Category Archives: Customer Service

Is it the End for Self-Checkouts?

Posted on December 4, 2023 by Leigh Sparks

A few weeks ago, an announcement by Booths (the north west of England supermarket chain) sparked a lot of media interest and column inches. They had decided to remove self-checkouts from all bar two of their stores. Was this the … Continue reading →

Posted in Academics, Booths, Checkouts, Consumers, Customer engagement, Customer Service, Employees, Marks and Spencer, Retailers, Retailing, Self-checkout, Self-Scanning, Self-Service, Technology | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Ground Down

Posted on May 9, 2023 by Leigh Sparks

Last February I wrote about the state of customer service and specifically the failure of KRUPS to honour their manufacturer warranty.  A further two months have now passed and last week I finally got a replacement coffee grinder, but not … Continue reading →

Posted in Consumers, Currys, Customer engagement, Customer Service, Legislation, Retailers, Sale of Goods Act, Warranties | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Coffee KRUPS

Posted on February 20, 2023 by Leigh Sparks

In the middle of 2021, I bought a coffee grinder.  I looked around, read the reviews, and ended up getting a KRUPS burr grinder (cost c£35).  So far, so good.  Just after Christmas 2022, the grinder stopped working.  Dead, nothing, … Continue reading →

Posted in Amazon, Brexit, Consumers, Customer Service, KRUPS, Service Quality, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Strange Things in Self-Service

Posted on February 8, 2023 by Leigh Sparks

My twitter timeline has been populated recently by photos of retailers doing, for me, some strange things with self-service tills.  These tills have popped up everywhere over the last decade and not always to universal acclaim.  B&Q and WH Smith … Continue reading →

Posted in Amazon Fresh, Amazon Go, Clothing, Consumers, Customer Service, Employment practices, Experiential, Functional Retailing, Marks and Spencer, Retail Change, Sainsbury, Self-checkout, Self-Scanning, Self-Service, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Queen Bees : Q-commerce, the on-demand world and the changing meaning of online retailing

Posted on December 20, 2021 by Leigh Sparks

Online retailing is now close to 30 years old.  It has seen an almost relentless growth over much of this period, accelerated by events such as Black Friday and Christmas, and more recently super-charged by the pandemic and lockdown.  The … Continue reading →

Posted in Amazon, Availability, Black Friday, Community, Consumer Lifestyle, Consumers, Convenience stores, Customer Service, Dark Stores, Employment practices, Food Retailing, Home, Home Delivery, Internet, Internet shopping, Just in Time, Office for National Statistics, On demand retailing, Online Retailing, Q-commerce, Retailers, Retailing, Shopping | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Going Self-Service – a 70 year old revolution?

Posted on September 30, 2019 by Leigh Sparks

A few weeks ago a journalist rang and asked about the introduction of self-service retailing into the UK.  A particular question was about the way in which retailers converting to self-service in the 1940s and 1950s knew what to do … Continue reading →

Posted in Consumer Change, Customer Service, Express Dairies, Food Retailing, Historic Shops, History, Retail Change, Retail History, Retail innovation, Retailers, Retailing, Self-checkout, Self-Service, Small Shops, Tesco, Uncategorized, USA | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

The Multiplier and the Glue: Locally owned convenience stores and the local economy

Posted on September 23, 2019 by Leigh Sparks

Longer term readers of this blog will possibly recall a long standing interest in the impacts of small convenience stores on the local economy. This has taken the form of some discussion about what may be termed ‘the local multiplier’. … Continue reading →

Posted in Academics, Community, Consumers, Convenience stores, Customer Service, Independents, Local Multiplier, Local Retailers, Relationships, Retail Economy, Retailers, Scottish Grocers Federation, Scottish Local Retailer, Uncategorized, University of Stirling | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

London’s Welsh Dairies: The Welsh Milk Trade

Posted on September 16, 2019 by Leigh Sparks

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 , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 33 Comments

Efficiency or Idiocy?

Posted on May 24, 2019 by Leigh Sparks

For some time it has been apparent that Dave Lewis has been determined to address the ‘bloat’ in Tesco and cut back on all sorts of things.  In the big picture out have gone most of the diversifications of the … Continue reading →

Posted in Boots, Competition, Consumer Change, Consumers, Costs, Customer Service, distribution, Food Retailing, Local Retailers, Pharmacy, Plastic Bags, Retailers, Self-checkout, Stirling, Tax, Tesco, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 8 Comments

Feargal Quinn 1936-2019

Posted on May 2, 2019 by Leigh Sparks

On the 25th April, it was announced that Feargal Quinn the legendary Irish retail businessman, founder of Superquinn, had passed away.   The President of Ireland said There have been many tributes and obituaries to him in the days that have … Continue reading →

Posted in Alumni, Consumer Lifestyle, Customer engagement, Customer Service, Food Retailing, Ireland, Retail leadership, Retailers, Retailing, Supermarket, Superquinn, Uncategorized, University of Stirling | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment