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and excluding the rest of their metropolitan areas, had somewhat over 400,000 retail establishments in 1929 or 29 per eent of the total number of retail stores then in the nation. The combined sales of ' these stores in 1929 came to f 17.4 billions, or 95 per cent of the total U.S. retail business in that year. In 1948, however, these 82 cities had some 6,000 fewer retail outlets than in 1929 and proportion* ately only 22 per cent of the total number of retail establishments in the nation, while their segregate sales, though up to over |S8 billions for that year, represented only 29 per cent of the total U.S. ^ retail, business, i* .1*48.^,,—
For the nation as a whole, the total number of retail stores increased 16 per cent between 1929 and 1948 while the aggregate dollar volume of sales rose by 186 per cent. As against this yardstick, the number of Tetail stores in the 32 big cities proper decreased one per cent in the two decades while their sales rose by 119 per cent. For the rest of the nation, however, the number of stores was 20 per cent higher in 1948 than in 1929 while sales increased 191 per cent in the period. Growth is Suburbs
A substantial part of the growth of the retail business outside of the big cities has taken place in the suburbs, reflecting the rapid population growth in these areas, especially after the war. In the decade between 1939 and 1348 for example, the number of stores in the metropolitan areas of the 32 leading cities, exclusive of the cities themselves, gained by nearly 13,000 while the retail sales in these communities were up approximately 226 per cent. Reflecting special population and growth factors, three cities have shown consistent increases in the
53.1%