Convenience store retailing – The embedding of a new approach in the British retail landscape

Convenience store retailing is a vital component of retailing today, both in the UK and in other markets. Yet, analysis of the historical development of this type of retailing has been very largely neglected. Using the trade press, oral history data and selected archival material, this paper examines the early development of convenience store retailing in Britain during the 1970s, and more particularly in the period between 1980 and 1985. It reveals the complexity and uncertainty that characterised much of the convenience store trade’s early growth, and that informed subsequent directions of development. The paper argues that the conceptualisation of embeddedness as employed by economic geographers to study the globalisation of contemporary retailing is valuable in informing an historical analysis of the British convenience store trade, both in relation to retail firms internationalising into the market and domestic operators entering convenience store retailing from associated trades.