In recent years, campaigns have been galvanised to 'save the High Street'. It seems everyone has a view about how we can revamp our down-at-heel towns and cities. But are they missing the point? Veteran retailer Bill Grimsey argues that it is already too late. The High Street, that we have grown to know and love, is as good as dead already. The indisputable truth is British towns and cities are losing their identity and dying off. Independent stores that were once vital to the fabric of towns are disappearing at a rate of 50 shops a week. Some towns now have as many as 24 per cent of their shops shuttered. The time has now come to work out what happened, learn lessons from our mistakes and find a new way forward to make new and innovative use of our shattered town centres. "Have our shopping preferences created the High Street we now deserve?"

1985, manufacturing is in decline and UK financial services has just started to unleash its commanding power over the economy for the next 25 years until the credit crunch bites. Sales of retail financial products and advice proliferated as banks, insurance companies and financial advisers scramble for market share. Regulation and regulators along with advice models traverse an ever growing understanding of the effects of the financial sales advice and service that has gone before, mortgages and endowments being good examples. To a significant extent successful selling is what financial services, along with most other services and products are about, as you will see. This book details the journey of a financial adviser through UK financial sales over a quarter of a century, containing some humorous anecdotes of success, failure and middle management to aid understanding and improve prospects. Starting from a bank clerk to running his own financial services company from a clean sheet, Keith Churchouse will visit many aspects of working for a financial services business leading to running his own successful business, including marketing, industry education, sales techniques and targeting and self belief in your own abilities to succeed in the current economy.

The book is the first profound book about one of the most successful food retailers in the world: ALDI. The management system and key success factors are described and explained in great detail.

Making a living in the Caribbean requires resourcefulness and even a willingness to circumvent the law. Women of color in Jamaica encounter bureaucratic mazes, neighborhood territoriality, and ingrained racial and cultural prejudices. For them, it requires nothing less than a herculean effort to realize their entrepreneurial dreams.

In "Higglers in Kingston," Winnifred Brown-Glaude puts the reader on the ground in frenetic urban Kingston, the capital and largest city in Jamaica. She explores the lives of informal market laborers, called "higglers," across the city as they navigate a corrupt and inaccessible "official" Jamaican economy. But rather than focus merely on the present-day situation, she contextualizes how Jamaica arrived at this point, delving deep into the island's history as a former colony, a home to slaves and masters alike, and an eventual nation of competing and conflicted racial sectors.

"Higglers in Kingston" weaves together contemporary ethnography, economic history, and sociology of race to address a broad audience of readers on a crucial economic and cultural center.

Whether it's "Antiques Roadshow" or "American Pickers, " or any of the number of TV shows on flea markets, the world of collecting inspires a cult following of millions of Americans. Celebrated author Maureen Stanton takes readers behind the scenes and deep into the "flea-o-sphere," following master antiques dealer Curt Avery from the populist mayhem of flea markets, to the rarefied realm of high-end antiques shows, to the heart-pounding competition of auctions. "Killer Stuff and Tons of Money" is a captivating tour of the outrageous world of American antiques, jam-packed with colorful characters, high-stakes scores, and insider tips for all who seek hidden treasure.

An interdisciplinary study of retail crime as a cultural phenomenon, drawing on economics, criminology and management to present a comprehensive explanation for the growth in retail thefts. This topical study explores crime prevention as a management issue, using criminomics, a concept based on commercial realities rather than maximising arrests.

Do you dream of the perfect company? That's the company where information moves freely between all functional areas, where you never have to enter data a second time, and everything is centralized in a single enterprise management system. This is the place where you rarely work on anything in a panic because everything is planned and well-structured, where everybody has permanent access to all useful information, and where all routine tasks are automated and easily controlled. This book presents a modern approach to retail and industrial management, giving you the tools for implementing this type of integrated management based on the open source software: Open ERP. It describes how you can integrate your different services and automate tasks: sales, purchases, process management, stocks, manufacturing, etc.

This handy guide is packed with information to help beginners and experienced market vendors develop a viable product line, create attractive displays and learn simple sales techniques. Whether you sell produce, preserves or crafts, you will learn how to buy supplies efficiently, cost and price your products effectively and handle all the intricacies of market life. This book will help you achieve your goals on your own terms and in keeping with today's important trends.

If you're a professional in the loss prevention field and want a long career, then this guidebook is for you. For almost two decades, Herman Otis Laskey Jr. has been saving companies time and money. In this guide, Laskey offers anecdotes and methods for loss prevention, including

detailed case studies about how he's uncovered internal and external thefts; issues that all retail businesses must focus on to reduce losses; ways to deter employees and customers from stealing; tips on cutting costs when investigating crimes; five secrets to a successful loss prevention career.

He also shares how the STINOR Method Loss Prevention can reduce shoplifting and employee theft by up to 95 percent. This method has been used for more than fifteen years by thousands of retailers and restaurants. In addition, you'll learn how to focus on problem areas such as bathroomsand fitting rooms.

By thinking like a thief and equipping yourself with the knowledge of a longtime loss prevention professional, you'll benefit from "Secrets of a Successful Loss Prevention Career."

Efficient Warehouse Management with Sales and Purchases Integration. How to setup a warehousing application that sustains your evolving logistics strategies, on a national and international level. A very simple, yet complete Stock Management system based on double-entry moves will help you plan and well structure your logistics organization, also in a multi-company environment. Sales forecasts and real-time dashboards give you exactly the visibility you need with up-to-date information. In this book, you will learn to set up and use OpenERP to: * Have real-time visibility of the product stock for all kinds of locations, * Set up advanced push and pull rules to manage complex routes in your warehouses, * Automate your inventory valuation * Forecast your Sales * Receive automated purchase proposals * Measure and improve your performance through real-time information dashboards.

Unprecedented consumer power, enabled by technology and globalization is driving a revolutionary transformation that will lead to the demise of retail as we know it. The authors provide a unique and essential view of the future of the industry, arguing that a new business model is necessary in these new times, one based on: Preemptive, precise and perpetual distribution; A neurological customer connection; and total control of the value chain. Some of the authors' key insights and predictions include: * The collapse of the traditional retail/wholesale business model: The more enlightened retailers and wholesalers understand they must own and control the creation, distribution and presentation of their value, directly to the consumer. * Internet retailers such as Amazon, must ultimately open bricks and mortar stores: In an over-competed marketplace, preemptive distribution of value to precisely where and how the consumer wants it is vital, meaning that retailers and wholesalers must utilize all available distribution platforms, as well as create new distribution ideas. * Successful control of the total value chain is the key driver of economic success: Control does not necessarily mean ownership, as in complete vertical integration. Rather, it means that one must gain dominant control over all its functions as companies like Wal-Mart and Ralph Lauren, who don't own, but certainly control, their total value chains, demonstrate. * The imperative to control the value chain will favor those who own production: An increasing number of U.S. brands, wholesalers and retailers, will be acquired by Chinese manufacturers and other emerging countries who can produce consumer goods at a low cost.