The study of consumption and its relationship to cultural and social values has become a vibrant and important field in recent years. Hitherto however, relatively few detailed and full length works on this topic have been published. In what will become a seminal volume, this book examines retail selling in various historical contexts and locations, as both an activity at once 'mundane' and almost universal. The book introduces the reader to the existing literature relevant to the subject; and explores the widespread perceptions of moral ambiguity surrounding the practice of selling consumer goods - ranging from concerns about the adulteration of goods, to fears about sharp practice on the part of retailers - and places such concerns in the context of wider societal values and ideas. The ambivalence towards retail selling and sellers is also a central focus of the collection, focussing on the attempts by retailers to develop selling techniques and successful practices of salesmanship, and at the same time establish widely-shared understandings of 'good' retailing. The book also delves into the more dubious practices of retail selling, including practices on the margin of legality, the issue of credit and changing attitudes towards debt. Uniquely the book examines how sales techniques relate to the wider context of a whole shopping 'experience' or shopping environment. Taken as a whole, this volume will provide a first port of call for students, researchers and others interested in exploring consumer cultures, and the cultural norms and practices involved in the sale of consumer goods in various historical periods and geographical contexts.

The world is undergoing a revolution to a digital economy, with pronounced implications for corporate strategy, marketing, operations, information systems, customer services, global supply-chain management, and product distribution. This handbook examines the aspects of electronic commerce, including electronic storefront, on-line business, consumer interface, business-to-business networking, digital payment, legal issues, information product development, and electronic business models.
Indispensable for academics, students and professionals who are interested in Electronic Commerce and Internet Business.

Imagine if you could be a fly on the wall as a family enterprise becomes one of the most successful companies in the world. The Target Story will help you understand and adopt the competitive strategies, workplace culture, and daily business practices that enabled the big box store to become the retail giant it is today. In an industry that has seen constant disruption over the last two decades, Target has experienced tremendous growth. Establishing a strong eCommerce business and cultivating a sought-after in-store experience has kept this iconic brand at the top of the retail game. From same-day fulfillment to brand partnerships, Target has successfully fought the domination of online marketplaces by thinking outside the big box. The growth, prosperity, and expansion strategies that can be gleaned from the history of the Target Corporation amounts to a masterclass in business. Yet, the Target story has never been adequately presented. Until now. Through the story of Target, you'll learn: How to remain nimble in times of tremendous change. How to reinvent a six-decade-old iconic brand. How to know when to build it yourself or bring in the experts. When to change the entire way you do business. And much, much more.

Retroscapes, commercial environments that evoke past times and places, are a ubiquitous manifestation of modern marketing. They come in various shapes and forms, from theme restaurants and flagship stores (Planet Hollywood, Niketown) to festival malls and new urbanist communities (Faneuil Hall, Disney's Celebration). This engaging work is the first book devoted exclusively to the subject. Time, Space, and the Market covers a diverse array of retailing milieux, in a number of different countries, at a variety of spatial scales, and from various evaluative perspectives, both pro and con. The contributors are all well known expert commentators, and the editors have published extensively on retromarketing and servicescapes respectively. Together they offer a unique take on a subject with which everyone can identify.

A study of retroscapes, commercial environments that evoke past times and places, a ubiquitous manifestation of modern marketing. It covers an array of retailing milieux, in a number of different countries, at a variety of spatial scales, and from various evaluative perspectives, both pro and con.

In recent years, the environmental, social and economic concerns regarding laissez-faire retail decentralization policies have resulted in an emergence of a global trend towards the provision of wider choices of good quality public transport modes in suburban areas. Existing research on transport choices to shopping areas simply looks at travel time, travel cost or distance as a measure of the 'deterrence' of getting to a retail outlet and has concentrated on the attributes of the retail outlets, thus neglecting the transport attributes. Based on a substantial study incorporating both quantitative and qualitative research, this engaging volume takes a more balanced view of both retail outlet and transport attributes. It employs a multi-method, sequential design to examine the many dimensions salient to how people evaluate transport options for shopping purposes and unravels many important issues in transport mode and retail destination choices.

