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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Tag Archives: Sales
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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HMV – predictable or what?
125 stores, 2200 direct employees, an unknown number of individuals and businesses also linked to, and supplying, the company; the administration and likely demise of HMV would be problematic at any time but between Christmas and New Year it has … Continue reading
Posted in administration, Amazon, Boxing Day, Closure, Competition, Consumer Change, Customer Service, Government, High Streets, HMV, Internet shopping, Local Retailers, Online Retailing, Rates, Record stores, Retail Change, Retail Failure, Tax, Technology, Timpsons, Town Centres, Uncategorized
Tagged administration, Amazon, Boxing Day, Business rates, Christmas, Christmas trading, Digital, HILCO, HMV, Internet, Music, Profits, Record shops, Sales, Streaming, Tax, technology, Timpson
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“Retailers Urge Holyrood Policy Change to Stem Decline”
Under the headline “Retailers urge Holyrood policy change to stem decline”, Scotland on Sunday on the 11th September (article here) reported on a ‘call to arms’ from the Scottish Retail Consortium (SRC) arguing for more support from the Scottish Government … Continue reading
Posted in BRC, Closure, Competition, Consumer Change, Costs, Data, Employment, Internet shopping, Online Retailing, Profits, Retail Change, Retailing, Scotland, Scottish Government, Scottish Retail Consortium, Shop Numbers, Statistics
Tagged Employment, internet retailing, Retail Change, Retailing, Sales, Scotland, scottish retail consortium, Shops Numbers, Statistics
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The Perfect Storm?
Are the storms getting worse now that someone has decided to give them names? Certainly by the time Frank had finished with my garden, I’d pretty much got the swimming pool I always thought that I had not wanted. And … Continue reading
Posted in Black Friday, Christmas, Closure, Consumer Change, Costs, Discounters, Internet, Margins, Retail Economy, Retail Failure, Sales, Stock
Tagged Black Friday, Christmas, Internet, Results, Sales, Stock, Weather
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Black and Blue
Some further thoughts on Black Friday, as it has become a disruptive event: The spike in sales was unprecedented, as shown by John Lewis and the figure below (courtesy of @neilretail). This cascaded into problems with store service and then … Continue reading
The Conversation: Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Silver Linings
The University of Stirling is a supporter of The Conversation, and I recently had a commentary published there. I reblog it here. ’Tis the season to spend, spend, spend … or so retailers would have us think By Leigh Sparks, … Continue reading
Christmas Past; Christmas Future?
With the Asda results due this week, the dust has sort of settled over Christmas trading. There are plenty of reports and coverage on the winners and loser based on sales and some evidence for some on the impacts on … Continue reading
Posted in Availability, Christmas, Consumer Change, Internet shopping, Marks and Spencer, Multichannel, PC World, Technology
Tagged Christmas, Internet, Sales, Service, showrooming
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Lies, Damn Lies, Statistics ….. and Media Coverage
I’ve just taken up Twitter and am still trying to work out what to do with it and what it is useful for. I think this could be a very long journey for me. But I’ve added the Twitter feed … Continue reading
Posted in Data, Government, Retail Economy, Scottish Retail Sales
Tagged Data, Retailing, Sales, Scotland, Shops
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Would the last person … please not arrive by car
Lots of media coverage yesterday for various data about the state of the Scottish high street and Scottish consumers. The headline seems to be that 1 in 9 of all Scottish shops are now vacant, though backed up with other … Continue reading
Posted in BIDS, Car Parking, High Streets, Places, Retail Economy, Scotland's Town and High Streets, Town Centres, Vacancies
Tagged Alloa, BIDs, Car Parking, High Street, Sales, Vacancies
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