Less accessible businesses in suburban areas

In 2017, the vast majority of the population lived near a food store or pharmacy: four out of five consumers lived within 2 kilometres of a bakery and 65% of the amounts spent at pharmacies took place in the municipality of residence. While the distribution of the retail space of shops is similar to that of the population, the industry-specific differences are significant. For example, non-specialised food and clothing shops are the furthest away from consumers. However, consumers do not exclusively frequent the closest shop to their home: to calculate a consumer’s accessibility to the businesses in a particular industry, all the shops around him or her must be taken into account.

Inequalities of access appear between different areas. One in three residents has limited access to clothing supplies. The further away from city centres, the less accessible shops are: on the outskirts of large urban centres, one in five residents has little access to the products available. This is the case for nearly one in three people living on the outskirts of medium and small town centres.