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Over two and a half years ago I attended a seminar at the Engine Shed in Stirling called ‘Talking Shops’ and my blog discussion of the event can be found here .  In that post I noted the presentation by Lynn Pearson ( @lynnpearson67 ) on Co-operative architecture and hoped that her book on the subject would not be too long in the making. Well, the good news is that it is out, being published a few weeks ago by Historic England and Liverpool University Press .  As anticipated, it is a fascinating and excellent read and a worthy addition to Historic England’s other books on retailing and architecture, adding greatly to our understanding of the topic. The book is organised chronologically from the origins (pre-origins) of the Co-operative Movement and continues until the present day.  Thankfully though the emphasis is on the history and not on the present state of retail architecture (including Co-operative).  The focus is on England, with occasional digression to...

On the 22 nd October the Co-op opened its latest convenience store, at the heart of the University of Stirling .  This was the first Co-op franchise in Scotland and is part of the growth of the Co-op and the convenience and local store sector.  At the University, we are delighted to see it appear on campus, in our refurbished Atrium, and look forward to all staff, students, visitors and the community benefitting from it. As noted widely (and as the graphic below shows), the pandemic has seen many local, convenience and community stores gain trade, especially in the early stages of the pandemic and lockdown.  Many seemed to have fewer supply problems, but also provided a vital local and community service, and expanded these services (including online and delivery).  Many consumers had not previously really experienced the transformation of the sector and the high standards and quality provided.  Hopefully many will continue to support ...

A couple of months ago, Professor Graeme Roy of the Fraser of Allander Institute invited me to try to answer the question posed at the head of this post.  He is part of / leading an ESRC funded ‘observatory’ (Coronavirus and the Economy) which has been publishing such summary works on the progress of the pandemic and the economy, mainly from an economic viewpoint. I thought it might be interesting to do, and so agreed.  The outcome has just been published and the full piece can be found here . How is coronavirus affecting the UK’s retail sector I am not going to summarise or reproduce the piece here, but would rather encourage you to visit the observatory to read it, and some of the other pieces published there.  I think it is an interesting and informative collection. My piece follows initially some well-known ground.  After noting the scale and importance of the retail sector it briefly recaps the essential vs non-essential issue of shops under lockdown....

A couple of months ago, Professor Graeme Roy of the Fraser of Allander Institute invited me to try to answer the question posed at the head of this post.  He is part of / leading an ESRC funded ‘observatory’ (Coronavirus and the Economy) which has been publishing such summary works on the progress of the pandemic and the economy, mainly from an economic viewpoint. I thought it might be interesting to do, and so agreed.  The outcome has just been published and the full piece can be found here . How is coronavirus affecting the UK’s retail sector I am not going to summarise or reproduce the piece here, but would rather encourage you to visit the observatory to read it, and some of the other pieces published there.  I think it is an interesting and informative collection. My piece follows initially some well-known ground.  After noting the scale and importance of the retail sector it briefly recaps the essential vs non-essential issue of shops under lockdown....

I was not intending to add to my previous two posts on data and reporting ( footfall and store openings and closures ), but then I saw the coverage (looking at you again in the first instance BBC) of last week’s Scottish Retail Sales Monitor figures for September.  The headline that caught my eye was: ‘No recovery in sight’ for Scotland’s high streets. Photot taken 23rd October 2020 To be fair the main page now reads ‘Covid in Scotland: No recovery in sight for retailers’ so the phrase (in that context) that offended me so much, ‘high streets’, may have been due to a rogue web/sub editor.  The release for SRSM that I see has no data specifically on ‘high streets’ but is instead a sector level report (and as I have written before is always intersting and valuable).  But why this release contains a quote from KPMG saying ‘a slightly less bleak picture for Scotland’s High Streets’ is a mystery , but might be an explanation for the headline above and absolve the BBC a...

Source: BBC (Note the elision of the numbers, the high street and the the term “chain store”) The retail news cycle last Sunday was dominated by the Local Data Company/PwC report on openings and closures in the first half (well, to August) of this year. The headlines were positively apocalyptic, led by the BBC with its unambiguous statement: “Coronavirus drives shop closures to new record” and the opening sentence “A record number of shops closed on UK high streets during the first half of this year”. So that’s that then. The high street is dead and we can all stay away. But there’s just a few problems with this: 1. The report is NOT just about shops – it covers services and leisure as well 2. The report does NOT cover independent businesses, including independent retailers 3. It actually is NOT the UK, as Northern Ireland is not included 4. It does NOT cover all retail locations, but is not only about high streets 5. But the report DOES SAY that openings were at a three ye...

Anyone who follows me on twitter will have become used to Saturday pictures and tweets about the progress or not in my greenhouse.  On the 28 th March I began (week 1) and here we are at week 26 – half a year later.  Lockdown and the pandemic in vegetables and the occasional flower. I have not used this blog for personal things, with odd exceptions; a sort of retail related Welsh rugby story (yes I’m still bitter Alain Rolland) and the death of my father (which is also rugby related ).  So this is an exception, but there is a (minor) retail component. I am doing this because week 26 seems a good place to stop and twitter is not expansive enough for some reflections.  I am stopping because the future week 27-40 something reporting the miserable state of the greenhouse is too much, even for me.  But as they say, I’ll be back.  And this time probably from February not late March. We always grow things and I like doing it from seed ; normally and mainly ...

It is not an unusual state of mind these days, but I am puzzled over a couple of things that have been the topic of discussions (or in the first case the media as well) I have been in over the last week or so. The first is the approach, perhaps best articulated by members of the UK Government, to shame people back into work.  ‘Get back to work’ is the instruction; which comes as a surprise to many who had never stopped working but had just changed their mode and place.  The aim seems to be to save service businesses in big cities. The Scottish Government wanted no part in this and their advice remains work from home if you can. Many people have told me that the novelty of working from/at home has worn off somewhat and that they miss aspects of their formal work sites.  But in the same sentence they rail against the unpleasantness (money, time and environment) of their daily commute, especially into our larger cities.  If the best we can envisage for our future is t...