Category Archives: Stock

COVID-19 and Christmas

Posted on December 15, 2020 by Leigh Sparks

About six or so weeks ago I completed a piece for the Economics Observatory (@EconObservatory) on the impact of Coronavirus on the UK’s retail sector. You can find my short intro to it on this blog and the full piece … Continue reading →

Posted in Availability, Boxing Day, Brexit, Christmas, Consumers, Covid19, distribution, Employees, European Union, Food Banks, Frictionless, Government, Home Delivery, IKEA, Independents, Internet shopping, Just in Time, Local Retailers, Office for National Statistics, Online Retailing, Opening Hours, Panic buying, Regulation, Retail Economy, Retailers, Stirling, Stock, Supply Chains, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Christmas may be Cancelled

Posted on July 15, 2019 by Leigh Sparks

If there is no upside to Brexit then a No Deal Brexit plumbs the depth of stupidity. And yet, two men who claim to be intelligent are currently racing to utter the most damaging nonsense and not bothering to hide … Continue reading →

Posted in Brexit, Christmas, Disasters, distribution, European Union, Finance, Frictionless, Government, Logistics, Politicians, Producers, Resilience, Stock, Suppliers, Supply Chains, Uncategorized, Warehouses | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

An Unholy Trinity: Brexit, Marmite and Toblerone

Posted on October 18, 2016 by Leigh Sparks

Last week was all about a divided nation. Were you cheering or crying when Marmite was removed from Tesco’s shelves? The delicious irony that Dave Lewis, CEO of Tesco, used to work for Unilever, the makers of Marmite and various … Continue reading →

Posted in Availability, Brands, Brexit, Buying, Discounters, Food Retailing, Internet shopping, Marmite, Pricing, Product Sizes, Relationships, Stock, Supply Chains, Tesco, Toblerone, Unilever | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

The Perfect Storm?

Posted on January 4, 2016 by Leigh Sparks

Are the storms getting worse now that someone has decided to give them names? Certainly by the time Frank had finished with my garden, I’d pretty much got the swimming pool I always thought that I had not wanted. And … Continue reading →

Posted in Black Friday, Christmas, Closure, Consumer Change, Costs, Discounters, Internet, Margins, Retail Economy, Retail Failure, Sales, Stock | Tagged , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Easter, Tesco and M&S

Posted on April 19, 2012 by Leigh Sparks

Another month, another set of Scottish retail sales figures, another disast…   Oh, hang on, these weren’t the worst figures ever; which makes quite a nice change. The headline figures were actually not so bad; well at first glance. But, look … Continue reading →

Posted in Consumers, Customer Service, Marks and Spencer, Retailers, Scottish Retail Sales, Stock, Tesco | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

Supply Chain Magic

Posted on June 2, 2011 by Leigh Sparks

The first course I ever called my own and got to teach for real was called Physical Distribution Management, which just goes to show how long ago that was and how much has changed. I’ve always been interested by how … Continue reading →

Posted in Availability, Stock, Supply Chains | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment