# What amenities and market solutions arise as a city grows

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-amenities-and-market-solutions-arise-as-a-city-grows/677967>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [January 5, 2014, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-amenities-and-market-solutions-arise-as-a-city-grows/677967 "2014-01-05T20:47:47Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\
**Post date:** [January 5, 2014, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-amenities-and-market-solutions-arise-as-a-city-grows/677967/1 "2014-01-05T20:47:47Z")

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Visiting small towns, this is the rule of thumb I have come across. When a city gets to about 1000 people they develop a small general store which is usually a dollar store (family dollar or dollar general), a post office, a library. Smaller than that they usually do not have those things.

When the city gets to 5000 people they have a real grocery store (rather than a few isles at dollar general) and a real department store, possibly a real hardware superstore. As a city grows larger both the market demand for goods/services grows and the tax base grows allowing more opportunities. I haven’t seen many cities with less than 20-30k people that have public transit. And even those, I haven’t seen ones with public transit trains (as well as a bus system) for less than 200k people.

It seems a city generally has to get to 300-500k+ people to have the fan base and tax revenue to support professional sports team(s). As a city grows certain opportunities arise.

Is there an actual formula for what businesses and public institutions develop relative to population or does it vary wildly by city?

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**Author:** ![Mr\_Downtown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Mr\_Downtown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Downtown)\
**Post date:** [January 6, 2014, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-amenities-and-market-solutions-arise-as-a-city-grows/677967/2 "2014-01-06T05:15:40Z")

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Nothing that considers all variables. Obviously a bedroom suburb isn’t what you’ll think of as a “city of 100,000,” but many are that large. They obviously function very differently from the industrial satellite cities of similar size found near great metropolises. A town of 1000 in ranch country will have a different marketshed than one in rich farmland. Towns that attract middle-class retirees have “mailbox economies” that completely skew the observations.

At any rate, the term you’re seeking for further study is [central place theory.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_place_theory)

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**Author:** ![Green\_Bean](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/green_bean/32/1760_2.png) [@Green\_Bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Bean)\
**Post date:** [January 6, 2014, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-amenities-and-market-solutions-arise-as-a-city-grows/677967/3 "2014-01-06T05:27:10Z")

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Nice username/post combo there!

thanks for the link. Interesting stuff.