Once again a great, detailed post. It does leave me with the question - "When do you live your life?" :)
Seriously, though, whilst I agree with many of your comments I am not sure if I can toatlly concur with the following rationale.
Inner city development has generally outstripped the ability of supporting facilities to either catch up, or match, to the emerging demand for those facilities. But, rather than those facilities being built, the cost of commercial rentals in the inner CBD remains such that these facilities will generally not be put in place. In other words, far from supply following demand, supply will largely remain transfixed, meaning that demand will have to travel to the supply in order to shop.
The likelihood, therefore, is quite high that inner CBD owner /renters will end up travelling back out to the suburbs in order to do their regular shopping (ie: supermarkets, etc).
Whilst the CBD will support entertainment, dining, and amusement choices, it will not replicate the regular shopping routine (unless, of course, you are will to pay 7-11 prices for basic shopping needs).
I should say that my perspective may be slightly different from yours. I live outside Sydney but have real estate both in the suburbs and inner city. Sydney may be different than Melbourne.
I remember a time not much more than 10 or 15 years ago when there was virtually no residential property in inner city Sydney. I vividly remember seeing the streets totally empty after the working day was over. This has, of course, totally changed now with the "New Yorkian" of inner city Sydney. It has become a vibrant place to be and has great appeal to certain demographics. My perception is that that demographic is not only the 30 yo's with high disposable incomes (or rapidly disposed incomes) but also certain "empty nesters" from the suburbs who want to enjoy what the inner city has to offer (for a few years, at least).
I seem to have drifted a little from my original point.
I don't see the lack of a local Woolies, Coles or Aldi really having any impact whatsoever. I have spoken to friends who live inner city Sydney CBD on this issue. They say that they very rarely cook at home as there are more than enough reasonably priced eating places within walking distance. As far as the staples and hard goods, they only have to travel a couple of suburbs (5 - 10k) to find a Coles or Woolies. This would not be much different than many suburban dwellers. Personally, I travel 40 minutes to my nearest Supermarket once a week and am not at all concerned. Shopping is not an important part of my life! Wherever we live there will always be pros and cons, of course.
From a societal perspective (which may have much longer term effects), those that have some control over development do need to pay some attention to providing diversity of land use in all areas, including inner city. The last thing we would want to see is windswept alleys between towering high rise. This is starting to happen in pockets in Sydney and from a personal point of view, they do not have any place in my property portfolio. Most people desire to live in a "community" which includes a number of elements.
