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
- Twenty One Years of UK Grocery Market Share
- Retail Branding: it's not (just) private label
- Logistics and Retail Management 5th Edition
- Scotland's Shops and Shopfronts: history and future?
- Locavore's Bigger Plan
- Economic Trends in the Retail Sector, Great Britain: 1989 to 2021
- Strange Things in Self-Service
- UK Grocery Market Share 1997-2019
- Internet sales as a percentage of retail sales in the UK
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Category Archives: Start-ups
“Against All Odds” – Independent Business Success Stories
Over the last decade or so Bill Grimsey has carved out a niche in directing a review team to look at high streets, town centres and retailing and to present ideas for what we should do about improving them. Summarising … Continue reading
Posted in Bill Grimsey, Closure, Covid19, Finance, Government, Home Delivery, Independents, Innovation, Local Retailers, Online Retailing, Rates, Retailers, Retailing, Small Shops, Start-ups
Tagged Adaptation, closures, Covid-19, Debt, Grimsey, Home Delivery, Independent Retailing, independents, Innovation, Small Retailers, Small shops
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Shops: More or Less (and #IndieHour)
This blog has a number of recurring themes – or nightmares. Most of them are focused around the themes of the mis-use of data, the lack of reaction about the structural change underway across retailing and the unwillingness of many … Continue reading
Posted in #IndieHour, Collaboration, Consumers, High Streets, Independents, Internet shopping, Landlords, Online Retailing, Reinvention, Relationships, Rents, Retail Change, Retailers, Small Shops, Start-ups, Towns, Uncategorized, University of Stirling, Vibrancy
Tagged #IndieHour, Consumers, Costs, independents, Landlords, Online, Retail, Retail growth, Space, stores
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Pretty Vacant
On the 2nd December we launched our second Retailing in Scotland’s Towns and Cities report, at what we hope will become an annual Retail Summit date in the calendar. Our partnership with the … Continue reading
Posted in ESRC, Government, High Streets, Local Data Company, Longitudinal Data, PhD, Places, Retailers, Scotland's Town and High Streets, Scotland's Towns Partnership, Start-ups, Town Centre Action Plan, Town Centre Review, Town Centres, Towns, Vacancies
Tagged High Streets, Local Data Company, Retail Change, Retail Data, Retail Vacancy, Scotland, Town Centres
4 Comments
Losing Heart? Re-imagining our town and city centres
The current debates and reviews into town centres and the plight of the high street is, at so many levels, a debate about the importance and meaning of place. It is no surprise therefore that the most recent issue of … Continue reading
Political Will?
My interactions with MSPs on the subject of shopping, retailing and town centres have never been really that impressive – they probably say the same of me. If often wonder if, as they spend so much time politicking, they get … Continue reading
Posted in Government, MSPs, Places, Rates, Retail Policy, Scotland's Town and High Streets, Start-ups, Town Centre Review, Town Centres
Tagged MSPs, Politicians, Scotland, Town Centres
7 Comments
Made in Stirling
Over the last year I have increasingly argued that with the withdrawal of many multiple retailers from many high streets we are entering a period a major structural change in consumer behaviour and retail opportunities. This will not necessarily be … Continue reading
Retailing in Seattle
A quarter of a century or so ago I was fortunate enough to be awarded a Winston Churchill Memorial Trust Travelling Fellowship. As part of that I ended up in Seattle and interviewed various executives and family from Nordstrom, the … Continue reading
Posted in Community Co-operatives, Customer Service, Farmers Markets, Start-ups
Tagged Nordstrom, Pike Place, REI, Retailing, Seattle, Starbucks
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