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Author: Leigh Sparks
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My TweetsPage Updates
2.11.2018 Details of my two new books added – Logistics and Retail Management and Food Retailing and Sustainable Development
12.07.2018 Our final Trading Places column for Town & Country Planning is now available on the Trading Places section of this blog
Top Posts & Pages
- Yours for £1 (not really)
- Retail Branding: it's not (just) private label
- Pontypool vs Penarth: Rugby and The High Street and Town of 1951
- Co-operative Tokens, Sports Direct and The Bristol Pound
- Taxing Times: Tesco and Poland
- Embracing Failure in the Shadow of Success
- The Lost Broch of Stirling
- Twenty One Years of UK Grocery Market Share
- "Destination High Street - Restoring Vibrancy to Scotland's Towns"
- Trends in Retailing and Leisure in Scotland's Towns and Cities
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Category Archives: Towns
Yours for £1 (not really)
It was an eye-catching gimmick, and it did the job, getting media coverage (and me onto the radio (again)). In early February, at a London auction The Postings shopping centre in Kirkcaldy was put up for sale with a reserve … Continue reading
Posted in Buildings, Community, Community Development, Creative Places, Dumfries, High Streets, Kirkcaldy, Landlords, Localisation, Places, Property, Regeneration, Retail Change, Scotland's Town and High Streets, Scotland's Towns Partnership, Shopping Centres, Town Centre Living, Town Centres, Towns, Uncategorized
Tagged Assets, Community Action, Dumfries, High Streets, Kirkcaldy, Landlords, Property, Retail, Shopping Centres, towns
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#Woolies10
I was out at the country on the tenth ‘anniversary’ of the closure of the last Woolworths store in the UK – 6th January to be exact. I had already contributed to an element of the ‘celebration’/‘remembrance’, so didn’t feel … Continue reading
Posted in Architecture, Buildings, Churn, Closure, Consumers, Corporate History, Ghost Signs, Heritage, High Streets, Historic Shops, History, Pound Shops, Poundland, Retail Failure, Shopfronts, Store Closures, Streetscapes, Towns, Uncategorized, Urban History, Woolworths
Tagged Churn, closures, Employees, failure, Heritage, High Streets, History, Pound shops, Retail Change, Retail Nostalgia, South Africa, stores, Streetscape, Woolworths
1 Comment
Dead or Alive?
A few weeks ago I was reading an interview in the Guardian and the interviewee, the writer Barbara Kingsolver, said about the Great Barrier Reef: “You’re hearing about everything that dies, you’re not hearing about everything that’s still alive. If … Continue reading
Posted in Community, Consumers, Local Retailers, Localisation, Regeneration, Reinvention, Scotland's Town and High Streets, Small Shops, Small Towns, Town Centres, Towns, Uncategorized
Tagged High Streets, Localisation, Media, Places, Regeneration, retail failure, Store Closures, Store Openings, towns
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“Destination High Street – Restoring Vibrancy to Scotland’s Towns”
The invitation from the Architectural Heritage Society of Scotland (AHSS) and the Scottish Civic Trust was to present a keynote address to their conference on ‘Destination High Street’. As both Professor of Retail Studies and Chair, Scotland’s Towns Partnership I … Continue reading
Posted in Architecture, BIDS, Buildings, Community, Community Development, Consumer Change, Consumer Lifestyle, Creative Places, Design, Development Trusts, Environmental Quality, Government, High Streets, Historic Shops, Internet shopping, Local Retailers, Online Retailing, Places, Public Realm, Rates, Retail Change, Scotland's Town and High Streets, Scotland's Towns Partnership, Small Towns, Social Inequality, Streets, Streetscapes, Tax, Town Centre Action Plan, Town Centre Living, Town Centre Review, Town Centres, Towns, Understanding Scottish Places, Urban
Tagged Community, Consumers, Digital, Heritage, High Street, National Review of Town Centres, Places, Rates, Retailing, Scotland, Scotland's Town Centres, Scotland's Towns, Scotland's Towns Partnership, Tax, Town Centres, Understanding Scottish Places
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Twin Towns
To anyone with a Welsh background and an interest in films, Twin Town conjures up a film of 20+ years ago which was described as a Welsh Trainspotting, though less successful. Lock up your sheep and pretty much anything else, … Continue reading
Posted in Carnegie UK Trust, Collaboration, Community, Heritage, High Streets, History, Markets, Places, Regeneration, Small Towns, Town Centres, Towns, Uncategorized
Tagged Carnegie UK Trust, Collaboration, Community, Development, Digital, Heritage, High Streets, Identity, Markets, Places, Small Towns, towns, Twin Towns, Twinning
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Putting Towns on the Policy Map: Understanding Scottish Places (USP) and Data
As an academic, I probably have an irrational interest in data. To a great extent it is academic life-blood and I seem to have spent a lot of my adult life either obsessing or arguing over it. It therefore really … Continue reading
Posted in Academics, Bill Grimsey, Consumer Change, Data, High Streets, Internet shopping, Large Store Levy, Leadership, Local Authorities, Online Retailing, Rates, Retail Change, Retailers, Sales, Scotland's Town and High Streets, Scottish Retail Consortium, Scottish Retailing, Shop Numbers, Town Centre Review, Town Centres, Towns, Uncategorized, Understanding Scottish Places
Tagged Business rates, Data, Fraser review, Grimsey Review, High Streets, Local Authorities, Online retailing, Retail Change, Retail Data, Scotland, scottish retail consortium, Shops, towns, Understanding Scottish Places, USP
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Orkney – the Second Leg
Our recent visit to Orkney was not meant to be about retailing or shops, but inevitably just wandering around Stromness and Kirkwall one can’t help but look at the retailing. As I noted in the earlier blog, the overwhelming sense … Continue reading
Posted in Architecture, Art Deco, Environmental Quality, Ghost Signs, High Streets, Historic Shops, History, Orkney, Places, Planning, Post Offices, Regeneration, Retail History, Scotland's Town and High Streets, Shopfronts, Signage, Small Towns, Streets, Streetscapes, Stromness, Towns
Tagged Art Deco, Design, Fascias, Fugaccia, Ghostsigns, History, Orkney, Retail History, Retail Stores, Shopfronts, Soda Fountain, Stromness
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