Author: Leigh Sparks
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January 2023 – Roll over of some areas for new year, plus The Conversation piece on Christmas trading updates published (see commentaries tab) and main posts
December 2022 – End of year tidying up and re-arrangement, including link to EDAS podcast on places and towns (see presentations tab)
April 2022 -new journal article published (Journal Articles page) on Twenty-One Years of Going Shopping and Marketing History
Top Posts & Pages
- Strange Things in Self-Service
- Co-operative Tokens, Sports Direct and The Bristol Pound
- Grocery Market Shares in the UK 2020
- Twenty One Years of UK Grocery Market Share
- Logistics and Retail Management 5th Edition
- The Great Tapestry of Scotland in Galashiels
- Retail change and why we fell in love with supermarkets?
- Grocery Market Shares in Great Britain (GB) 1997-2022
- UK Grocery Market Share 1997-2019
- 1967 and All Things Retail
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Category Archives: Books
The Changing Climate through Ice and Seeds
I try to use my break at Christmas and New Year to catch up on some reading that is non work based (whether administrative or academic work). A couple of books had caught my eye some weeks ago and they … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Climate Emergency, Community, Food, Gardens, Home Growing, Ice, Real Seeds, Scotland, Seeds, Snow
Tagged Books, Climate Change, Gardens, Ice, Scotland, Seeds, Snow, vegetables, Weather
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Ghostsigns: A London Story
Anyone who follows me on twitter will have seen my fascination with ghostsigns and especially retail ones. They have also featured at various points in this blog (for example Scotland, Montana, Dublin, London). Most notably (for I am undoubtedly in … Continue reading
Posted in Advertising, Books, Buildings, Crowdfunding, Design, Ghost Signs, Heritage, High Streets, History, London, Retail History, Signage, Streetscapes, Town Centres
Tagged Advertising, Book, Crowdfunding, Design, Ghost Signs, Ghostsigns, Heritage, High Streets, History, London, Photography, Signs, Streetscapes, Urban History
2 Comments
An (Un)Happy Anniversary
On the 16th March 2020 I started working from home. There had been an odd set of circumstances in the run-up to this date. We’d come back from South Africa in late January and I’d felt a little unwell; something … Continue reading
Posted in Amazon, Books, Cardiff, Christmas, Consumer Change, Consumer Lifestyle, Consumers, Covid19, Farmers Markets, Food, Food and Beverage, Food Retailing, Home Delivery, Independents, Internet shopping, Local Retailers, Localisation, Lockdown, Online Retailing, Pandemic, Producers, Products, Retail Change, Retailers, Retailing, Scotland Food and Drink, Scottish Retailing, Small Shops, Stirling, Uncategorized, Wholesaling
Tagged Amazon, Covid-19, Home Delivery, Indepedendents, internet retailing, Local Retailing, Lockdown, Pandemic, Retailing, Specialist retailers
1 Comment
The Buttercup Dairy Company
One of the most enjoyable things about social media is the ease of connectivity to people, their work and interesting (well, to me) things. It really is so much more simpler and easier than decades ago. A good example of … Continue reading
Posted in Architecture, Books, Buttercup Dairy Company, Corporate History, Creative Places, Edinburgh, Food Retailing, Grocery, Heritage, Historic Shops, History, Retail Change, Retail History, Retailing, Scotland, Scotland's Town and High Streets, Shopfronts, Signage, Town Centres, Uncategorized, Urban History
Tagged Architecture, Buttercup Dairy Company, Customer service, Grocery, Heritage, Retail History, Shop Fronts, Shops, Tiles
1 Comment
Fading Glory: the Ghost Signs of London
Anyone following me on twitter will know of my enduring fascination with ghostsigns. It has also appeared on this blog a few times. These traces of the past are, in my view, something worth capturing and preserving (or at least … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Design, Ghost Signs, Heritage, London, Places, Retail Change, Retail History, Towns, Uncategorized, Urban History
Tagged Books, Ghost Signs, Ghostsigns, Heritage, London
1 Comment
Quant (ifying) the Past
A weekend away in London, and a chance to take in some exhibitions and meet up with up friends. The outcome; a great weekend but some contrasting cultural experiences. Amongst the things we saw were the Tutankhamun exhibition at the … Continue reading
Posted in 1960s, Bazaar, Books, Clothes, Exhibitions, Fashion, History, Mary Quant, Pop-Up Shops, Uncategorized, Wholesaling
Tagged 1960s, Bazaar, Clothing, Design, Exhibition Shops, Fashion, King's Road, Mary Quant, Retail History, Retailing, Shopping, Tutankhamun, V&A Museum
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London’s Welsh Dairies: The Welsh Milk Trade
As a child I remember people mentioning the ‘milk train’ between London and South Wales, but was never sure if it was first up or last down or both. Before I married, my fiancée and I went to stay in … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Buildings, Consumer Change, Consumers, Customer Service, distribution, Food, Food Retailing, Heritage, High Streets, Historic Shops, History, Independents, London, MIlk, Retail Change, Retail History, Sanders Bros, Shopfronts, Signage, Uncategorized, Urban History, Wales
Tagged Book, Consumer change, Dairy, Distribution and Supply, Drovers, Heritage, History, London Welsh, MIlk, Retail History, Retailing, Sanders Bros, Shopfronts, Wales
25 Comments
Food, health and data: developing transformative food retailing
In early November 2018, a book on Case Studies in Food Retailing and Distribution was published, edited by John Byrom and Dominic Medway. Amongst the very wide ranging and interesting chapters, was an effort by myself and two colleagues from … Continue reading
Posted in Academics, Behavioural Economics, Books, Data, Diet and Health, Digital, Ethics, Food, Food Retailing, Health, Loyalty, Loyalty Schemes, Retailers, Social Change, Uncategorized, Well being
Tagged Academics, Companies, Consumers, Data, Diet and Health, Ethics, Finland, Health, Loyalty, Retailing, Scotland, Society, Transformative, Wellbeing
2 Comments
Navigating The New Retail Landscape
Readers of this blog will be aware of the occasional use of guest bloggers and of book reviews. A couple of weeks ago my colleague Steve Burt showed me a new retail book he had bought, authored by two contemporaries … Continue reading
Posted in Academics, Books, Consumer Change, Consumers, Customer engagement, International Retailing, Internet, Multichannel, Retail Change, Retail leadership, Retailers, Strategy, Technology
Tagged Books, Customer engagement, Internet, Omni-Channel, Retail, Retail Change, Retail leadership, Strategy, technology
1 Comment
An overview of (UK) retailing
One of the common questions that I get asked, generally and by journalists and students, is ‘what is going on in retailing?’ There are many ways to answer this, and in the various presentations I do, some of the themes … Continue reading