Author: Leigh Sparks
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January 2024 – Roll over of some areas for new year, plus The Economics Observatory piece on Christmas trading (see commentaries tab)
May 2023 – Two new articles and a book chapter noted on the Journal Articles page
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Tag Archives: Consumers
How is consumer spending around Christmas 2023 likely to affect retailers?
Retailing has been going through a challenging time in the last three or four years. The restrictions and disruption of Covid have given way to an extreme cost-of-living crisis and an almost apocalyptic sense of uncertainty on a geo-political level. … Continue reading
Posted in Christmas, Consumer Change, Consumers, Cost of Living, Economics Observatory, Energy Costs, ESRC, Government, Inflation, Office for National Statistics, Pricing, Retailers, Retailing, Sales, Uncategorized
Tagged Austerity, Christmas, Consumers, Cost of Living, Economic Observatory, ESRC, Inflation, Pricing, Retailers, Retailing, Sales
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“Shopping without Stopping”: When did self-service retailing start in the British Isles?
The answer to the question posed in the title of this post has been the subject of quite a lot of discussion over many years. Most of the debate have centred on the operations of Cooperative stores, mainly in the … Continue reading
Posted in Advertising, Amazon Go, Cafeterias, Consumers, Cooperatives, Food Retailing, Government, Historic Shops, History, Retail Change, Retail History, Retailing, Self-Service, Uncategorized
Tagged 1920s, Adverts, Cafeteria, Consumer Education, Consumers, Grocery, Ideas, Knowledge Transfer, Retail History, Retailing, Self-Service, Shopping, Shopping without stopping, United Kingdom, USA, Womenswear
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Transformative Food Retailing, Data and Consumers
The knowledge that retailers and especially food retailers have around their customers and their behaviours has been a topic of interest and concern for decades. The small independent corner shop of old and the localism of buying are historical illustrations … Continue reading
Posted in Behavioural Economics, Consumer Change, Consumers, Customisation, Data, Food Retailing, Health, Loyalty Schemes, Personal, Personalisation, Public Health, Public Policy, Sustainability, Transformative Food Retailing
Tagged Consumer Behaviour, Consumers, Data, Food retailing, Government, Health, Retailers, Sustainability, Transformative
1 Comment
Ground Down
Last February I wrote about the state of customer service and specifically the failure of KRUPS to honour their manufacturer warranty. A further two months have now passed and last week I finally got a replacement coffee grinder, but not … Continue reading
Strange Things in Self-Service
My twitter timeline has been populated recently by photos of retailers doing, for me, some strange things with self-service tills. These tills have popped up everywhere over the last decade and not always to universal acclaim. B&Q and WH Smith … Continue reading
Posted in Amazon Fresh, Amazon Go, Clothing, Consumers, Customer Service, Employment practices, Experiential, Functional Retailing, Marks and Spencer, Retail Change, Sainsbury, Self-checkout, Self-Scanning, Self-Service, Uncategorized
Tagged Amazon Fresh, Amazon Go, Clothing, Consumers, Costs, Customer service, Marks and Spencer, Retail, Retail Employment, Sainsbury, Self-checkout, Self-Scanning, Self-Service, technology
4 Comments
The Conversation: UK Retailers Christmas Trading Updates
The University of Stirling is a supporter of The Conversation and I published a piece there on the 12th January about the recent UK retailer trading updates from Christmas. I reblog it below. The starting point for the piece was … Continue reading
Posted in Aldi, Christmas, City Centres, Consumer Change, Consumers, Cost of Living, Covid19, Discounters, Grocery, High Streets, Independents, Internet shopping, Local Retailers, Market Shares, Marks and Spencer, Next, Retailers, Retailing, The Conversation, Town Centres, Towns
Tagged B&M, Brexit, Christmas, Consumers, Cost of Living, Covid, Credit, Discounters, Health and wellbeing, High Streets, Local, Next, Online, Retailing, Shoppers, spending, The Conversation, towns, Trading Updates, Value
1 Comment
“Christmas and the Cost-of-Living Crisis: How will retailers cope?”
The past two year’s holiday seasons were tough for the UK’s retail sector, with lockdowns and resulting changes in consumer behaviour. I covered the previous Christmas periods in two pieces for the Economics Observatory (2020 and 2021) and followed this … Continue reading
Posted in Aldi, Brexit, Christmas, Consumers, Cost of Living, Costs, Discounters, Economics Observatory, Energy Costs, ESRC, Food, Food Retailing, Inflation, Lidl, Market Shares, Places, Retailers, Retailing, Shopping, Towns
Tagged Brexit, Christmas, Consumers, Cost of Living, Discounters, Economics Observatory, Energy Costs, Food, Inflation, interest rates, Market Shares, Retailers, Retailing
1 Comment
The (Retail) Reality of our Current Predicament
Whatever political leanings one has, the last ten days or so have hopefully provided a nadir in political (mis-)management of the economy and society. The crashing of the pound, the almost demise of the pension market, a screeching u-turn on … Continue reading
Posted in Consumers, Cost of Living, Costs, Economics Observatory, Employment, Government, Inflation, Pricing
Tagged Consumers, Cost of Living, Costs, Crisis, Economy, Employment, Energy, Government, Inflation, Prices, Retail, Special Fiscal event, spending
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Shopping: the cost of living crisis – Q&A with The Conversation
In between graduation ceremonies last Friday (as we caught up with the pandemic impacted ceremonies of 2020 and 2021), I was interviewed by Steven Vass of The Conversation about the cost of living crisis and Shopping. The result is a … Continue reading
Posted in Consumer Confidence, Consumers, Cost of Living, Discounters, Food, Food Banks, Food Retailing, Inflation, Local Retailers, Office for National Statistics, Pricing, Retail Sales, Retailers, Shopping, The Conversation
Tagged Budgets, Consumer Confidence, Consumers, Cost of Living, Food, Inflation, Retail Sales, Retailing, The Conversation
5 Comments
“Soaring Vacancies” : perhaps or perhaps not?
The end of last week saw headlines about the number of vacant shops in Scotland. Typical Scottish newspaper examples included: The Herald The Scotsman So, something of a downer to end the first week out of lockdown in Scotland and … Continue reading
Posted in BRC, Consumers, Covid19, Data, Independents, Local Data Company, Lockdown, Online Retailing, Pandemic, Places, Rates, Rents, Retail Change, Retailers, Scotland, Scotland's Town and High Streets, Scottish Retail Consortium, Scottish Retailing, Shop Numbers, Shopping, Town Centres, Towns, Uncategorized, Vacancies
Tagged British Retail Consortium, Consumer Confidence, Consumers, Covid-19, Data, independents, Local Data Company, Lockdown, Pandemic, Retailing, Scotland, Shops, Vacancies
1 Comment
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