ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses the Spanish retail sector, whose process of modernization began somewhat later than that of other European countries. Therefore, the first section, which deals with the evolution of the structure of the sector, distinguishes two phases of development: the era of traditional retailing, and the era of mass distribution. Modern retail structures did not consolidate in Spain until the 1980s, and an analysis of recent changes in the sector and a description of the present situation are dealt with in the second section. In this part, the authors provide statistics both for the sector as a whole and for the most important retail formats individually.
