Retail shops and stores

Retail outlets consist of buildings or rooms where goods or services

are sold to the public. They include shop and store premises and

also concessionary space.

1.02 Scale and polarisation of business

A total of 33.7 per cent of consumers’ overall expenditure in Great

Britain in 2004 was spent in retail outlets. This proportion has

progressively reduced from 37.5 per cent in 1995, showing the

benefits of scale and sourcing made possible by polarisation of

retail business into large groups serving particular segments of the

consumer market. In 2004 the total turnover in predominantly food

stores was over £112 billion and in non-food stores £128 billion.