ABSTRACT
The two case studies carried out in Britain involved two very different sections of the retail trade. The first and major study was of a Superstore in a new shopping precinct in Peacehaven, a small town just outside Brighton; the second and much shorter study was of a long established department store in the centre of a big city. The retail trade as a whole has undergone considerable upheaval and reorganisation in recent years and the two case studies represent two different ways of adapting to the hard realities of modern retailing. The department store as we know it today developed at the end of the last century and was itself a response to the demands of a new, changing market. The group has a policy of offering competitive prices and yet at the same time still providing the kind of personal service traditionally associated with department stores – there is, for instance, a free local delivery service for customers.
