Technical Change in Retailing: Its Impact on Employment and Access

Retailing is a major consumer service industry in Britain, employing almost two million people. Although an old sector, the retail industry has been modernising considerably throughout the postwar years. In this paper the major phases of retail investment growth during this period are examined. The effects of this new investment for both the production and the consumption of retail services are also illustrated. In particular, the focus is on the most recent phase of retail investment growth, both in new building and in new production technology, which has been taking place since the late 1970s. This new investment has involved major changes in both the organisation and the location of the retail industry. In particular, new types of retail organisation such as superstores, hypermarkets, and retail warehouses have emerged, many of which are located away from existing high-street centres in peripheral out-of-town sites. It is these new types of retail outlet which have been at the forefront of new technology applications in the industry. From an examination of recent superstore development in London, it is suggested that a distinct change in the geography of food retailing is emerging, with a growing polarisation between inner and outer, and low-income and high-income areas. It is suggested that this emerging polarisation in the structure and location of retailing both reflects and reinforces existing trends towards a greater social and spatial polarisation of Britain in the 1980s, and that increased inequality of access to new retailing services is an important but frequently ignored consequence of recent developments in the industry.