Editorial.

This article presents information about the studies, which deal with downtown retailing in two cities of Canada and the United States. These studies were originally presented at the annual CIRM conference at Manchester in September 2004. One of the cities discussed in the article is Toronto of Canada and another is a mid-west American city. One such study discusses the downtown planning theme with a study of the evolution of retailing in the historic center of Utrecht between 1979 and 2003. In this study by using entropy statistics, the researchers show that the "retail mix" of uses has changed over time with the center maintaining its viability because of the emergence of formats which appeal to the recreational shopper.