-
Author: Leigh Sparks
-
Follow me on Twitter
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
- Co-operative Tokens, Sports Direct and The Bristol Pound
- Twenty One Years of UK Grocery Market Share
- Retail Branding: it's not (just) private label
- UK Grocery Market Share 1997-2019
- The Multiplier and the Glue: Locally owned convenience stores and the local economy
- Going Self-Service - a 70 year old revolution?
Writing About ...
Archives
- Follow Stirlingretail on WordPress.com
Blogroll
Meta
RSS Feed
Category Archives: Uncategorized
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
Leave a comment
Hull and Beyond
I’ve never knowingly been to Hull. It’s not that I’ve anything against Hull, just that the question of going there has never arisen. I became a little more aware of it when it owned the accolade as UK City … Continue reading
Posted in Art, BHS, Buildings, Cooperative Group, Cooperatives, Department Stores, Design, Historic Shops, History, Hull, Places, Public Realm, Regeneration, Retail History, Spaces, Uncategorized, Urban History
Tagged BHS Mural Hull, Boyson, Co-op, Culture, Heritage, Hull, Mosaic, Public Art, Retail, Ships in the Sky, Three Ships
Leave a comment
Towns and Town Centres in Scotland: reflections six years on from Fraser
I was recently asked to do a 10 minute reflection on the state of towns and town centres in Scotland and the work that has derived from the Fraser Review (the National Review of Town Centres) and from Scotland’s Towns Partnership. … Continue reading
Posted in BIDS, Bids Scotland, Consumer Change, Consumer Lifestyle, Creative Places, Development Trusts, Government, High Streets, Internet shopping, Local Authorities, Mary Portas, Online Retailing, Place Standard, Places, Planning, Policy, Rates, Regeneration, Reinvention, Rents, Retail Change, Retail Policy, Retailers, Scotland's Improvement Districts, Scotland's Town and High Streets, Scotland's Towns Partnership, Scottish Government, Tax, TCRF, Town Centre Action Plan, town centre first, Town Centre Review, Town Centres, Towns, Uncategorized, Understanding Scottish Places
Tagged Digital tax, Fraser review, Place Standard, Portas, Rates, Scotland's Improvement Districts, Scotland's Towns Partnership, Town Centre Action plan, Town Centre Review, Understanding Scottish Places, VAT
2 Comments
Going Self-Service – a 70 year old revolution?
A few weeks ago a journalist rang and asked about the introduction of self-service retailing into the UK. A particular question was about the way in which retailers converting to self-service in the 1940s and 1950s knew what to do … Continue reading
Posted in Consumer Change, Customer Service, Express Dairies, Food Retailing, Historic Shops, History, Retail Change, Retail History, Retail innovation, Retailers, Retailing, Self-checkout, Self-Service, Small Shops, Tesco, Uncategorized, USA
Tagged Express Dairies, Innovation, Knowledge Transfer, Retail, Retail History, Self-Service, Tesco
Leave a comment
The Multiplier and the Glue: Locally owned convenience stores and the local economy
Longer term readers of this blog will possibly recall a long standing interest in the impacts of small convenience stores on the local economy. This has taken the form of some discussion about what may be termed ‘the local multiplier’. … Continue reading
Posted in Academics, Community, Consumers, Convenience stores, Customer Service, Independents, Local Multiplier, Local Retailers, Relationships, Retail Economy, Retailers, Scottish Grocers Federation, Scottish Local Retailer, Uncategorized, University of Stirling
Tagged Communities, Consumers, Convenience stores, Economic Impact, independents, Local Economy, Local Multiplier, Locally-owned, Retailing, Scotland, Scottish Grocers Federation, Services, Social impact
Leave a comment
London’s Welsh Dairies: The Welsh Milk Trade
As a child I remember people mentioning the ‘milk train’ between London and South Wales, but was never sure if it was first up or last down or both. Before I married, my fiancée and I went to stay in … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Buildings, Consumer Change, Consumers, Customer Service, distribution, Food, Food Retailing, Heritage, High Streets, Historic Shops, History, Independents, London, MIlk, Retail Change, Retail History, Sanders Bros, Shopfronts, Signage, Uncategorized, Urban History, Wales
Tagged Book, Consumer change, Dairy, Distribution and Supply, Drovers, Heritage, History, London Welsh, MIlk, Retail History, Retailing, Sanders Bros, Shopfronts, Wales
1 Comment
Poundland and Sports Direct
It has always baffled me; if Poundland lived up to its name and everything was a pound, then why was the average basket size not a round pound number? Anyhow it is a moot point now. The announcement that Poundland … Continue reading
Posted in Accounting, administration, Auditors, Closure, Department Stores, Finance, Government, House of Fraser, Jack Wills, Landlords, Mike Ashley, Poundland, Pressure, Pricing, Rents, Retail Failure, Retailers, Retailing, Sports Direct, Strategy, Uncategorized
Tagged Accounting, Auditors, Fixed Price, High Street, House of Fraser, Jack Wills, Poundland, Retail, Sports Direct, Tax
Leave a comment
