So Misguided

I was scoping out the neighbourhood last night and I realize that there is an new crop of baby stores on 4th Ave. I haven’t noticed an increase in pregnant women or small children lately, but then was I really paying attention?

Anyway, it strikes me that Vancouver has a habit of creating neighbourhood pockets, or more descriptively pockets of commerce in certain neighbourhoods. For example, along Broadway, just past Cambie, you’ll find sporting stores appropriate for any outdoor need, along 4th it used to be kitchen supply stores, now they’ve added babies.

Where do all the bookstores congrugate? What’s in your ’hood?

Surf / snow / skate shops also congregate on W. 4th between Burrard and Fir; a collection of antique stores lines Main Street. It strikes me that this pattern is similar to the way a mall is organized, with stores grouped by product type, though in Vancouver the concourse is the street (less worries about weather driving people to climate controlled environments) and the patterns are self-organizing. I wonder if the concept of the anchor store, one store that pulls people to it, starts the trend and then other stores, seeing their market move to an area, simply follow their shoppers.