ABSTRACT
The provision of consumer services in the British economy constitutes a large-and diverse sector. Even conservative definitions of the scope of consumer services point to the sector employing over 21 per cent of the labour force and contributing over 17 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) in the UK. The sector is large and diverse across several dimensions. It is large in number of employees, in number of organizations involved and in the number of establishments. In the part of consumer services concerned with retailing, products through shops over 2.1 million people are employed in 240 000 businesses which operate 345 000 shops. To appreciate the full scale of the consumer service sector various other activities selling a mixture of products and services must be added to these already substantial numbers. The list of additional consumer services is long but includes:
Leisure services such as restaurant and food services, entertainment activities;
Financial services such as banks, building societies, accountancy, insurance and assurance agencies;
Household services such as estate agents, house and durable good maintenance undertakings, household design agencies;
Personal services such as beauticians, hairdressers and opticians;
Social services such as private-sector advisory and legal services and also consumer social services provided by public-sector and quasi-public-sector agencies such as employment services, consumer advice and housing advisory facilities.
