Jonathan Elms

Urban Place Marketing and Retail Agglomeration Customers

Abstract Through identifying the attributes of a place that have an influence on the patronage behaviour of urban retail customers, this paper presents a conceptual model that proposes direct and indirect antecedents regarding the different retail-related dimensions associated with urban place attractiveness. An empirical study was conducted whereby the model was tested by surveying approximately 500 actual customers at the time they visited a particular town centre for the purposes of shopping. The results showed that the retail tenant mix, the merchandise value, and the atmosphere had a direct impact, and the product range and the sales personnel an indirect impact upon the evaluation of attractiveness. Furthermore, a number of additional effects towards these antecedents were identified with respect to parking conditions, the non-retail tenant mix, manoeuvrability, and orientation. This revealed that retailing activities were a major driver of attractiveness for an urban place. The practical implication of these findings suggests that place marketing activities should be proactive in supporting and enabling retailers in fulfilling their roles.

Consumer vulnerability and the transformative potential of Internet shopping: An exploratory case study

Abstract Ten million individuals in the UK who suffer from long-term illness, impairments, or disability can be considered as vulnerable consumers (Office for Disability Issues, 2010). Despite this, there are few studies on the use of the Internet for grocery shopping by the disabled and none which offers an understanding of the multiple facets of consumer vulnerability. The purpose of this study is to contextualise the use of the Internet for grocery shopping using an exploratory case to provide fresh insights into the ‘actual’ vulnerability of ‘Danni’ – a disabled housewife and mother. The consumer-focussed methods used here were combined multiple complementary approaches. The findings illustrate that whilst the use of the Internet reduces the impracticalities of shopping in-store, the normalcy afforded to Danni through shopping in-store (including her sense of self) was not met by the technological offerings. The paradoxes associated with using online provision and the strategies adopted to manage these by Danni demonstrate engagement/disengagement and assimilation/isolation. Policy implications and insights for retailers are provided.

30 years of retail change:where (and how) do you shop?

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the extent of retail change in the UK grocery sector over the last 30 years. Design/methodology/approach – In 1980, a press article by Richard Milner and Patience Wheatcroft attempted to anticipate retail change by 1984. Taking that as a template, the paper examines how retail did, in fact, change over a much longer timescale: with some unanticipated innovations in place even by 1984. Reference is made to academic research on grocery retailing in progress at the time and which has recently been revisited. Findings – Although Milner and Wheatcroft tackled the modest task of looking ahead just four years, the content of their article is intriguingly reflective of the retail structure and systems of the UK at the time. Whilst some innovations were not anticipated, the broad themes of superstore power and market regulation still command attention 30 years on. Originality/value – Through reconsidering 30 years of retail change, the paper highlights that with time how do you shop has come to pose at least as interesting a question as where do you shop.

The food superstore revolution: changing times, changing research agendas in the UK

This article considers the changing scope of research into UK food superstores over some three decades. Rather than catalogue changing market shares by format, we seek instead to show how such change links to national policy agendas. Academic research has evolved to address the growing complexities of the social, technological, economic and political impacts of the superstore format. We exemplify this by tracing the progression of retail change in Portsmouth, Hampshire, over 30 years. We discover that academic research can conflict with the preconceptions of some public policy makers. The position is exacerbated by a progressive decline in public information – and a commensurate rise in factual data held by commercial data companies – that leaves policy makers with a choice of which data to believe. This problem casts a shadow over the objectivity of macro-policy as currently formulated. Concerns currently arise because the UK Competition Commission (2006–2009 but ongoing) starts each inquiry afresh with a search for recent data. Furthermore, it has recently called for changes to retail planning – the very arena in which UK superstore research commenced.

Consumer Perceptions of Higher and Lower-Level Designed Store Environments

The role and influence of esthetics in the consumption of store environments remains poorly understood. Little is known about how esthetics propose substantial or adjunctive roles in consumers’ store experiences. The aim of this paper is to examine consumer perceptions of store design-architecture in high and low-level design contexts. Building on the esthetics, and environmental psychology literatures, our findings confirm consumers’ determinations of perceptual differences in the esthetic content contained in presented store environmental stimuli. Latent means comparisons confirm consumers’ perceptions of the presence of a high-level design in one fast-fashion store with a low-level design of a second store of the same retailer using a Confirmatory Factor Analysis. The results demonstrate the reliability and validity of the proposed constructs in confirming the presence of higher and low-levels of design. This research, thus, expands on the extant number of store specification and response constructs and prospectively opens up new lines of store environments research.