Category Archives: Food Standards

“Retail sales surge close to pre-lockdown levels”

The retail headlines last week were interesting. Based on the latest Office for National Statistics retail sales data (for June 2020), the media packaged up a story about how UK retail sales had surged to pre-lockdown levels and were close … Continue reading

Posted in Consumer Change, Covid19, Data, Food Standards, Home Delivery, Internet shopping, Lockdown, Office for National Statistics, Online Retailing, Retail Change, Retail Sales, Sales, Shopping, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Policy Interventions for Healthier Diets: Insights from Scotland

Last week I was in Helsinki at the invitation of Hannu Saarijarvi to present two sessions to selected Finnish Ministries and to the S-Group. As noted before in this blog I have co-authored a book chapter with Hannu and Sonja … Continue reading

Posted in Consumer Lifestyle, Cooperatives, Diet and Health, Food Retailing, Food Standards, Government, Health, Healthcare Retail Standard, Healthy Living, Labelling, Legislation, Loyalty Schemes, Policy, Retail Policy, Retailers, Retailing, Scotland, Scottish Government, Social Inequality, Uncategorized, University of Stirling | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Are Retailers Social Engineers?

A few months ago, we published our report for Food Standards Scotland (FSS) entitled “Identifying and Understanding the Factors that can Transform the Retail Environment to Enable Healthier Purchasing by Consumers”.  The report and various summaries along with our brief … Continue reading

Posted in Community Grocer, Consumer Lifestyle, Consumers, Convenience stores, Cross Party Group, Deposit Return Scheme, Diet and Health, Food, Food Retailing, Food Standards, Health, Healthcare Retail Standard, Healthy Living, Independents, Local Retailers, Restaurants, Retail Change, Retailers, Scotland Food and Drink, Scottish Grocers Federation, Small Shops, Social Inequality, Social Justice, Sugar Tax, Waste | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 8 Comments

The Scottish Diet and Retail Shops

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 , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 8 Comments

Whose Responsibility is it Anyway?

A few weeks ago I took part in a workshop organised by the Stirling Management School’s Behavioural Science group and supported by SIRE (Scottish Institute for Research in Economics). The topic was consumer preferences, perceptions and decision-making, mainly in the … Continue reading

Posted in Behavioural Economics, Consumer Change, Consumer Choice, Consumers, Food Retailing, Food Standards, Retailers, Retailing, Tax, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

From the Horse’s Mouth?

It is just over 6 months ago that the nagging suspicion that all was not well in the world of cheap beef products exploded onto the media agenda. The Irish had found horse in their beef and ready meals, cheap … Continue reading

Posted in Consumers, Diet and Health, Food Quality, Food Standards, Government, Horsemeat, Supply Chains | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment