Author: Leigh Sparks
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April 2022 -new journal article published (Journal Articles page) on Twenty-One Years of Going Shopping and Marketing History
January 2022 – removal of some redundant pages, reordering of some material, the addition of some new pages (under Commentaries), and some changes to some of the text throughout
Top Posts & Pages
- Grocery Market Shares in the UK 2020
- Out-of-Town Retailing: National Planning Framework (NPF) 4 and Stirling (again)
- Twenty One Years of UK Grocery Market Share
- UK Grocery Market Share 1997-2019
- Stirling - Still All at C
- Logistics and Retail Management 5th Edition
- Retail change and why we fell in love with supermarkets?
- The Lost Broch of Stirling
- Herkku Food Market Delicatessen – Helsinki
- London's Welsh Dairies: The Welsh Milk Trade
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Category Archives: Food
The Year of the Tomato
Given that the clocks have changed, I thought it was about time I posted this reflection on my growing summer. Whilst I have been tweeting more irregularly this year about my gardening and vegetable growing, anyone following me will be … Continue reading
Posted in Food, Gardens, Greenhouse, Home, Home Growing, Real Seeds, Vegatables
Tagged Chillies, Fruit, Garden, Greenhouse, Home Growing, Real Seed Catalogue, Runner beans, Seeds, Tomatoes, vegetables
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Shopping: the cost of living crisis – Q&A with The Conversation
In between graduation ceremonies last Friday (as we caught up with the pandemic impacted ceremonies of 2020 and 2021), I was interviewed by Steven Vass of The Conversation about the cost of living crisis and Shopping. The result is a … Continue reading
Posted in Consumer Confidence, Consumers, Cost of Living, Discounters, Food, Food Banks, Food Retailing, Inflation, Local Retailers, Office for National Statistics, Pricing, Retail Sales, Retailers, Shopping, The Conversation
Tagged Budgets, Consumer Confidence, Consumers, Cost of Living, Food, Inflation, Retail Sales, Retailing, The Conversation
5 Comments
A Gardening Year in Review
I don’t often use the blog for non-retail or personal posts but made an exception this time last year. At the start of lockdown in March 2020 I started a weekly tweet about my greenhouse and last September I reflected … Continue reading
Posted in Covid19, Food, Gardens, Home, Lockdown, Seeds, Twitter
Tagged Covid-19, Gardens, Greenhouse, Home Growing, Lockdown, Real Seed Catalogue, Seeds, Tomatoes, Twitter, Weather
2 Comments
Locavore’s Bigger Plan
I am not sure when I first became aware of Locavore. It certainly was before they launched their Big Plan in 2015. I had a watching interest in the development of social and more sustainable retail food stores and supermarkets, … Continue reading
Posted in Community, Community Interest Company, Consumer Lifestyle, Crowdfunding, Employment practices, Ethics, Food, Food Retailing, Glasgow, Independents, Local Retailers, Localisation, Locavore, Lockdown, organic, Pandemic, Producers, Retail innovation, Retail leadership, Retailing, Scotland, Scotland Food and Drink, Scotland Loves Local, Scottish Local Retailer, Scottish Retailing, Social Change, Stirling, Supermarket, Suppliers, Supply Chains, Sustainability, Sustainable Development, Uncategorized, Veg Boxes, Wages, Waste, Wholesaling
Tagged Carbon negative, Community Interest Company, Glasgow, Local, Local suppliers, Locavore, organic, Retail, Shops, Social impact, Social Supermarkets, Supply chains, Sustainability, Veg Boxes, Waste Reduction
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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
“If Not Now, When?” – the Social Renewal Advisory Board Report
The last ten month have been the strangest time; as we all recognise. Our experiences though have not all been the same. I am one of the fortunate ones; I can work from home and had a large garden to … Continue reading
Posted in Community, Covid19, Food, Government, Local Authorities, Pandemic, Places, Public Health, Scotland, Scottish Government, Towns, Uncategorized, Well being
Tagged Communities, Covid-19, Economy, Health, Local Authorities, Pandemic, People, Places, Poverty, Scotland, Scottish Government, Social Renewal, Society, towns, Wellbeing
5 Comments
Week 26 in my Greenhouse
Anyone who follows me on twitter will have become used to Saturday pictures and tweets about the progress or not in my greenhouse. On the 28th March I began (week 1) and here we are at week 26 – half … Continue reading
Posted in Availability, Covid19, Food, Garden Centres, Gardens, Lockdown, Logistics, Retailers, Retailing, Rugby Union, Seeds, Twitter, Uncategorized, Wales
Tagged Food, Garden Centres, Home Growing, Lockdown, Seeds, Twitter
3 Comments
Tracking the Impact of Lockdown on Retailers
The impact of COVID-19 has hit retailers in different ways. We are now beginning to see the official figures and some retailers have provided updates. As anticipated in a previous post, the April sales figures for Scotland showed a massive … Continue reading
Posted in B&Q, Click and Collect, Consumers, Contactless, Covid19, Employment practices, Food, Home Delivery, Internet, Internet shopping, Kingfisher, Lockdown, Multichannel, Next, Online Retailing, Poland, Regulation, Retail Change, Retail Sales, Retailers, Sainsbury, Screwfix, Uncategorized
Tagged B&Q, Click and Collect, Covid19, Home Delivery, Lockdown, Multiple retailers, Next, Non-food retailing, Online, Retail Sales, Sainsbury, Screwfix, Small shops
2 Comments
What Should We Value about Retailing and Towns and What Should We Do About Them?
Apologies, this took a little longer and got a bit lengthier than I originally intended. “If they look beyond heroic individualism and accept that individuals exist in a network of social bonds and obligations, we might just see a … Continue reading
Posted in Community, Consumer Change, Consumers, Employment, Food, Food Banks, Food Retailing, Government, Grocery, Health, Healthy Living, High Streets, Independents, Leadership, Local Retailers, Non-food retailing, Places, Proactive Planning, Rates, Reinvention, Retail Change, Retail Planning, Retailing, Scottish Government, Shopping, Spaces, Streets, Streetscapes, Supply Chains, Tax, Town Centres, Towns, Uncategorized, Urban
Tagged Community, Food Banks, Food retailing, Government, Health and wellbeing, High Streets, Local, Non-food retailing, Out of town retailing, Places, Retailing, Sustainability, Taxation, Town Centres, towns
7 Comments
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