-
Author: Leigh Sparks
-
Follow me on Twitter
My TweetsPage Updates
02.08.2018 2018 Publications updated to include three new articles
12.07.2018 Our latest Trading Places column for Town & Country Planning is now available on the Trading Places section of this blog
Top Posts & Pages
- Twenty One Years of UK Grocery Market Share
- Albert Gubay 1928-2016
- Presentations
- Trading Places: our Town and Country Planning Columns
- About Leigh Sparks and this Blog
- Research Projects
- From the Scottish Government’s National Review of Town Centres to the World Towns Summit
- Shops opening and expanding, queues outside: the High Street picture that’s not making the national news
- Uncertainty: Brexit and Retailing
- Talking Tesco (Again)
Writing About ...
Archives
- Follow Stirlingretail on WordPress.com
Blogroll
Meta
RSS Feed
Author Archives: Leigh Sparks
Twenty One Years of UK Grocery Market Share
UK Grocery Market Shares are a little dependent on who you believe. In my case, I have chosen one group (initially TNS, subsequently taken over by Kantar) and stuck with them. I have wanted not to focus on the short-term … Continue reading
Posted in Aldi, Asda, Discounters, Food Retailing, Lidl, Market Shares, Retail Change, Sainsbury, Tesco, Uncategorized
Tagged Discounters, Kantar Worldpanel, Market share, Tesco, UK Grocery
2 Comments
Trading Places: our Town and Country Planning Columns
In 2012 Anne Findlay and I attempted to take over from Professor Cliff Guy who had provided the Trading Places columns in Town and Country Planning for 12 years. In the subsequent 6 years we have produced 23 columns, but … Continue reading
Posted in Academics, Alcohol, BIDS, Bill Grimsey, Bookmakers, Consumer Change, Consumers, Farm Shops, Food Retailing, Government, High Streets, Internet shopping, Mary Portas, Places, Planning, Pop-Up Shops, Proactive Planning, Rates, Resilience, Retail Change, Retail Parks, Retail Planning, Retail Policy, Social Inequality, Town & Country PLanning, Town Centre Review, Town Centres, Uncategorized
Tagged BIDs, Bookmakers, Business rates, Consumer change, Farm Shops, High Streets, Obesity, Planning, Pop-Up Shops, Rates, Retail, Retail Change, retail parks, Retail Planning, TCPA, Town and Country Planning, Town Centres
Leave a comment
Putting Towns on the Policy Map: Understanding Scottish Places (USP) and Data
As an academic, I probably have an irrational interest in data. To a great extent it is academic life-blood and I seem to have spent a lot of my adult life either obsessing or arguing over it. It therefore really … Continue reading
Posted in Academics, Bill Grimsey, Consumer Change, Data, High Streets, Internet shopping, Large Store Levy, Leadership, Local Authorities, Online Retailing, Rates, Retail Change, Retailers, Sales, Scotland's Town and High Streets, Scottish Retail Consortium, Scottish Retailing, Shop Numbers, Town Centre Review, Town Centres, Towns, Uncategorized, Understanding Scottish Places
Tagged Business rates, Data, Fraser review, Grimsey Review, High Streets, Local Authorities, Online retailing, Retail Change, Retail Data, Scotland, scottish retail consortium, Shops, towns, Understanding Scottish Places, USP
1 Comment
Damaged Goods
As Private Eye put it, serialised exclusively across all newspapers, this book says that Philip Green is not a nice person. “Quelle surprise” as they may say in Croydon. But on the other hand, Oliver Shah is the Sunday Times … Continue reading
Posted in BHS, Employees, Finance, Government, Leadership, Legislation, Pensions, Philip Green, Politicians, Regulation, Retail Failure, Retail leadership, Shareholders, Uncategorized
Tagged Brexit, Collapse, Corruption, Damaged Goods, Employees, Pensions, Philip Green, Retail, Scandal, Sunday Times
Leave a comment
A New User’s Reflections on Online Grocery Shopping
I am old enough to remember the initial Tesco home shopping trials in Gateshead in the early 1980s (Gateshead Shopping and Information System) when home shopping via Videotex (look it up if you don’t know) was seen as being a … Continue reading
Posted in Availability, Consumer Change, Food Retailing, Gateshead SIS, History, Internet shopping, Local Authorities, Online Retailing, Retail Change, Service Quality, Supply Chains, Television, Tesco
Tagged Amazon, Computing, Gateshead SIS, Groceries, Home Shoppng, internet shopping, technology, Tesco, Videotex
Leave a comment
Orkney – the Second Leg
Our recent visit to Orkney was not meant to be about retailing or shops, but inevitably just wandering around Stromness and Kirkwall one can’t help but look at the retailing. As I noted in the earlier blog, the overwhelming sense … Continue reading
Posted in Architecture, Art Deco, Environmental Quality, Ghost Signs, High Streets, Historic Shops, History, Orkney, Places, Planning, Post Offices, Regeneration, Retail History, Scotland's Town and High Streets, Shopfronts, Signage, Small Towns, Streets, Streetscapes, Stromness, Towns
Tagged Art Deco, Design, Fascias, Fugaccia, Ghostsigns, History, Orkney, Retail History, Retail Stores, Shopfronts, Soda Fountain, Stromness
Leave a comment
Tiles and Sardines
For those who catch up with me on Twitter, a few weeks ago we had a long weekend in Lisbon – no, not for Eurovision – and I said I would do a post on retail things of interest we … Continue reading
Posted in 3D Printing, Architecture, Azulejo, Cooperatives, Fish, Food Retailing, Historic Shops, History, Lisbon, Markets, Producers, Retail History, Sardines, Shopfronts, Streetscapes, Urban History
Tagged Azulejo, Design, Escher, IKEA, Lisbon, Markets, Producers Associations, Restaurants, Retail History, Sardines, Shops, Tiles
Leave a comment
