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Traditionally, the south‐east has lagged behind the north in the provision of superstores and hypermarkets. Now this position is changing with the development southwards of Asda and other companies. In addition, the search by the major multiples for superstore sites has become even more competitive. What effect does government policy, especially as expressed through Development Control Policy Notes, have on this changing pattern of retailing? In this special feature, Paul Whysall asserts that the current system for evaluating major retail proposals often appears vague and inconsistent; he suggests that retail change may well anticipate policy review.

Retailers are facing conflicting strategic variables as they enter the next decade; horizontal versus vertical diversification; high street versus greenfield out‐of‐town siting; own label versus branded goods; staff cost reductions versus loyalty and commitment of service staff. This article looks at these strategic choices in the context of the UK grocery retail sector, drawing comparisons with retail banking. It concludes that the industry is likely to consolidate market share by acquisition; that overseas diversification is unlikely; that “superstore” development will slow or stop; but that stores will expand product lines, particularly in non‐food items.

A number of competitive forces seem set to re‐shape the UK grocery retail market during the 1990s, such as superstore saturation, information technology, and the emergence of a dominant “Big Three” group of retailers. A factor likely to be of major significance is the entry of European retailers, such as Aldi and Netto. The UK market is particularly attractive to European limited line discounters because of its wide net margins, and because its price competitive low end is vulnerable, having been largely abondoned during the 1980s as many UK incumbents moved “up market”. These European discounters possess the specific skills and assets necessary to penetrate the UK market′s three main barriers to entry. European new entry is partly responsible for a renewal of interest in discount grocery retailing among UK incumbents, which, in combination with other competitive forces, will produce a more complex and subtle structure to the UK grocery retail market.

The choice of a disused airport at Portsmouth for the siting of a Safeway superstore, opened in March of this year, may seem odd as there were only 700 houses scheduled to be built on the site and there were no others within at least a mile. Furthermore, the Safeway unit became the tenth superstore to open in the Portsmouth travel‐to‐work area.

The expansion by grocery retailers in the UK has been a subject of much speculation and continues to raise questions about the scope and format of future investment in new stores. Suggests that a more dynamic perspective of the strategies of individual retailers is central to understanding this issue. Examines competing perspectives of locational change and suggests that retail potential needs to be defined locally not just with reference to the quality of retail floorspace but also to the strategic objectives of competing organizations. Such a perspective highlights how the format and locational choices of competing retail organizations themselves might serve to blur the boundaries of local market potential. Illustrates this with reference to an exploratory case study of the evolution of grocery retailing in two UK cities, Cardiff and Manchester. Highlights the implications of the changes in competing formats for the stability of the local retail system and identifies some related research issues.

The retail trades are an important employer of labour in Britain. The Retail Inquiry of 1982 found that there were 2.202 million people engaged in the retail trades (British Business, 1983). This figure includes self‐employed and casual workers. The 1981 Census of Employment recorded that retailing (1968 S.I.C.) had 1.863 million employees in employment, i.e. 8.8 per cent of the British employees in employment total. On revision to the 1980 S.I.C., the figures became 2.049 million and 9.7 per cent of the total in employment. The Census of Employment excludes the self‐employed. The present economic recession has severely contracted employment, and especially manufacturing employment (see, for example, Townsend, 1983). Little is known, however, about the impact of the recession on the retail trades, despite their importance as a source of employment.

Trends in food retailing in Britain suggest that the industry is restructuring. Groups such as J. Sainsbury, Tesco, Safeway and Asda are increasingly concentrating their efforts on opening new, large stores; usually superstores but, occasionally, hypermarkets. There is the increasing likelihood, then, that two or more such large stores will become rivals for the same shopper catchment area. A detailed examination of shopping behaviour in an area where the clear choice is between a superstore and a hypermarket is presented. Key measures of accessibility such as car ownership licence‐holding, car availability and bus availability are examined in order to highlight the spatial implications of this restructuring process.

Controversy and well‐argued differences of opinion are the hallmarks of a successful conference, and these were certainly evident at RMDP's second conference on “Techniques for Shop Location”, held in London in June. Attended by nearly 200 delegates, this one‐day event emphasised the practical application of increasingly sophisticated locational techniques, especially those “friendly” to personal computers. But debating points quickly arose. Ross Davies, from the chair, argued that local authorities have become more supportive to superstore development, but this was questioned by Asda's David Gransby. The superstore developer thinks that retail use should be defined geographically; convenience shopping out of town allows the High Street to thrive on comparison stores. But planning economist Peter Jones thinks that some existing centres must be allowed to decline in favour of innovative developments elsewhere, such as combinations of superstores, warehouses and factories. David Powell, setting his arguments against a wide social and political background, took the view that the government should take positive steps to encourage retailers to locate in depressed regions and inner cities, thus creating change in current locational policies. But one delegate thought that government intervention would prove restrictive. Mike Poynor of the CDT, representing RDM at the conference, outlines the points of agreement and the differences.

The search for new approaches to inner city problems has been stepped up following the recent disturbances in Brixton, Toxteth and Moss Side, but clearly (here is no simple solution. Certainly, the answer does not depend solely on the amount of money ploughed into the areas because, as Mr Heseltine has argued, “very large sums of public money are already being spent, and they do not always appear to have solved the problems of our cities.” Instead, any improvement is likely to come from a variety of sources — political, social and financial. This article examines the contribution that retailers can make.

Until April this year the confidence of the five major national multiple grocery retailers continued to be bouyant. Collectively Argyll (Safeway), Asda, Gateway (Dee Corporation) Sainsbury and Tesco were estimated to have 43% of the total floorspace in their trade sector in 1989. This compared to 24% in 1983. Such a significant increase reflected a combination of the acquisition of smaller and mainly regional enterprises, major refurbishment of the better sited traditional stores, and the opening of many new and larger purpose built superstores. Dependent on the whims of local planning authorities, these superstores combined both out‐of‐town and off‐centre sites. It is still often easier to get planning permission for an off‐centre store.