Next review whether the retail space you are considering is complementary to nearby retail establishments. For example, it would not be appropriate to put a liquor store adjacent to a school for troubled children. However, a dry cleaners, nail salon, office supply store and dollar store might all fit well in their neighborhood shopping center anchored by a major grocery chain.

Grocery stores, drugstores and gas stations tend to be complementary. In some cases, they are all provided by one retailer. For example, many of the Sam's Club or Super Wal-Mart's have groceries, a drugstore and sell gasoline. In addition, there has been a growing trend for grocery stores to sell gasoline as a loss leader. Their objective is not to make money selling gasoline. Their objective is to increase the number of trips customers make to the store to buy groceries.

In some cases, "category killers" cluster in a power center. (A category killer is a retailer who stocks every conceivable item relative to a category. Office Depot is a category killer for office supplies. Petco is a category killer for pet supplies.) Having four to six category killers in one cluster is referred to as a power center.

The stores are not linked in a physical sense, other than being part of the same planned development. In other words, they were likely developed at the same time on one large tract of land, but there is no enclosed pathway between the stores. Other examples of category killers are Home Depot, Circuit City, Best Buy, Linens N Things and Bed Bath and Beyond.

Another example of complementary use retail uses would be to put a beauty products store, hair salon, tanning salon, nail salon and spa contiguous with each other in the same retail center. Customers interested in one of these businesses may well be interested in at least one of the others.

Complementary uses can be a meaningful enhancement of a location. However, uses which are clearly inconsistent with your proposed location may be a deal killer.