"The purpose of the study is to determine the trading centers that receive significant amounts of shopping goods trade flow from the communities surveyed. The position that the Denton trading center holds as a source of shopping goods for households in these communities is compared with the postions held by some competing trading centers. This study is made in cooperation with the Denton Chamber of Commerce for the benefit of the merchants of Denton. It is based on a survey made in December 1953, by the Business Administration 470 (Marketing Research) class of North Texas State College."-- leaves 1, 58.

"The purpose of this study is to find what information is available from secondary sources on retail trade areas and to assemble and analyze it so that the information will be of value to those interested in the economy of the area...the following general conclusions are drawn: 1. The Denton retail trade area is primarily agricultual. Indicators of this fact are so many and so definite that there is little doubt but that agriculture and the rural population of the area will affect, to a considerable extent all business activity. 2. In 1947, the Denton retail trade area was not highly industrialized. The trading center is not centrally located within the state of Texas, but several markets are a few miles away. A good supply of labor is available within the area. With the present trend toward decentralization of industry, these facts point toward an expansion of manufacturing in the trade area. 3. In 1948, retailing in the trade center and in the area as a whole indicates a strong retail trade center. 4. The fact that the retail trade center would be a good sampling area for companies introducing new products is indicated by the youth of the population of the center. 5. A good market for fashion goods is revealed by the large population of females in the area. 6. In 1948, wholesaling in the area had doubled in number and tripled its sales in the past ten years, and with the trend toward decentralization of industry the wholesale trade of the area should continue to increase."-- leaves 1,63.

"The purpose of this study is to determine the extent to which Denton apparel stores have succeeded in securing student trade, and from the findings, draw some conclusions concerning improvement of relations with students which would maximize the amount of student trade obtained by these stores... according to the findings, the Denton apparel stores as a whole do not seem to be achieving their maximum potential in securing student trade...It seems that most of the stores could substantially increase the amount of trade secured by expanding their advertising and sales promotion plans, by handling line of merchandise which are most appealing to the students, and by adjusting their price lines to the ranges in which students normally buy. "-- leaves 1,63.

In recent years, small towns have experienced declining levels of retail activity attributable to a variety of factors. Previously conducted research identifies a number of these factors such as changing population dynamics, continuously evolving retail practices, locational factors, and an assortment of other macroeconomic factors. Although retail decline is common for many small towns, there are some small towns that have been able to maintain their viability in an ever-changing economic climate. The primary purpose of this research is to better understand what spatial and socio-economic characteristics contribute to retail growth and decline in a series of small towns. This research highlights a selection of small towns across a 14 county area within east Texas. The selection of small towns includes a number of towns with an increasing number of retail establishments as well as a number of towns with decreasing retail establishments over the 14 year study timeframe. Contained within this research is a discussion of small town economic and retail development, as well as findings regarding spatial and socio-economic characteristics as they relate to retail growth and decline in small towns. This research finds that locational characteristics do have an effect on retail growth and decline. The research also supports the literature, which states retail growth and decline is more pronounced within certain retail categories.

"The primary objective of this study was to determine the proportion of shopping goods trade Denton merchants are losing to other cities. A secondary objective was to find reasons for the loss of trade. Since Denton is within the trade orbit of Dallas and Fort Worth, special emphasis was placed on finding the percentage of trade going to these two cities...The major finding of this study is the indication that approximately 81 percent of Denton's retail shopping goods trade is actually done in Denton. "-- leaves 1,58.

It is well established that national retail chains impact small, single location retail businesses in terms of revenue generation, retail structure, retail type diversity, and location. This study examines the retail structure and diversity of five retail districts in the City of Denton, Texas. The analysis focuses on one central business district (CBD), one traditional retail strip center (University Drive, also known as US HWY 380), one special retail district (Fry Street District), one traditional enclosed shopping mall and associated development (Golden Triangle Mall), and one power retail center (Denton Crossing). The empirical foundation for the investigation is a historical business database covering years 1997 to 2010, obtained from Info Group's Reference USA. This Reference USA database includes location, industry, and status (single versus chain location) information for each business. Retail diversity and evenness were measured for each of the five retail districts using the Simpson's Diversity Index and the Simpsons Measure of Evenness, leading to specification of the differences that exist in retail structure and diversity among the districts. Golden Triangle Mall and Denton Crossing were primarily chain location in composition while Fry Street District, the CBD, and University Drive were primarily single location in composition. Across all years, the single versus chain status of the local business communities did not substantially change within any of the districts. The Fry Street District exhibited the most change in diversity as well as the lowest overall diversity among the retail districts, followed by University Drive and Golden Triangle Mall. The CBD did not experience any major change in retail type diversity. However, all retail districts experienced major changes in retail evenness. Overall for the city, single location retail businesses accounted for the majority of all the retail businesses, however, chain locations employed more people. In total, these findings indicate that the development of retail districts composed primarily of chain location retailer's affects retail district diversity and evenness but not retail structure.