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Identifies the National Council framework for National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs) and General National Vocational Qualifications (GNVQs), which set standards for occupations. Highlights the need for a skilled, qualified workforce in the UK; illustrates what these standards can do for business; what NVQs are designed for; what NCVQs aims are; and lists benefits for business. Provides three case studies of North West Water, Philips Components and Booker Cash and Carry.

A distinction must be drawn between a dismissal on the one hand, and on the other a repudiation of a contract of employment as a result of a breach of a fundamental term of that contract. When such a repudiation has been accepted by the innocent party then a termination of employment takes place. Such termination does not constitute dismissal (see London v. James Laidlaw & Sons Ltd (1974) IRLR 136 and Gannon v. J. C. Firth (1976) IRLR 415 EAT).

With its heavy dependence on independent food retailers, the cash and carry sector has seen little overall growth in recent years. A number of operators have experienced severe pressure on net margins, and rationalisation and reorganisation have speeded up, especially with loosely organised groupings of wholesalers. What prospects for growth does the CandC sector show? This article looks at current problems and how the major companies are formulating their strategies for the future. Will this large sector — still with sales of over £3,000m, continue to suffer at the hands of the multiple food retailer? Are there enough new markets in terms of products or customers? And will we see an increasing dilution of genuine wholesaling to bulk buying by consumers?

Booker McConnell's supermarket and food store chain trades under the name of Budgen. In total, however, Booker's UK Food Distribution Division covers a wide range of food distribution activities; its wholesale division delivers to members of the Mace voluntary group and also operates over 50 cash and carry warehouses; the division's turnover is around £180m.

Benefits arising from the intelligent application of Direct Product Profitability (DPP) to the Boots operation have been substantial. They are using the system in at least a dozen ways; they are constantly making new discoveries about products, finding out where the profit comes from, and identifying loss‐making ranges.

This paper falls roughly into three sections: a brief description of the development and structure of the wholesale trade, the implications this structure has for the distribution network, and the conclusion that their means of operation is more viable than that of the multiple or manufacturer with centralised warehousing and fleets of vehicles on long‐distance runs. The forcast is that by 1985 the largest distributor of food in the UK could be a wholesaler.

In this article, Roy Ritson, Bookers manager in Zambia, outlines the problems faced by an emerging African state when confronted with a situation in the distributive trades where previously the control was white. He sheds some light on the methods used by the Zambian government to overcome both the economic and educational difficulties raised — but much still needs to be done.

In this article Professor Perry argues that Plessy v. Ferguson and the de jure segregation it heralded has overdetermined the discourse on Jim Crow. She demonstrates through a historical analysis of activist movements, popular literature, and case law that private law, specifically property and contract, were significant aspects of Jim Crow law and culture. The failure to understand the significance of private law has limited the breadth of juridical analyses of how to respond to racial divisions and injustices. Perry therefore contends that a paradigmatic shift is necessary in scholarly analyses of the Jim Crow era, to include private law, and moreover that this shift will enrich our understandings of both historic and current inequalities.

Information technology is generally accepted as an important source of competitive advantage for the small retail business, though UK research indicates that the take‐up rate has been slow. Examines the factors influencing take‐up among small food retail businesses in the UK. Based on a sample of 148 customers of one major supplier, confirms the findings from earlier research that the effective adoption of information technology is facilitated by the expertise of the owner‐manager and the influence of the large company supplier; and is retarded by the owner‐manager failing to appreciate the benefits IT can provide, particularly in terms of strategic management development and control. Concludes that, given the symbiotic relationship existing between supplier and retailer, suppliers need to ensure that their smaller firm customers receive the requisite education and training to facilitate IT adoption.

The author advances a theory of white generosity, a product of whiteness and of hierarchised relationships between races characterised by the giving to the racialised person that which has not been asked for and which has no practical immediate purpose, which can be used by anti-racist scholars as a framework for analysing racial oppression.

Using postcolonial and cultural studies and deconstructionist techniques in tandem with autoethnography, the author uses textual readings to examine instances of “giving” shaped by white generosity, drawing on Jacques Derrida's work on the gift in order to deconstruct the structure and rhetorical moves of white generosity.

White generosity demands gratitude in excess of the value of the thing given. If for Derrida the gift is given unconditionally, becoming devalued as soon as it demands acknowledgement or draws attention to itself as gift, white generosity is the gift's inverse: a “giving” that manifests itself only as a demand for its supposed recipient's gratitude. Emancipation is no gift at all; simply a deferral of debt. The “gifts” of diversity, decolonisation, widening participation or access are all objects of brokerage in a system that is inherently unequal and violent for black folx.

White generosity is related to theoretical constructs, such as white fragility, that have commanded significant scholarly engagement. However, it has not previously been named or analysed in a systematic way. This article offers a theoretical framework for use by anti-racist activists and scholars to name, interrogate and deconstruct a powerful narrative used in the continued marginalisation of non-white folx.