Author: Leigh Sparks
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February 2023 – New piece for The Conversation on online retailing (see commentaries tab)
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
- The Buttercup Dairy Company
- Retail change and why we fell in love with supermarkets?
- Logistics and Retail Management 5th Edition
- A (Retail) Sense of Place
- UK Grocery Market Share 1997-2019
- London's Welsh Dairies: The Welsh Milk Trade
- Oxford Street, Hull and Beyond
- Strange Things in Self-Service
- Urban Logistics and Retailing
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Category Archives: Experiential
Strange Things in Self-Service
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 Amazon Fresh, Amazon Go, Clothing, Consumers, Costs, Customer service, Marks and Spencer, Retail, Retail Employment, Sainsbury, Self-checkout, Self-Scanning, Self-Service, technology
2 Comments
Singapore’s Scary Monsters
Back in the warmth of Singapore for our graduation and alumni events and associated student and other meetings, and there seemed to be only one question people had for me; what could be done about Singapore’s ailing retail sector? On … Continue reading
Posted in Adjacencies, Art, Brands, Corporate branding, Customer engagement, Design, Experiential, Flagship, Food and Beverage, Gentle Monster, Korea, Malls, Online Retailing, Retailers, Retailing, Shopping Centres, Singapore, Space, Vacancies
Tagged Experiential, Food and Beverage, Gentle Monster, Korea, Malls, Shopping Centres, Singapore, Space, Store Adjacencies, Sunglasses, Tourism, Vacancies
1 Comment
The Lost Broch of Stirling
I am not sure what it says about me, but I have been seduced into some small crowdfunding projects over the last few years. The subjects have been food, drink, rugby and history, so maybe I do know how and … Continue reading
Posted in Architecture, Brochs, Buildings, Crowdfunding, Experiential, Heritage, History, Incredible Edible, Retail Change, Sexism, Social media, Stirling, University of Stirling, Urban, Urban History
Tagged Brochs, Buildings, Crowdfunding, Incredible Edible, Scotland, Sexism, Stirling, University of Stirling, Urban History
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Singapore Swing
My current dose of warm weather in Singapore and soon in Hong Kong is mainly about meeting and talking to partners of the University of Stirling in my capacity as Deputy Principal for Internationalisation and Graduate Studies. It is good … Continue reading
Posted in Academics, Consumer Change, Consumer Lifestyle, Consumers, Convenience stores, Experiential, Multichannel, Retail brands, Retailers, Singapore
Tagged authentic, Brands, compelling, Consumers, Convenience, ease, engaged, entertained, Retail, Singapore, stores, Trends
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And now for some good news: Dixons Carphone and Dyson Openings
As promised, after my rather pessimistic review of some recent retail stories in the last blog, I want to turn to something a little more positive. The stories below that caught my attention are in one way the other side … Continue reading
Posted in BrickMeetsClick, Consumer Lifestyle, Design, Dixons Carphone, Dyson, Electronics, Engineering, Experiential, Flagship, London, Multichannel, Oxford Street, Pop-Up Shops, Space, Tesco
Tagged Carphone Warehouse, Design, Dyson, Entertainment, Flagship, London, Oxford Street, pop-up stores, Tesco
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Market Time
I suspect that my interest in markets was sparked at a young age when my father would take me to the livestock market and my mother would take me to the open-air market (Cheapside) and to the covered food market, … Continue reading
Posted in Christmas, Experiential, Farmers Markets, Festivals, Food, Krakow, London, Markets, Places, Spaces, Streetscapes, Urban History
Tagged Christmas, Entrepreneurs, Food, Krakow, London, Markets
2 Comments
A Japanese Eataly? In Singapore?
Regular readers of this blog will recall that I have a bit of a thing for Eataly, the destination food retail and dining concept showcasing the best in Italian local, slow and seasonal products and other gourmet food and cooking. … Continue reading
Posted in Eataly, Emporium Shokuhin, Experiential, Food, Food Quality, Food Retailing, Gastronomy, Japanese, Markets, Restaurants, Scotland Food and Drink, Seafood, Shopping Centres, Singapore, Slow Food
Tagged Concept Store, Eataly, Emporium Shokuhin, Food, Japan, Restaurants, Seafood, Singapore
2 Comments
Marks and Sparks
In the dim and distant past, when I first arrived at the University of Stirling, I was one of number of research follows and assistants involved in establishing the Institute for Retail Studies under the leadership of John Dawson. One … Continue reading
We didn’t see that coming
Celtic mysticism abounds in Stirling, mainly because a number of the retail staff here are Welsh – and those that aren’t, such as Steve Burt, wish they were – and so strange languages … Continue reading
Posted in Consumer Change, Experiential, Fairies, Merchandising, New Age, Scotland's Town and High Streets, Spirituality
Tagged New Age, Retailing, Scotland, Spirituality
1 Comment
So …
… and the next phrase is NOT Moneysupermarket.com and their infuriating ads. Instead the answer is Peter Gabriel and his appearance (So …) in Glasgow last week. But unlike the last time I saw him in Glasgow, this time he … Continue reading
Posted in Experiential, Food, Internet shopping, Merchandising, Music, Online Retailing, Places
Tagged CD, Experiential, Food, Hydro, Merchandising, Music, Venues
2 Comments