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Comparative Sale* Gala*
Retail sales in the big cities, of course, have shown marked gains over the last decade in common with the great growth of the nation’s retail trade and the economy as a whole in the period. How. ever, on a relative basis the retail sales gains in the leading cities have been outstripped by those in the rest of the nation in the aggregate between 1939 and 1948.
Furthermore, the number of retail establishments in the bfg cities, with few exceptions, has declined substantially in the last decade and in'the aggregate is now lower than it was in 1929, according to the latest figures. This is in marked contrast with the rise in the number of retailing outlets in the suburbs and in the small and medium-sized communities, not only since prewar but as compared with 1929 as well. It is this latter trend which is entirely responsible for the fact that there are now about a quarter of a million more retail establishments in the United States than there were in 1929. Trend* Analysed
In the aggregate, the 32 cities with populations of 250,000 and over within their own city limits,
66.4%