Author: Leigh Sparks
Follow me on Twitter
My TweetsPage Updates
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
Top Posts & Pages
- Grocery Market Shares in Great Britain (GB) 1997-2023
- Oxford Street, Hull and Beyond
- Personal News - Retirement
- UK Grocery Market Share 1997-2019
- The architectural heritage of Montague Burton’s Art Deco shops
- Co-operative Tokens, Sports Direct and The Bristol Pound
- London's Welsh Dairies: The Welsh Milk Trade
- Twenty One Years of UK Grocery Market Share
- Axe Stores (this is a description not an instruction)
- The Architecture of England's Co-operative Movement
Writing About ...
Archives
-
Join 5,704 other subscribers
- Follow Stirlingretail on WordPress.com
Meta
Tag Archives: Sales
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
Leave a comment
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
Leave a comment
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
Leave a comment
“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
1 Comment
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
3 Comments
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
Leave a comment
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
Leave a comment