David Porter » Entries tagged with "retail opportunity"
Shopping Store-Wars Are Part of Our Social and Economic Fabric
As Christmas retailing and footfall figures show high streets losing ground to cyberspace and technology in the battle for shoppers, a stock-take is timely. This article first published on Suite 101 on 14 December 2011. It is even more pertinent today. Two hundred years ago, Napoleon derided the English as ‘a nation of shopkeepers’. He borrowed the phrase from Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations (1776), but it struck a chord, becoming a badge of honour. More recently, focus has shifted: we are now more a nation of shoppers, with shopping promoted as ‘therapy’ at one level, and almost a ‘religion’ at another. The clamour to allow all-Sunday shopping is evidence of that. However, we’re not shopping traditionally. The recession and the internet continue to change our shopping habits. Many fear that these … Read entire article »
Filed under: Articles at Suite 101
Traffic Report 3 – Motorway "Services"
Why doesn’t the Trade Descriptions Act apply to motorway service areas? When they say tiredness can kill and you pull in off the excessively queueing, repairing, accidenting motorway to refresh yourself, how can what you find there be described as services? Queues to get in, if a coachload or six of football supporters or geriatric clubs (and I admit I’m not exactly young) have just arrived. Queues to get beyond the cramped, oppressive foyer. Queues to get into the toilets, and queues to get out. For many, it’s queues within as there are not enough workable, decent cubicles. Queues for overpriced, plastic food and drink, much of it laid out on slabs of past-the-best display in the most unappetising way imaginable. And then of course, queues to get out of the building, … Read entire article »
Filed under: Blogs: My Own