Although Belfast contains a number of well‐known British retail names, there are still plenty of British multiples who are reluctant to invest in central Belfast. This is partly because of the bombing campaign and the general high risks, and partly because of the scarcity of suitable sites....

A number of British multiple non‐food retailers are represented in Northern Ireland; they include Marks & Spencer, Boots, C & A, the Burton Group, Olympus Sport, Chelsea Girl and others. However, none of the major British grocery chains trade in the province. Our contributors examine the...

What conceivable connection can there be between religion and retailing? In this original article Stephen Brown shows that the relationship — at least in Northern Ireland — is significant. It goes beyond the obvious subject of Sunday trading; ethnic factors are very apparent. For example,...

The internal layout of a shopping centre and the spatial relationships of the individual shop units within it are important, to retailers and planners alike. However, relatively little work has been done on analysing the behaviour of pedestrians within shopping centres. To remedy this a...

Marks & Spencer's decision to go out of town is one of the most significant in the retail sector in recent years, but so far little research has been done into its implications. In July 1987 Marks were granted planning permission to put up a shopping complex at Sprucefield, on the southern edge...

Retail parks are an increasingly common feature of the UK retailing scene. This paper describes the development, and customer perceptions, of an unplanned second generation park and a planned third generation park in Belfast. The results reveal that although the planned retail park was highly...