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The Grundys are the alternative world of Ambridge. Invariably down on their luck, often portrayed as lazy if not feckless and usually incompetent. This chapter speaks up for the downtrodden of Borsetshire and in particular the Grundys. It looks at the development of the Grundy family in The Archers over almost 50 years now. It relates key elements in their lives, looking not just at the class struggle in the village but also the importance of gender in this. It draws on key players in the Grundy story from the 1970s including the late radio DJ John Peel who was for a time an enthusiast for The Archers and who played Eddie Grundy's records on his BBC Radio One show. It also looks at the views of key Archers figures such as Vanessa Whitburn and Keri Davies and how they have approached the Grundys. It uses the work of Marx and Engels to try to explain how it is that the Grundys moved from being small farmers to landless labourers. What the chapter doesn't do is to map out a strategy for the liberation of the Grundys from their oppression. It does however look forward to a world turned upside down when at 19.02 hours on a weekday evening on BBC Radio 4 we hear a programme called not The Archers, but The Grundys.

In recent years a great deal of information has been collected and published (much of it in this journal) on the perpetually contentious issue of the hypermarket and the superstore — their effect on other forms of retailing, their capacity to reduce operating costs and therefore prices, their impact on the consumer. Many generalisations have also been made about the attitudes of local authorities to these large‐scale units, and some leading hypermarket operators have made bitter accusations against local authorities for endlessly protracted planning negotiations which inevitably lead to increased construction costs. But little information has been gathered up to now (so far as we know) on the precise attitudes of planning authorities, and little attempt has been made to define the highly variable range of responses which they have expressed over the years. This study by Jennifer Sumner and Keri Davies of St David's University College sets out to throw light on this murky area. The broad trend is one of increasing acceptance of the superstore, but not of the hypermarket. In general the attitude to large‐scale retailing developments seems vague and non‐committal, with some councils adopting the attitude of “we won't worry about the problem until it arises.” But the authors believe that trends are changing and that, with further co‐operation between developers and planning authorities, an agreeable compromise could be made.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the key features of the community retail enterprises sector in the UK.

This paper reports on the results of a postal questionnaire survey of 197 community retail enterprises. The information gathered from this survey was supplemented by visits to 21 of the shops run by these enterprises and short interviews with some of the shop staff.

The community retail enterprise sector is growing very quickly, with a significant number of new shops opening every year in the UK. It is a very diverse sector that provides a wide range of goods and services, reflecting the desire to meet the needs of members and local residents. It is heavily dependent on the involvement of the local community, particularly as volunteers, but this can lead to other tensions around the role of the shop and the enterprise in general.

This paper provides an overview of an area of retailing that is growing in size and will be of interest to those involved in policy‐making in rural areas.

The purpose of the paper is to present a review of the existing research themes in the area of retail branding, and note how these have developed as the conceptualisation of “branding” in retailing has itself evolved.

This paper reviews existing research themes within retail branding. There is a vast body of academic literature on branding, or aspects of branding in retailing. The initial focus of academic work was upon the product perspective via studies of the store brand. This body of work is summarised under five broad themes – the characteristics of store brand prone consumers and the product attributes which attract consumers; the growth of and motivations for retail brand development; the role of changing channel relationships and behaviours on store brand development; intra‐category brand relationships; and the concept of copycat brands. From this initial, rather narrow, perspective research has evolved, taking on a wider view the brand in retailing which in turn has encompassed the store and the organisational perspectives.

The evolution of branding in retailing from studies of store brands to the exploration of the retail‐er as a brand has been matched with a widening of the conceptualisation of the brand in retail research: from the product as a brand to the store as a brand and most recently to the organisation as a brand. This has implications for future research in terms of the themes under investigation, research design, and the research methodologies employed.

The paper summarises the themes in existing retail branding research, notes the evolution of thought in retail brand research and suggests areas for future research.

