Retail centres are important tools for understanding the distribution and evolution of the retail sector at varying geographical scales. This paper presents a framework through which formal definitions and typologies of retail centres, such as those in the UK, can be extended to the US. Using Chicago as a case study and data from SafeGraph, we present a retail centre delineation method that combines Hierarchical-DBSCAN with ‘H3’, and demonstrate the usefulness of a non-hierarchical approach to retail classification. In addition, we show that the dynamicity and comprehensibility of retail centres make them an effective tool through which to better understand the impacts of COVID-19 on retail centre ‘health’, demonstrating significant scope for a comprehensive delineation of the scale, extent and characteristics of American retail centre agglomerations, providing a tool through which to monitor the evolution of American retail.

零售中心是了解零售业在不同地理范围内的分布和演变的重要工具。本文提出了一个框架，通过该框架，零售中心（例如英国的零售中心）的正式定义和类型可以扩展到美国。使用芝加哥作为案例研究和来自 SafeGraph 的数据，我们提出了一种零售中心划分方法，该方法将分层 DBSCAN 与“H3”相结合，并展示了非分层方法对零售分类的有用性。此外，我们表明零售中心的动态性和可理解性使它们成为一种有效的工具，通过它可以更好地了解 COVID-19 对零售中心“健康”的影响，展示了全面划分规模的重要范围，