Who is disadvantaged? Retail change and social exclusion

In this paper, the impacts of retail change on 'disadvantaged' consumers are considered, drawing on the results of a wider project on shopping practices in Coventry (UK). Combining extensive (survey) with intensive (interview) data, this paper explores why relatively deprived consumers tend to use 'traditional' shopping facilities rather than newer stores and shopping centres. The focus here is on the social context as much as the physical setting in which these facilities are located, with factors relating to consumer's social interactions with other people hypothesized as crucial in influencing their use of paticular retail locations. Although the results identify significant differences in usual shopping location according to car-ownership, family size, illness, employment status and age, the paper concludes that conventional understandings of disadvantage fail to fully comprehend the processes of inclusion/ exclusion that shape shopping routines.

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