This book examines the American industrial strategy, from the late 70s to the present day, in what is now known as the 'neoliberal era'. The author illustrates the ways in which the protection and promotion of American companies and industries took place in the context of the international 'free market'. He provides clear evidence of how the economic power of the United States - wielded to influence the formal and informal institutions of the neoliberal order - has been used as a tool for enhancing its competitive advantage against other world economies.

The Complete Tradesman redresses the relative paucity of studies on the history of retailing before 1800. Based upon extensive research into diverse trade sources, Cox takes issue with the surprisingly resilient stereotype of the 'dull' and 'out of date' shopkeeper in the early modern period, showing that the retailing sector was well adapted to the social and economic needs of the day and quick to exploit new opportunities. Chapters cover not only distribution, shop design, customer relations and networks between tradesmen, but also attitudes to retailing, official controls, and the response to novelty. By throwing light on subjects hitherto overlooked and challenging existing whiggish preoccupations with progress towards modern retailing systems, this study signals a new approach to the history of retailing. The focus is placed on assessing how far tradesmen, especially shopkeepers, satisfied and stimulated contemporary desires for consumer goods.

'Hospitality Retail Management' provides students and managers with a practical guide to managing units in hospitality retail organizations.
Customers rely on a particular chain of hotels, restaurants or pubs to provide the same level of service and environment across the board. This standardised service provides the customer with the security of knowing what to expect from that particular organisation. However, this standardisation allows little room for creativity for individual managers to respond to the particular needs of their local market. There is a growing realisation that there is greater profitability if the chain can offer both standardised services across all its retail operations while at the same time allowing local managers the freedom to interpret the needs of its local market as they see fit.
'Hospitality Retail Management' shows managers and students how competitive advantage can be gained by adopting management techniques which are both 'tight and loose', and demonstrates how you can manage businesses with well-defined objectives while also allowing local managers to interpret their local market as they see fit.
Conrad Lashley has done extensive consultancy with companies such as McDonalds and uses case studies from these companies to reiterate key issues throughout the text.
Forms the basis of a complete course in unit management development
Provides an overview of the range of skills needed for effective unit management
Includes extensive examples of best practice from world-wide companies and a substantial integrated case study

This is a book about the book. Is this a book? is a question of wide appeal and interest. With the arrival of ebooks, digital narratives and audiobooks, the time is right for a fresh discussion of what is a book. Older definitions that rely solely on print no longer work, and as the boundaries of the book have been broken down, this volume offers a fresh and lively discussion of the form and purpose of the book. How does the audiobook fit into the book family? How is the role of reading changing in the light of digital developments? Does the book still deserve a privileged place in society? The authors present a dynamic model of the book and how it lives on in today's competitive media environment.

Shoplifiting is the single largest crime impacting U.S. retail merchants with annual losses over $21 billion and with merchants spending hundreds of millions of dollars to prevent it. To add insult to injury, individuals apprehended for shoplifting may sue stores for damages resulting from their apprehension and detention--and sometimes win. There is good news though. States have enacted merchant protection statutes and civil recovery laws which allow retailers to deal more effectively with the problem. Merchant protection statutes give retail merchants the right to apprehend and detain individuals suspected of shoplifting, while enjoying a conditional privilege of civil liability immunity; yet, despite the offer of civil liability immunity, merchants still lose civil suits with alarming regularity. To avoid losses, merchants must know and follow the specifics of their state's statutes to enjoy the immunity.

Well-written with numerous real life experiences and sound advice, Budden's book will help retail store executives better understand shoplifting's enormous financial hazards to their businesses. Budden uses real life cases to show what executives and managers can and cannot do in their efforts to apprehend, detain, and prosecute shoplifters. They will also find up-to-date advice on using civil recovery laws and information about what is being done to make shoplifters pay for their crimes. Budden makes clear that to gain maximum benefit from both merchant protection statutes and civil recovery laws, retail store executives must understand how such legal measures work and how best to apply them to reduce inventory shrinkage. These retail professionals will find Budden's book a useful guide for developing their own safe, workable protection plans.

