This article examines the early stages of the self-service and supermarket innovations in post-war Britain. It does so in the context of co-operative retailers and in particular investigates both why such organizations were pre-eminent in the adoption of self-service as well as how they...

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...