This paper examines one type of decline referred to as retail ‘blight’. It is argued that retail blight is most frequently defined in terms of undesirable structural phenomena, such as high vacancy rates, and that this has led to considerable confusion. A case is made for an alternative approach, that is, to define retail blight as a deviant behavioural process which may eventually result in loss of retail activity; undesirable changes in retail structure are viewed as symptoms of this process. This alternative approach is explained in relation to blighted shopping precincts in England and Wales.
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