The downtown store continues to offer the great inducement of variety, both within its gates and across the street, where other department stores are immediately convenient for the shopper who wants to see what is available before making up her mind. If anything may be predicted in the quicksilver world of retailing, it seems likely that the suburban branch will come to dominate children's clothing (taking the kid downtown is too much of a production), household gadgetry and the discount business in big-ticket items. Department stores were built on dry goods, especially ladies' fashions, and in this area, in the long run, the suburban branches will be hard put to compete against downtown. If this analysis is correct, the suburban branches will turn out to be what management's cost accountants refuse to acknowledge, marginal operations rather than major factors.

Historically in America the appeal of cities has been their color and life, the variety of experience they offered. ``How ya gonna keep' em down on the farm?'' was a question that had to be asked long before they saw Paree. Though Americans usually lived in groups segregated by national origin or religious belief, they liked to work and shop in the noise and vitality of downtown. Only a radical change in the nature of the population in the central city would be likely to destroy this preference -- and we must now turn our attention to the question of whether such a change, gloomily foreseen by so many urban diagnosticians, is actually upon us.