The structure of the UK food manufacturing industry is highly fragmented and consists of some 5,000 firms. Of these, however, the ten largest companies are estimated to account for one‐third of all sales. The importance of the 100 largest private sector firms has traditionally been relatively high within the industry and in 1975, for example, they produced 55 per cent of the food sector's net output, compared with the 40 per cent provided by a similar sample in the total manufacturing sector. Similarly, evidence from both Ashby and Mordue demonstrates that during the 1970s the average size of food manufacturers/processors overtook that of manufacturers as a whole in terms of numbers employed. By the same measure, businesses with more than one hundred employees continued to expand at a faster rate in food than the average for all manufacturers, so that the mean employment size of these larger food enterprises in the late 1970s was more than one‐third greater than in all manufacturing. Smaller establishments, by contrast, are relatively under‐represented in the UK food, drink and tobacco sector, both in comparison with the average for all manufacturers and internationally.

This paper aims to explore the retail internationalisation activities of consumer co‐operatives.

Conducts a survey of the available information on these internationalisation activities.

A survey of the available information on these internationalisation activities shows that they have been restricted to a relatively small number of co‐operatives and that the “failure” rate has been very high. Some suggestions are made as to why the co‐operatives have been unable to convert their early‐mover advantages into sustainable retail networks.

The restricted nature of the sample means that these exploratory findings are primarily descriptive. Further, in‐depth work with a sample of these co‐operatives would help us to better understand the reasons for the moves into and out of various international activities.

Expands the literature on retail failure in general and also provides some more depth to the literature on the internationalisation of co‐operatives.

Whilst there have been significant volumes of research into the internationalisation of investor‐owned retailers and of producer co‐operatives, particularly the “new generation” co‐operatives, there has been very little prior work undertaken in this area.

The nature of retailing in Singapore has changed significantly over the past three decades, reflecting the growing affluence of the population and the influx of tourists, particularly those from Japan. A major influence in these changes has been the Government which has arranged for the development of planned shopping centres in both the central area and the suburban new towns. However, in the 1990s a further wave of change is coming: the nature of retailing is changing as a result of an economic downturn and the growing number of foreign retailers operating on the island. In addition, the Government has decided to shake up the small shop sector and to allow major retail developments in the suburban areas. The net result is likely to be a further period of upheaval and it is by no means certain that Singaporean retailers are going to be winners this time.

Who will lead Ambridge in the years to come? Theories rooted in psychology and political science, when applied to family dynamics in The Archers, allow for some educated guesses. Social learning theory suggests that children who see their parents vote, run for office and participate in other civic activities are more likely to do the same in adulthood. Emma Grundy did just that when she followed in the footsteps of her father, Neil Carter, in winning a seat on the parish council. Previous research has found that birth order also can shape future leaders, with the eldest child more likely to benefit developmentally from parents' undivided attention in the early years, and also more likely to establish a hierarchy of power over younger siblings. With these factors in mind, who are the most probable contenders to lead Ambridge in the spheres of politics, business and civic affairs? The extant research points to Pip Archer, Lily Pargetter, Phoebe Aldridge and George Grundy. The unique circumstances of Ruairi Donovan's childhood suggest he may also be a formidable candidate. And, as is the case in so many contexts, one would be wise not to overlook Molly Button.

As a network analyst, I am fascinated by social interactions. The ways in which people connect with one another and exercise power and authority by deploying different forms of capital. This piece returns to the underlying and changing kinship network structure of the village of Ambridge over time, explores the role of ‘kin-keeping’ as deployed by the matriarchs Peggy and Jill. I am most interested in the ways in which gender as performed by the women of the village intersects with abundance or lack of other forms of capital, and how far inequalities persist and why. It is clear that there is an intergenerational power dynamic at play in the spreading or hoarding of the various dimensions of power layered together and how forms of capital intersect for protection or precarity. Social and cultural capital at birth in the village is defining in terms of both ‘serious’ life outcomes as well as how more minor infractions and foibles are viewed. Further, I return to discuss how my various network-based predictions have fared over time. The Headlam Hypothesis and the fate of Ed Grundy – King of Ambridge are revisited and their durability explored.