Tag Archives: technology

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 , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Independent Retailing During and After the Pandemic: Tell your Stories

In my last post one of the statements that garnered quite a lot of attention was “As an example, I am hearing of (and locally seeing) quite a lot of local independent businesses opening up, and a better realism of … Continue reading

Posted in #IndieHour, Bill Grimsey, Collaboration, Community, Convenience, Entrepreneurship, Government, Independents, Local Retailers, Online Retailing, Pandemic, Retailers, Retailing, Scotland, Scotland Loves Local, Scotland's Improvement Districts, Scotland's Towns Partnership, Uncategorized, Wholesaling | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Lockdown 1990s style

I am one of the fortunate ones, living in a large house with a garden.  I’ve always grown fruit and veg and have been making my own bread since 2007.  I also spent nearly 10 weeks locked-in in the house … Continue reading

Posted in Click and Collect, Connectivity, Consumers, Covid19, Home Delivery, Internet, Internet shopping, Localisation, Lockdown, Online Retailing, Orkney, Social Inequality, Technology, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Retail Armageddon or Reinvention?

On the 3rd March, the University of Stirling, the Stirling Management School and the Institute for Retail Studies were very pleased to host the Chief Executive of the British Retail Consortium, Helen Dickinson, OBE.  In front of an audience of … Continue reading

Posted in Accounting, BRC, Brexit, Consumer Change, Employees, Government, Institute for Retail Studies, Internet shopping, Legislation, Local Retailers, Online Retailing, Rates, Regeneration, Regulation, Reinvention, Retail brands, Retail Change, Retail Policy, Scottish Government, Scottish Grocers Federation, Scottish Retailing, Small Shops, Technology, Uncategorized, University of Stirling | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

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 , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

A New User’s Reflections on Online Grocery Shopping

I am old enough to remember the initial Tesco home shopping trials in Gateshead in the early 1980s (Gateshead Shopping and Information System) when home shopping via Videotex (look it up if you don’t know) was seen as being a … Continue reading

Posted in Availability, Consumer Change, Food Retailing, Gateshead SIS, History, Internet shopping, Local Authorities, Online Retailing, Retail Change, Service Quality, Supply Chains, Television, Tesco | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Future of Work in Retailing? Just Walk Out

There has been quite a lot of attention in the last few days on the Amazon Go unit in Seattle being opened to the public.  Much has focused on whether this is the end of retail work and how fast … Continue reading

Posted in Amazon Go, Asda, Automation, BRC, Consumers, Contactless, Convenience stores, Employees, Employment, Food Retailing, Hypermarkets, management, Retail Change, Retailers, Sainsbury, Self-Scanning, Tesco, Urban, WH Smith | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Vending Machines and the Internet

I first encountered John Dawson when I was working in the City Council in Townsville, Northern Queensland.  I was on a four-month exchange as a student and had been asked to do some research on shopping centres.  As a consequence … Continue reading

Posted in Academics, Automation, Consumer Lifestyle, Farm Shops, Online Retailing, Opening Hours, Restaurants, Singapore, Technology, Uncategorized, Vending Machines | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Navigating The New Retail Landscape

Readers of this blog will be aware of the occasional use of guest bloggers and of book reviews.  A couple of weeks ago my colleague Steve Burt showed me a new retail book he had bought, authored by two contemporaries … Continue reading

Posted in Academics, Books, Consumer Change, Consumers, Customer engagement, International Retailing, Internet, Multichannel, Retail Change, Retail leadership, Retailers, Strategy, Technology | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Re-imagining the High Street with Technology

The Grimsey Review of 2013 very strongly made the case that the high street of the future (or indeed of the present) has to embrace the digital world into which many of us have increasingly moved. As technology and consumers … Continue reading

Posted in Bill Grimsey, Car Parking, High Streets, Independents, Loyalty, Multichannel, Online Retailing, Regeneration, Technology, Town Centres | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment