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
- Personal Announcement: FRSE
- London's Welsh Dairies: The Welsh Milk Trade
- Twenty One Years of UK Grocery Market Share
- UK Grocery Market Share 1997-2019
- Internet sales as a percentage of retail sales in the UK
- Co-operative Tokens, Sports Direct and The Bristol Pound
- Journal Articles 2021
- Retail Branding: it's not (just) private label
- Commentaries
- Ghost Signs and Retailing
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Category Archives: International Retailing
Axe Stores (this is a description not an instruction)
At the end of July I received an email from a freelance journalist, Steve Cain, seeking any information on Food Giant and Axe Stores. In normal times I know I had material somewhere in my office on Food Giant. But … Continue reading
Posted in Aldi, Axe Stores, Closure, Corporate History, Discounters, Food Retailing, Hintons, Historic Shops, International Retailing, Kwik Save, Laws Stores, Lidl, PAM Group, Retail Failure, Retail History, Retailers, Retailing
Tagged Axe Stores, Corporate History, Discount Stores, Food Giant, Food retailing, Hintons, Italy, Laws Stores, Manchester Business School, PAM Group, Retail History, retail internationalisation, Retailing, Store Closures, Uk Retailing
12 Comments
Talking Tesco (Again)
It has been quite a few weeks for Tesco, currently ending in the positive column. The recent interim results showed quite a lot of commercial progress and the intended restoration of the dividend cheered the City considerably. The trials of … Continue reading
Posted in Accounting, Booker, CMA, Competition, Competition and Markets Authority, Convenience stores, Finest, Food Retailing, International Retailing, Local Retailers, Market Shares, NTUC FairPrice, Profits, Retail Change, Retailers, Singapore, Suppliers, Tesco, Wholesaling
Tagged Accounting, Booker, CMA, Convenience stores, Court Case, Finest, Fraud, NTUC, Singapore, Suppliers, Takeover, Tesco, Wholesalers
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Taxing Times: Tesco and Poland
The financial results for Tesco last week brought forward a lot of comment and some interesting thoughts, not least the looming pension deficit and the exceptional items booked into the accounts. Oh, and the underlying performance, which was quite good. … Continue reading
Posted in European Union, International Retailing, Large Store Levy, Poland, Profits, Public Health lev, Regulation, Retail Levy, Retail Policy, Tax, Tesco
Tagged European Commission, Govenment, International retailing, Internationalisation, Large Store Levy, Large Stores, Legislation, Poland, public health levy, Regulation, Tax, Tesco
1 Comment
“The Ridiculous is no longer Unimaginable”
The other day I received an email saying that the 2016-2017 Annual Review of the Retail Think Tank was available. It can be accessed and downloaded from here. The Retail Think Tank is just over 10 years old, being conceived … Continue reading
Posted in Black Friday, Brands, Competition, Consumer Change, European Union, International Retailing, Retail Change, Retail Health Index, Retail leadership, Retail Think Tank, Retailers, Store Closures
Tagged Retail Change, Retail Crisis, Retail Health Index, Retail Think Tank, Retailers
5 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
Albert Gubay 1928-2016
Early in January, Albert Gubay died, aged 87. His is not a name that will necessarily be familiar to many people, but he was a true original in the field of retailing and more generally. Not many people amass a … Continue reading
Posted in Albert Gubay, Discounters, Food Retailing, Historic Shops, History, Innovation, International Retailing, Kwik Save, Pricing, Retail History, Shoprite, Tesco, Three Guys, Uncategorized
Tagged Albert Gubay, Charlotte, Discounters, Ireland, Kwik Save, New Zealand, retail internationalisation, Shoprite, Tesco, Three Guys, USA
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If I had a hammer …
I am useless at DIY as anyone who knows me can testify. I can wield a hammer but other tools are beyond me, and whilst in my long ago youth I spent a golden summer as a brickie’s labourer, no … Continue reading
Posted in B&Q, Catalogues, Closure, DIY, International Retailing, Internet shopping, Online Retailing, Screwfix, Space
Tagged B&Q, DIY, internet retailing, Online, retail internationalisation, Screwfix, Space, Store Closure
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Singapore Times
As regular readers of this blog already know, the Institute for Retail Studies at the University of Stirling has had programmes and partners in Singapore for a long time, targeted both at Singaporean students and retailers and those in the … Continue reading
Summer Retail Reading with an Asian flavour?
It’s not that I have more time in the summer, but rather I try to clean up my office (and it really does need it, as colleagues will attest). The problem is that I end up discovering things I had … Continue reading