Michael Florio

The proliferation of big-box retailing is the most recent retail upheaval facing Canadian cities and towns. It is reshaping the fonn of retail in Canada. No retail sector has been immune as those selling goods across the continuum of the retail sector have been affected by the intrusion ofnew retail types. Impacts are evident in the composition of retail employment, store closures, and commercial vacancy rates. This paper examines impacts ofbig-box retailers in the City of Toronto. The research employs a quantitative inquiry into the impacts ofbig-box retailing in Toronto through the application of the LISA statistic (local indicators of spatial association) to help interpret the data and its spatial arrangement on the Toronto landscape. The technique located and allowed for the identification of the areas in Toronto where retail employment changes, store closures and commercial vacancy rates are being felt in a non-random systematic pattern. Then with these areas isolated, Speannan's rank correlation coefficient was used to test the association of these areas with proximity to big- box retailers. Results suggest that alterations in the retail structure are found to be attributable to increased commercial competition from big-box retailing in the City of Toronto. The intention is that the results of this study may be ofuse to municipal planners interested in fostering a viable and sustainable commercial sector within their communities in the face of the most recent retail revolution by making the effects of this current retail revolution better understood.