The study of spatial pattern of distribution of goods is one of the essential problems for marketing geographers. The author attempts to analyse the trading areas of wholesaling of cities in Miyagi prefecture. Seven items of goods are selected to examine the trading areas. The results of the analysis are as follows:
1) The trading areas of wholesaling of cities are different to each other, in respect to their size, the density of purchasers and the spatial connectivity of competent city with other cities concerned.
Sendai has the largest trading area concerning respective item of goods. It owes a reason to the fact that various channels in Sendai connect to those channels of final step in the link of distribution, which are located at many commercial cities in Tohoku.
The trading areas of relatively small cities such as Ishinomaki and Furukawa are small in size, corresponding to the trading areas about the retail trade of shopping goods.
2) The differentiation of forms of trading areas are based on the function of channels, which differs according to the step in the process of distribution. Wholesalers occupying the final step of distribution have generally small trading areas around each city. Wholesalers ranked at the first or second steps are located in large cities such as Tokyo and Sendai, and have large trading areas, in which the wholesalers ranked at upper steps connect with the wholesalers of the lower steps at many cities in Tohoku.
3) However, this trend is not always common for all items of goods. In the case of the distribution of producer's goods and capital goods, general merchants and firms concern strongly to the trading, and the channels with basic function for distribution are located in central cities, of which the marketing areas are set in national scale. Whereas, in the case of durable consumer goods with national brand, the producers control the marketing routes and the marketing areas, which are divided restrictively to small units, in order to get more consumers and to evade competition between wholesalers under their control. In the case of distribution of general consumer goods, the trading areas of wholesalers are more complicated. The standardized goods supplied on the base of mass production such as some of medicaments, textile goods, shoes and intoxicating liquor, are traded by brand, and the forms of trading areas are similar to the case of durable consumer goods. The sales sections of producers or firms controlled by makers determine the trading areas of the wholesalers under their control. However, in the case of the non-standardized goods and goods in fashion or goods without brand such as some of personal belongings, intoxicating liquor and medicaments produced by intermediate and small manufacturers, the distribution is initiated by wholesalers, and diversiform trading areas are overlapping one another.
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