### Problem
>Shops rarely place themselves in those positions which best serve the people’s needs, and also guarantee their own stability.

### Solution
>When you locate any individual shop, follow a three-step procedure:
>1. Identify all other shops which offer the service you are interested in; locate them on a map.
>2. Identify and map the location of potential consumers. Wherever possible, indicate the density or total number of potential consumers in any given area.
>3. Look for the biggest gap in the existing web of shops in those areas where there are potential consumers.
>4. Within the gap in the web of similar shops, locate your shop next to the largest cluster of other kinds of shops.

### Related Patterns
... This pattern defines a piecemeal process which can help to locate shops and services where they are needed, in such a way that they will strengthen the [[Mosaic of Subcultures (8)]], [[Subculture Boundary (13)]], and the decentralized economy needed for [[Scattered Work (9)]] and [[Local Transport Areas (11)]].

We estimate, that under the impact of this rule, a web of shopping with the following overall characteristics will emerge:

|                               | Population | Distance Apart* |
|:----------------------------- |:----------:|:---------------:|
| [[Magic of the City (10)]]    |  300,000   |       10        |
| [[Promenade (31)]]            |   50,000   |        4        |
| [[Shopping Street (32)]]      |   10,000   |       1.8       | 
| [[Market of Many Shops (46)]] |   4,000    |       1.1       |
| [[Corner Grocery (89)]]       |   1,000    |       0.5       |

``*These distances are calculated for an overall population density of 5000 per square mile. For a population density of D persons/sq.mile, divide the distances by root(D/5000)
``

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> [!cite]- Alexander, Christopher. _A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction_. Oxford University Press, 1977, p. 104
> #APL/confidence/medium
>
> #APL/Town-Patterns/Community-Networking