It’s that time of year again. The blog is another year older, but certainly not any wiser. At this point I normally reflect on the visitor activity on the blog during the year – and this year is going to be no different.  

In terms of volume of visitors, the blog has attracted almost the same level as last year (within one percent of last year’s total), making it the fourth highest year since it started. Thanks to all those that visited.  

The main measure of activity I have used previously has been the top10 or so posts in the year. As always there is an interesting mixture of new and old posts (6/4 this year). The themes of interest are broadly the same though as last year: 

Towns and town centres: It is not a surprise that towns and town centres feature heavily. A New Future for Scotland’s Town Centres still resonates with posts on Scotland’s Approach to Town Centres (#7), the UK Government’s Long Term Plan for Towns (#10) and Towns, High Streets, Resilience and Place (#12) continuing the momentum, often implicitly contrasting the Scottish approach to that in England. Whilst there is always more to do, we are at least trying to address the causes. What has dropped out of the top10 this year is the local controversy that 2022 saw on out-of-town development permission and then Ministerial refusal in Stirling. 

Grocery Market Shares: A recurring theme in the blog has been grocery market shares and their changing levels. This is always a topic of interest, and probably the most attractive to students. Twenty One Years of UK Grocery Market Shares (#1) and UK Grocery Market Shares 1997-2019 (#3) show the highest level of visitors on this topic this year and are big draws. My most recent post on the topic – Grocery Market Shares in Great Britain 1997-2023 – comes in at #9 (but it was only posted in late July and owes this position to a late run in December). I find it interesting that the UK is a bigger draw in search terms than GB, though the latter is the more accurate for that data set.

History: Two long-standing posts on aspects of retail history again feature in the top10 as they did last year. London’s Welsh Dairies turns up at #2 which is a bit of a surprise and a post on Co-operative Tokens, Sports Direct and the Bristol Pound (#8) also continues to do well. Niche subjects can attract a following, but Welsh Dairies having such an attraction is curious and delightful.  

Outliers: Three posts on quite different topics comprise the rest of the top10. My personal announcement of becoming a FRSE (#4) was followed by a piece on Strange Things in Self-Service (#5) about self-checkouts, especially in Marks and Spencer. At #6 was a chart and discussion on Internet Sales as a Percentage of Retail Sales, a topic that ebbs and flows but like those on market share has wide appeal and interest.  Bubbling just under the top 10 (#11 to be precise) is a post linking to one of my favourite websites – The architectural heritage of Montague Burton’s art deco shops.

There is obviously a recency bias to looking at the past year and 6 out of the 10 are posts within 2023. But in looking at an ‘all-time’ (i.e. since 2011) top10 the same themes emerge if we strip out the visits to the home page, the page about me (why people?), downloadable articles and book detail pages, which dominate overall visits.  

The same broad themes on the posts recur but with interestingly high views for some specialist posts on retail branding, cinemas in town centres and a Singaporean take on a Japanese Eataly. 

I started the blog to allow me to write some short commentary material and to hopefully have some data in one place that people (journalists, students etc) might find useful. Next April will mark 13 years of doing it. I’ve had fun mostly and I hope it has been, and continues to be, of interest to some others.