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...

Detailed accounts of the social role of the independent shopkeeper rarely go beyond 1914. This article identifies a perception that his value in providing both a personal and community service endured beyond this date. Consultation of a variety of documentary sources from the 1930s and 1940s...

This article argues that students of retail history need to give more attention to the idea of the retail format. Employing a conceptualisation of the format recently presented in contemporary retail studies, it reveals the importance of so-called 'offering' and 'know-how' components to a fuller...