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Examines the attitude of the consumer and local authorities to out‐of‐town shopping centres by means of results of a survey carried out in two suburbs of Bournemouth in the UK. Reveals that both the consumer and local authorities have reservations about the role of out‐of‐town shopping centres and its effect on the overall pattern of retail distribution, despite the apparent benefits of this kind of shopping.

The Institute of Grocery Distribution published last month a report on “The Physical Characteristics of Supermarkets opened during 1973”. It is reviewed here by T.W. Cynog‐Jones, formerly Research Officer to the IGD.

This paper aims to examine the reasons for the rise and fall of the UK high street shop as an investment class for financial institutions.

The paper begins by tracing the scale of investment by financial institutions in shops and the reasons for their historic popularity. The next sections review the changes in retailing and the consequences in terms of the current retail offering. The consequences and implications for retail investment are then considered in terms of institutional portfolios and (relative) investment yields. The research is based on a review of a range of secondary sources and an analysis of the Investment Property Databank database.

The traditional UK high street as an investment class has been challenged by the decentralisation of retailing and new retail forms over the last 30 years. While the city centre is still the principal location for comparison retailing, the consequence has been a restructuring of institutional investment portfolios and of relative yields. The number of high street shops in investment portfolios has halved since the mid‐1990s. There are threats from online shopping and the recent recession has further queried the original arguments for investing in high street shops. However, the driving force for the decline of investment in high street shops by financial institutions appears to be the short‐termism.

The paper reviews the changing fundamentals of retail property investment to explain the decline of the high street shop as a property investment class.

Sainsbury have impressed yet again, with a profit advance in the latest reported year of 20 per cent. The group became the biggest UK retailer in terms of turnover, even outstripping Marks & Spencer. Our commentator takes the view that brand strength will continue to power Sainsbury ahead, together with its store expansion programme.

The purpose of this paper is to compare customers' perceptions of factory outlet stores (FOS) versus traditional department stores (TDS), and their purchasing preferences, related to demographic profiles.

Data were collected by a mall intercept survey from 205 shoppers in a New Zealand city across a range of demographics. Factor analysis measured their perceptions of factory outlets and TDS with respect to a number of variables, and one‐way ANOVA and t‐tests were used to investigate the nature and significance of the observed differences.

Four key factors exert critical influences on customers' perceptions: in‐store customer service, brand images, physical features, and price and promotion. FOS are perceived to have comparatively lower prices and more attractive promotions than TDS, which in turn have competitive advantages in terms of the other three factors. Gender, education and income also affect store choice, but age has no discernible effect on perceptions of the two types of outlet.

TDS should maintain their competitive position by continuing to offer attractive physical features, good in‐store customer service and reputable branded products, while FOS need to learn from the competitive disadvantage of TDS and enhance their current perceived competitiveness on price and promotions.

Previous research studies have tended to pay little attention to demographics and to focus on large economies; this paper addresses both deficiencies.

Reviews the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoints practical implications from cutting‐edge research and case studies.

This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.

The language of modern life, especially in the political arena, is full of euphemisms. Sometimes they are meant to soften a blow or to obscure darker truths. They exist in business, too, as anyone who has been told “We will have to let you go” will testify. But the corporate world can also be very blunt in its appraisal of a situation or practice. In the early 1990s, the USA witnessed an unprecedented growth in chains of retailers such as Best Buy, Home Depot and Toys R Us. Similar processes have been at work in the UK and in some cases, such as Toys R Us, the enterprises are the same. The Americans gave such stores the bleak and to‐the‐point name “category killers” because they offered almost every conceivable product related to their category under one roof. In other words, the goal of these retailers was to dominate the category and “kill” the competition.

Provides strategic insights and practical thinking that have influenced some of the world's leading organizations.

Provides strategic insights and practical thinking that can have a broader social impact.

The briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy‐to‐digest format.

During the past 30 years the balance between retail development in “out of town” as opposed to “town centre” locations has been a recurrent theme in retail planning policy debates and policy initiatives within the UK. This paper reviews the continuing growth and diversification of out‐of‐town retail development and draws attention to the recent investment in retail services complexes in out‐of‐town sites. A brief outline of changing central government thinking suggests an increasingly restrictive approach to new out‐of‐town retail development coupled with a policy commitment to “put town centres first”. The paper then offers some illustrative examples of town centre management initiatives in Leicester, Leeds and Manchester, and concludes with a brief discussion of some of the issues surrounding the “in town – out‐of‐town debate”.

Do out of town superstores adversely affect traditional shopping centres by siphoning off the higher purchasing power of car‐owning households? The arguments for and against persist, but it appears that retail warehouses, selling bulky, durable goods in out of town locations are generally looked on favourably by planning authorities. As the trend to larger stores seems to have developed an unstoppable momentum, a recent project was set up to find out how accessible edge, or out of town, warehouses are, who uses them, and how they affect conventional shopping centres, particularly those with shops selling comparable merchandise. The following paper presents part of this research. It was carried out by Transport and Environment Studies (TEST), for London Transport in their dual role as public transport operators and as land owners with sites of interest to DIY superstore developers. The paper was presented at PTRC's 12th annual summer meeting in July this year, at the University of Sussex.

Presents the results of an interview survey carried out in an out‐of‐town store, compares these with the impact of the store as predicted by the Lakschmanan‐Harsen real potential model. Suggests that the model is an effective way of assessing the impact of out‐of‐town stores.

Traditional competition across apparel store types reflects the dynamics of market positioning in practice. Previous research found that apparel related purchases accounted for over half of the money rural consumers spent out of town. Research on apparel shopping intentions according to store types helps identify to what extent different retail formats compete with each other for customers and enables rural retailers to improve their positioning strategies. Results describe apparel shopping behaviour, in rural population, relative to store type and variables influencing consumers’ shopping intentions. Factors influencing consumers’ shopping choices among different apparel retail formats are identified. Descriptive statistics indicated most apparel shoppers frequented independently owned stores and cross‐shop among retail formats. When store categories were created, data revealed that the retail format category department, discount, and chain stores attracted more customers than the other retail format categories.