they present to customers”. According to Reilly's formulation, “the attractiveness of the retail center becomes the analogy for size (mass) in the physical law of gravity”. The law of retail gravitation (LRG) and the economic law of market areas (LMA) both seek to define the market-area boundary between two competing centers. Each law is characterized in terms of the primary magnitudes of the market-area periphery. It is revealed that under specific circumstances the two laws keep up a correspondence precisely, so the LMA is able to offer some economic hold for the LRG. The two laws are also viewed within the broader outline of a hierarchically prearranged urban system. Accurate association between the laws is again possible under definite circumstances, but the eloquent competence of the LMA is greatly augmented when estimate is permissible. This paper aims at relevance of Reilly's (1931) Law of Retail Gravitation in sub-urban areas of West Bengal, especially Northern region of the state where a good number of shopping malls are being constructed in last few years.

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