L11 - spaces of retailing and consumption

Question 1

Why is retail interesting?

Answer 1

Wrigley, 2000
- Consumption and retail are driving forces of economic development = live in a consumer society
- Retail capital constantly reshapes the urban environment
- Retail networks have a huge impact on development = what we consume goes through supply chains; large expanse of networks
o Lots of countries agricultural systems links to global north consumption = linked through GPNs
- Online retailing has expanded lots = more convenience

Question 2

Context 1

Answer 2

• Step change in retail FDI since the mid-1990s into a wide and varied range of emerging markets
• Especially leading economies of Central and Eastern Europe, East/Southeast Asia and Latin America; then China, now India?
  o Lots of neoliberal policies = focus on deregulation, hence leading to openness on a global scale
• Also driven by conditions in home markets: surplus capital, highly competitive, tightly regulated

Question 3

Globalisation of retail

Answer 3

• Tescos is largest UK globally-operating supermarket
• Has operations in Thailand and Malaysia = stores seem to be instantly recognisable from the inside and sell similar items
  o Shows westernisation = following organization/modernity of western supermarket conception
• Tesco’s global operations = UK is still most important country, but has large chunk of overseas employees

Question 4

Basic foundations of retail geography

Answer 4

1. Retail TNC defined by the necessity of expanding both store and sourcing operations across national boundaries
2. Distinctive attributes, yet some similarities to other sectors: theories need to reflect both dimensions
3. Need to conceptualise the importance of home and host political-economic contexts and not just intra-firm strategies and dynamics

Question 5

Other shifts in retail history

Answer 5

• 1960s onwards: the suburbanization of retail = cars
• Four waves in the UK: supermarkets, retail parks, regional shopping centres, outlet malls
• Focus on retail internationalization here: more recent trend, analytically interesting
• Other shifts = online retailing

Question 6

Key dimensions of territorial embeddedness

Answer 6

o Local cultures of consumption
o Real-estate and land-use planning systems
o Local supply networks (to varying extents)
= retailers are high.y territorially embedded