ABSTRACT
A wave of realisation has just swept Geography, that change in retailing is highly significant to culture, landscape, economy and society-not least in selling to women and employing women (Lowe and Wrigley, 1996). Retailing changes the way in which people make their livings even more than it creates new jobs. I begin with the changing nature of consumption, as shopping and leisure facilities become further merged. Across the EU, there is cultural variety in the practice and regulation of shops, but all tend to converge on the French or British style of hypermarket, distinctive in its use of the ‘numerical flexibility’ of part-time staff.
