Structural and Spatial Trends in British Retailing: The Importance of Firm-Level Studies

This essay seeks to draw attention to important structural and spatial trends in British retailing within the period 1850- 1939. In doing so three main issues are raised. First, discussion focuses on the fragmented nature of existing literature on retail change and in particular the increasing bias towards North America. This serves to underpin the second theme, which describes the methodology of a new research project aimed at examining the growth of British multiples prior to 1939. Particular emphasis is given to the issue of competition and its impact on retail location. The third part of the paper explores some early ideas from the research project by considering the spatial strategies adopted by variety store multiples operating in southwest England.