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Geo ch.12
Services and Settlements - Consumer and Business Services
Term | Definition |
---|---|
service | any activity that fulfills a human want or need and returns money to those who provide it |
consumer services | provide services to individual consumers who desire them and can afford to pay for them |
4 types of consumer services | retail, education, healthcare, and leisure |
businesses services | facilitate the activities of other businesses |
4 types of businesses services | professional, financial, information, and transportation |
public services | provide security and protection for citizens and businesses |
settlement | a permanent collection of buildings where people reside, work, and obtain services |
central place theory | helps to explain how the most profitable location for a new shop can be identified |
Walter Christaller | German geographer who 1st proposed central place theory in the 1930s based on his studies of southern Germany |
central place | a market center for the exchange of goods and services by people attracted from the surrounding area |
market area or hinterland | the area surrounding a service from which customers are attracted |
nodal region | has a core where the characteristic is most intense - market area is an example of this |
range | the maximum distance people are willing to travel to use a service |
threshold | the minimum number of people needed to support the service |
rank-size rule | the country’s nth-largest settlement is 1/n the population of the largest settlement |
priamte-city rule | the largest settlement has more than twice as many people as the second-ranking settlement |
primate city | the country's largest city |
4 levels of market area | hamlet, village, town, and city |
market analysis | helps with deciding where to open/expand a location and where to close locations in an economic downturn |
steps to market analysis | define the market area, estimate the range, estimate the threshold, predict the market share |
analog method | geographer applies market share of comparable stores to the proposed new store |
gravity model | measures the level of interaction between a person and a service - predicts that the optimal location of a service is directly related to the number of people in the area and inversely related to the distance people must travel to access it |
consumer behavior reflects 2 patterns | greater number of people in a place = greater number of potential customers, the farther away people are from a service = less likely they are to use it |
food desert | an area that has limited access to affordable and nutritious food |
periodic market | a collection of individual vendors who come together to offer goods and services in a location on specified days |
farmers market | a form of periodic market found in many developed countries |
global city | a major center for the provision of services in the global economy |
business services that concentrate in global cities | financial institutions; headquarters of large corporations; lawyers, accountants, and other professional services |
New York City | home to the UN |
Brussels, Belgium | the most important center for EU activities |
3 levels of global cities | alpha, beta, and gamma |
factors used to identify global cities | economic, political, cultural, infrastructure, communications, and transportation |
2 types of business services in developing countries | offshore financial services and back-office functions |
2 functions of offshore centers | taxes - tax-free status, privacy - bank secrecy laws help people evade disclosure in their home countries |
offshore centers - dependencies of the UK | Anguilla, Montserrat (Caribbean); Isle of Man, Jersey (English Channel); Gibraltar (Spain) |
offshore centers - dependencies of other countries | Cook Island (controlled by New Zealand); Aruba, Curacao (controlled by Netherlands); Hong Kong, Macau (controlled by China) |
offshore centers - independent island countries | Bahamas, Grenada (Caribbean); Nauru, Vanuatu (Pacific); Seychelles (Indian Ocean) |
offshore centers - independent non-island countries | Liechtenstein, Switzerland (Europe); Belize, Uruguay (Latin America); Bahrain, Brunei (Asia) |
back-office functions/business-processing outsourcing (BPO) | type of business service found in peripheral regions; functions include insurance claims processing, payroll management, transcription work, and other routine clerical activities |
why developing countries have back offices | low wages and ability to speak English |
basic businesses | export primarily to customers outside the settlement |
nonbasic businesses | serve primarily customers living in the same settlement |
economic base | the unique cluster of basic businesses in a settlement |