RETAILING IN CANADA AND THE UNITED-STATES - HISTORICAL COMPARISONS

Although Canada and the United States are comparable in many ways, the retail environments of these two countries are not identical. This pa per explores the evolution of the retail environments of both countrie s to identify the sources of these differences and provide prospects f or the future. It appears that the differences in retail environment o bserved have their origins in population differentials and differing c ultural philosophies of the countries. Although the retail environment s of Canada and the United States have been converging for some time, it is unrealistic to expect that the differences will disappear.