International audience The notions of sustainable development and territorial development were forged from concerns and from appreciably different theoretical foundations. When they are put into practice on a local scale, we can be surprised that sometimes they seem foreign the one to the other, sometimes likened implicitly. The Ariège territories - in particular the territory of Pamiers - where are implemented a collective operation to modernize retailing, an environmental diagnosis of shops and Agendas 21, constitute interesting cases to reveal how sustainable development and territorial development articulate or not, in the public action in favour of retailing.