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The customer has become much more volatile than ever before; retailers must react and anticipate accordingly, and suppliers must change their relationship and communications with the customer, by working more closely with the retailer. Suppliers, in Mike Groves' view, are still more concerned with the effect of stock reductions, rather than acknowledging the more significant consumer cause of retail policies. This is the underlying dilemma that has helped to maintain the gap in the supplier‐retailer dialogue.

International Stores have now started Phase 2 of their Plain and Simple promotion campaign, which offers simply presented packs at guaranteed fixed prices for three months. Effective distribution is an important element in the marketing plan, as will be seen in this feature based on an interview with Mike Groves, International's joint managing director, by the editor of RDM.

Inventory control is not the same as stock control ‐ it means control of each item that goes to make up the total inventory. In this exercise Keith Padden shows how his hypothetical range of crystal balls ‐ by which he means baked beans, soft drinks, instant coffee, or anything else ‐ can be rationalised. The result can be a release of working capital sufficient to make good the deficit in cash flow ‐ or to buy sites, build and fit out six 15,000 sq ft supermarkets.

One in ten housewives faces an out of stock situation in current conditions. For the retailer, this means an immediate or potential loss in two‐thirds of the cases; for the supplier, the sales wastage could be considerable. This was the message emerging from the recent massively‐attended conference on “Out of Stock” organised jointly by the Institute of Grocery Distribution and Nielsen.

Drawing on nearly ten years' experience of developing and managing social firms in Edinburgh, Sheila Durie makes the case for creating real jobs to complement the government's ‘Welfare to Work’ and ‘New Deal’ initiatives.

Becky Feculak has battled through early onset illness to make a life for herself, finding support at vital times from fellow users, professionals and employers. Becky's story has many lessons and she hopes that others, including those responsible for designing and commissioning mental health services, will benefit from her experiences.

A large part of this paper is based on a presentation by Maria Fafalios‐Dragonas at the International Conference on Developmental/Intellectual Disabilities, ‘Bridging the Continents’, held in Cyprus, 27‐29 March 1998. The conference was organised by the North Dakota Centre for Persons with Disabilities, a university‐affiliated programme at Minot, North Dakota, and Cyprus University, Nicosia, Cyprus. The paper looks at vocational rehabilitation projects in Greece and is based on a questionnaire distributed (August 1996 to August 1997) to the directors of various sheltered workschemes throughout the country, for people with mental health problems, learning difficulties and physical disabilities. This survey ‐ unique in Greece, to our knowledge ‐ was carried out by Maria Fafalios‐Dragonas, Eleni Tsigara and Panayota Papamanoli, for Kaleidoscope social enterprise. The statistical analysis is by ORCO, Athens.

The Network page is your chance to share information or make contact with others. If you are involved in an innovative project, network or partnership that might be of interest to others, why not use this space to tell our readers about it?

Blackthorn Garden is a work‐rehabilitation project attached to a general practice. In the first part of this paper, Tijno Voors, Director of Blackthorn Garden, describes its development, its aims and approach to work, its connection with the general practice and the views of its workers. In the second part, Julia Nehring and Robert Hill discuss Blackthorn Garden as a community mental health service and relate this to findings from a two‐year evaluation of the project.

In an earlier paper in this journal (Peel, Groves and Pendlebury, 1990), we outlined a major research project, being conducted at the Cardiff Business School, into the impact of privatisation/share‐ownership on the ‘financial awareness’ of employees.