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
- 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
- The Great Tapestry of Scotland in Galashiels
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Category Archives: USA
Lockdown Reading: Welsh Saints on the Mormon Trail
When we were living in the USA in 2000-1 we flew to Jackson Hole in Wyoming via Salt Lake City. That last flight to Jackson Hole was the most unpleasant flight I’ve taken before or since, shaken and bounced over … Continue reading
Posted in Ajax Underground Store, Buildings, Catalogues, Cooperatives, Department Stores, Emigration, Historic Shops, History, Mormons, Places, Retail History, Retailers, Retailing, Uncategorized, USA, Wales, Zion Co-operative Mercantile Institution
Tagged Ajax Underground Store, Buildings, Emigrants, History, Mormon Trail, Mormons, Pioneers, Retail, Salt Lake City, Shops, Utah, Wales, Welsh Mormons, Zion Co-operative Mercantile Institution
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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
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Ghosts in the Rockies
In one of the many ironies of destroying my knee in May, we were left with a race against time to see if I was fit enough to go on a booked holiday in late August and early September. Would … Continue reading
Posted in Advertising, Architecture, Buildings, Canada, Corporate branding, Downtown, Ghost Signs, Heritage, High Streets, Historic Shops, Places, Retail History, Signage, Small Towns, Streetscapes, Urban History, USA
Tagged Canada, Coca-Cola, Ghost Towns, Ghostsigns, Heritage, High Streets, Historic Shops, Museums, Retail History, Retail Marketing, Signs, USA
2 Comments
Winston Churchill Memorial Trust Travelling Fellowships 2017
In the summer of 1989 I spent eight weeks travelling around the United States and Canada looking at the customer service practices of North American retailers. I visited numerous retailers, large and small, and interviewed countless owners, managers, directors and … Continue reading
How Are Consumers using Online Grocery?
I’ve been called many things, but as I have noted in this blog before, one of the most distinctive is that I am a ‘Black Belt’ on the Brick Meets Click website. I am not sure what I have done … Continue reading
Clarence Saunders and Keedoozle
A year or so I was invited to become part of an online community – Brick meets Click (BMC) – which discusses and comments on interesting things in the world of retailing and technology and looks at the future of … Continue reading
Shock and Awe
I am too young to be an ageing hippie – honest. And I certainly no longer have the hair for it. But a few nights ago we went to the Neil Young and Crazy Horse show in Glasgow. Growing up … Continue reading
Posted in Festivals, Merchandising, Music, Retailing, Sport, Tourism, USA
Tagged Events, Merchandising, Music, Retailing
3 Comments
Only in America?
Despite having lived in the USA for extended periods of time I am still unclear about my favourite parts. The western swathe from New Mexico to Wyoming is unique, but the south-eastern states often draw me back. So following a … Continue reading
Posted in Department Stores, Downtown, Heritage, Local Retailers, Localisation, Regeneration, Regulation, USA
Tagged Asheville, Downtown, Localism. Creativity, Re-use, Regeneration, USA
1 Comment