Restaurant location trends in the period of food service industry restructuring: Case of Wakayama in the 2000s

Abstract

The food service industry in the 2000s was characterized by increases in the size of individual restaurants amid a sharp decline in their overall number. This study examined location trends by management style, as well as type of restaurant in Wakayama, a local city, during restructuring of the food service industry between 2000 and 2010. For the number of standard and specialty restaurants, which are primarily members of chains, the results showed a clearly decreasing trend in the city center and increasing trend along main roads and in shopping centers in the suburbs. In contrast there was a sharp decline in the number of independent restaurants, but they maintained their locational characteristic of convergence around the city center. Japanese-style bars also tended to concentrate around JR Wakayama Statioa regardless of the management style.