Author: Leigh Sparks
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April 2020 -new journal article published (Journal Articles page) on Twenty-One Years of Going Shopping and Marketing History
January 2022 – removal of some redundant pages, reordering of some material, the addition of some new pages (under Commentaries), and some changes to some of the text throughout
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- About Leigh Sparks and this Blog
- Logistics and Retail Management 5th Edition
- Retail change and why we fell in love with supermarkets?
- Co-operative Tokens, Sports Direct and The Bristol Pound
- Orkney - the Second Leg
- UK Grocery Market Share 1997-2019
- Grocery Market Shares in the UK 2020
- Checkout the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee
- Predicting the Post-Covid Retail Landscape: presentation for Scottish Grocers Federation Cross Party Group
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Tag Archives: Government
Covid Variants, Retailing and this Christmas
A couple of weeks ago, I pondered putting together something again about the Christmas 2021 retail season. Whilst there were strains over supply and labour availability, retailing seemed set for something much more normal. At about the same time, the … Continue reading
Posted in Boxing Day, Brexit, Christmas, Cities, Consumers, Covid19, Government, Inflation, Internet shopping, Online Retailing, Opening Hours, Pandemic, Retailers, Supply Chains, Town Centres, Towns
Tagged Boxing Day, Brexit, Christmas, Cities, Consumer Confidence, Covid19, Footfall, Government, Inflation, internet retailing, Job vacancies, Pandemic, Retailing, Sales, Supply chains, towns
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What Should We Value about Retailing and Towns and What Should We Do About Them?
Apologies, this took a little longer and got a bit lengthier than I originally intended. “If they look beyond heroic individualism and accept that individuals exist in a network of social bonds and obligations, we might just see a … Continue reading
Posted in Community, Consumer Change, Consumers, Employment, Food, Food Banks, Food Retailing, Government, Grocery, Health, Healthy Living, High Streets, Independents, Leadership, Local Retailers, Non-food retailing, Places, Proactive Planning, Rates, Reinvention, Retail Change, Retail Planning, Retailing, Scottish Government, Shopping, Spaces, Streets, Streetscapes, Supply Chains, Tax, Town Centres, Towns, Uncategorized, Urban
Tagged Community, Food Banks, Food retailing, Government, Health and wellbeing, High Streets, Local, Non-food retailing, Out of town retailing, Places, Retailing, Sustainability, Taxation, Town Centres, towns
7 Comments
Retail Armageddon – Non Food
In my last post, I considered some of the best and worst behaviours we have seen in food retailing during the COVID-19 crisis to date. Now we have the Government lockdown and the splitting of retailing into essential and non-essential … Continue reading
Posted in Amazon, Closure, Consumers, Covid19, CVA, Employment practices, Fashion, Government, Landlords, Online Retailing, Rents, Retail Change, Retailers, Retailing, Shopping Centres, Sports Direct, Suppliers, Uncategorized, Wetherspoons
Tagged closures, Consumers, Covid19, Footfall, Government, internet retailing, Landlords, Next, Non-food retailing, Rent, Retailing, Suppliers, Wetherspoons
4 Comments
Policy Interventions for Healthier Diets: Insights from Scotland
Last week I was in Helsinki at the invitation of Hannu Saarijarvi to present two sessions to selected Finnish Ministries and to the S-Group. As noted before in this blog I have co-authored a book chapter with Hannu and Sonja … Continue reading
Posted in Consumer Lifestyle, Cooperatives, Diet and Health, Food Retailing, Food Standards, Government, Health, Healthcare Retail Standard, Healthy Living, Labelling, Legislation, Loyalty Schemes, Policy, Retail Policy, Retailers, Retailing, Scotland, Scottish Government, Social Inequality, Uncategorized, University of Stirling
Tagged Consumers, Diet, Finland, Food, Food Standards Scotland, Government, Health, Healthy Living, Policies, Promotions, Retailers, Scotland, Social Engineers, Tax
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Business Rates: an election issue (not)
This blog has covered the issue of rates on a number of occasions (e.g. rates relief, a levy, some rates and the Grimsey report, the poll tax and business rates) never fully satisfactory, and indeed, re-reading the pieces, with a … Continue reading
Posted in Closure, Governance, Government, High Streets, Internet, Internet shopping, Large Store Levy, Mary Portas, Online Retailing, Places, Politicians, Public Health lev, Rates, Regulation, Retail Policy, Retailers, Store Closures, Tax, Town & Country PLanning, Town Centres
Tagged Business rates, Election, Government, High Streets, Local Government, Politicians, Rates, Retailers, Revaluation, Tax, Town Centres, Vacancies
5 Comments
“Urban but not Anonymous”
With these words, Cord Soehlke, Mayor and Senior Planner for the University Town of Turbingen, Germany neatly summed up for me the differences and the challenges facing Scotland’s towns. As had been discussed earlier in the day at Scotland’s Towns … Continue reading
Posted in Falkirk, Government, High Streets, Places, Planning, Property, Public Realm, Regeneration, Reinvention, Retail Planning, Scotland's Town and High Streets, Scotland's Towns Partnership, Scottish Government, Small Towns, Town Centre Action Plan, Town Centre Review, Town Centres, Towns, Uncategorized
Tagged Government, High Streets, Places, Scotland, Scotland's Towns Conference, Scotland's Towns Partnership, Town Centre Action plan, Town Centres, Town Planning
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‘Rescuing town centres in the light of changing retail trends’
Given it was the hottest July day ever in the UK, it was some relief for the audience at the latest National Retail Planning Forum (NRPF) seminar to be indoors in air-conditioned luxury at Carter Jonas, just off teeming and … Continue reading
Blame the REF
The week before Christmas saw Universities across the UK in a state of heightened anticipation. Santa, in the form of the REF results was due, and for a surprisingly large number of Universities it will continue to be the gift … Continue reading
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