Category Archives: Availability

Scottish Retail Sales: seeing the impact of Lockdown

Posted on April 22, 2020 by

Earlier today (22nd April) the March figures from the Scottish Retail Sales Monitor (managed by the British Retail Consortium and KPMG) were published. They were as bad as everyone expected, and the commentary in the media showed due concern (for … Continue reading →

Posted in Availability, BRC, Closure, Community, Consumer Change, Consumers, Convenience stores, Covid19, Food, Food Retailing, Grocery, High Streets, Independents, Internet shopping, Lockdown, Market Shares, Non-food retailing, Panic buying, Places, Rents, Resilience, Retail Change, Retail Economy, Retail Sales, Retailers, Retailing, Scotland's Town and High Streets, Scottish Retail Consortium, Scottish Retail Sales, Scottish Retailing, Shopping, Social Inequality, Supply Chains, Town Centres, Towns, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Changing Priorities? The End of the (Retail) World as We Knew It

Posted on April 14, 2020 by

In the last three posts I have looked at the food vs non-food dichotomy in retailing as COVID19 sweeps through the country.  The figures and situation are astonishing and something no-one predicted a few weeks/months ago. How do we make … Continue reading →

Posted in Availability, Community, Consumer Change, Consumer Choice, Consumers, Contactless, Convenience stores, Covid19, Food Retailing, Grocery, Independents, Internet shopping, Local Retailers, Localisation, Non-food retailing, Online Retailing, Panic buying, Producers, Resilience, Retail Change, Retail Sales, Retailers, Small Shops, Supermarket, Suppliers, Supply Chains, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

A New User’s Reflections on Online Grocery Shopping

Posted on June 25, 2018 by

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 , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Try Before You Buy: A ‘Returns Tsunami’?

Posted on April 20, 2018 by

The rise of the internet as a channel of purchase and distribution has been a major transformation for consumers and also for many retailers.  Whilst distance selling including mail order had been present for centuries, the internet offers a radically … Continue reading →

Posted in Asos, Availability, Catalogues, Consumer Choice, Internet shopping, Loyalty, Membership, Returns, Supply Chains, Sustainable Development, Try before you buy | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

The Scottish Diet and Retail Shops

Posted on June 16, 2017 by

The Scottish diet has become a short-hand for unhealthy living.  All the evidence points to its stubborn lack of change despite information, exhortation and even small measures of legislation.  Whilst retailers and manufacturers have taken some actions on reformulation of … Continue reading →

Posted in Academics, Advertising, Availability, Behavioural Economics, Brands, Consumer Choice, Consumer Lifestyle, Diet and Health, Discounts, Food Retailing, Food Standards, Healthcare Retail Standard, Labelling, Marketing, Merchandising, Policy, Pricing, Research, Retail Policy, Retailers, Scotland, Scotland Food and Drink, Scottish Retailing, Small Shops, Space, Sugar Tax, Supermarket, Suppliers, Tax, Unit Pricing, University of Stirling | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

An Unholy Trinity: Brexit, Marmite and Toblerone

Posted on October 18, 2016 by

Last week was all about a divided nation. Were you cheering or crying when Marmite was removed from Tesco’s shelves? The delicious irony that Dave Lewis, CEO of Tesco, used to work for Unilever, the makers of Marmite and various … Continue reading →

Posted in Availability, Brands, Brexit, Buying, Discounters, Food Retailing, Internet shopping, Marmite, Pricing, Product Sizes, Relationships, Stock, Supply Chains, Tesco, Toblerone, Unilever | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Thoughts on Tesco and M&S

Posted on January 8, 2015 by

The obvious cheap shot, unresisted by a number on social media so far today, is that whilst Tesco have revealed their Trading Statement for the last 19 weeks, we need to wait a while to see if these figures are … Continue reading →

Posted in Availability, Click and Collect, Consumer Change, Food Retailing, Logistics, Marks and Spencer, Multichannel, Pricing, Store Closures, Supply Chains, Tesco, Turnaround | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

“You can’t be a good retailer unless you’re good at logistics”

Posted on April 1, 2014 by

At the recent World Retail Congress in Singapore, Scott Price, CEO Wal-Mart Asia made the statement that ‘you can’t be a good retailer unless you’re good at logistics’. Regular readers of this blog know that this is a theme I … Continue reading →

Posted in Availability, Books, Click and Collect, Dark Stores, Logistics, Online Retailing, Supply Chains | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Christmas Past; Christmas Future?

Posted on February 19, 2014 by

With the Asda results due this week, the dust has sort of settled over Christmas trading. There are plenty of reports and coverage on the winners and loser based on sales and some evidence for some on the impacts on … Continue reading →

Posted in Availability, Christmas, Consumer Change, Internet shopping, Marks and Spencer, Multichannel, PC World, Technology | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Northern Lights – getting dimmer?

Posted on January 23, 2014 by

If you have been keeping up with the additions I have been posting in the Journal Articles section of this blog, you will have seen that my colleague Paul Freathy has recently had a number of articles published about his … Continue reading →

Posted in Availability, Consumer Change, Internet, Internet shopping, Outshopping, Rural, Scotland's Islands | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments