Studies on the Optimal Location of Retail Store Considering the Obstacle and the Obstacle-Overcoming Point

Studies on the optimal location of retail store have been made in case of no obstacle(Minagawa etal. 1999). This paper deals with the location problem of retail store considering obstacles (e.g. rivers, railways, highways, etc.) and obstacle-overcoming points (e.g. bridges, railway crossings, zebra crossings, overpasses, etc.). We assume that (1) commercial goods dealt here are typically convenience goods, (2) the population is granted as potential demand, (3) the apparent demand is a function of the maximum migration length and the distance from the store to customers, (4) the scale of a store is same in every place and (5) there is no competitor. First, we construct the basic model of customers' behavior considering obstacles and obstacle-overcoming points. Analyzing the two dimensional model, the arbitrary force attracting customers is represented as a height of a cone where the retail store is located on the center. Second, we formulate the total demand of customers and determine the optimal location that maximizes the total demand. Finally, the properties of the optimal location are investigated by simulation.