Provides a comprehensive overview of the key themes surrounding luxury brand management and the core issues faced by luxury firms today; Each chapter is illustrated by well-recognized contemporary cases and examples to demonstrate how the theory translates to practice and provide an exciting teaching resource; Includes insights from a range of expert contributors from both research and consulting backgrounds

Supply Chain 4.0 has introduced automation into logistics and supply chain processes, exploiting predictive analytics to better match supply with demand, optimizing operations and using the latest technologies for the last mile delivery such as drones and autonomous robots. Supply Chain 4.0 presents new methods, techniques, and information systems that support the coordination and optimization of logistics processes, reduction of operational costs as well as the emergence of entirely new services and business processes. This edited collection includes contributions from leading international researchers from academia and industry. It considers the latest technologies and operational research methods available to support smart, integrated, and sustainable logistics practices focusing on automation, big data, Internet of Things, and decision support systems for transportation and logistics. It also highlights market requirements and includes case studies of cutting-edge applications from innovators in the logistics industry.

By turns exotic, valuable and of cardinal importance in the development of world trade, spices, as the editor reminds us, are today a mundane accessory in any well-equiped kitchen; in the 15th-18th centuries, the spice trade from the Indian Ocean to markets all over the world was a major economic enterprise. Setting the scene with extracts from Garcia da Orta's fascinating contemporary Colloquies on the drugs and simples of India [Goa 1563], this collection reviews trade in a wide variety of spices, exploring merchant organisation, transport and marketing as well as detailing the quantitative evidence on the fluctuations in spice trade. The evidence and historical debates concerning the 16th-century revival of the Mediterranean and Red Sea spice trade at this time, are fully represented here

Retail has been considered national, or even local in character. In the 1990s a different environment emerged. The increasing dominance of distribution channels by large retailers, the emergence of global regional trading areas such as the single European market, and the convergence of international consumer tastes have led to a shift in perspectives. The large retail enterprise which does not think on an international basis faces marginalization by those competitors who are building international operations. This work brings together management researchers in the areas of international retailing. They offer an insight into the mechanisms which are driving forward the internationalization of retailing.

This Third Volume in the acclaimed series of CEU Privatization Reports deals with the transition to a free market in retail trade and consumer services in Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic. The authors describe and analyze all the programs with the help of which shops, restaurants, and service establishments have been privatized in the three most advanced postcommunist countries and provide detailed quantitative evidence concerning all aspects of the small privatization process. The volume also presents the results of the first extensive empirical survey of privatized establishments in the three countries and draws important conclusions concerning the conditions necessary for a successful privatization of the retail trade and consumer service sectors in Eastern Europe. The authors argue that small privatization is, above all, a transfer of ownership to commercial real estate and that the nature of the rights conveyed to the new owners makes a great difference with respect to postprivatization restructuring. They also show that the presence of outside owners, not connected with predecessor state establishments, is one of the most important factors determining the extent of changes brought about by small privatization.

"Beat Your Competition - Increase Sales - Get More Customers in 90 Days "

Online marketing expert Aaron Fletcher shows you how to gain more customers in this simple guide to marketing your small business, with quick and easy solutions for creating a successful marketing plan.

In today's technology-driven marketplace, every small business owner is looking for an effective marketing plan to increase online visibility and ultimately grow their business. Many have already taken the basic steps in launching a website, creating a Facebook page, and maybe even hiring a so-called SEO expert, but now find themselves dismayed by the lack of results. In Stand Out, online marketing expert and Geek-Free Marketing founder Aaron Fletcher shows every small business owner--no matter their skills or budget--how to create a simple, proven, and easy-to-follow road map to increase online visibility, bring more traffic to their sites, generate more leads, increase profit, and grow

"Stand Out" includes clear, step-by step instructions opn how to:

1. Build a solid marketing foundation using the 5 M's of Marketing (Mindset, Market, Message, Media, and Metrics) and the basic Online Marketing Funnel

2. Launch a simple but powerful website that creates an ideal user experience

3. Complete a "Google 101" crash course on understanding search engines (SEO), optimizing your website, and increasing your online visibility

4. Create compelling content that speaks directly to your clients' needs

5. Become a "digital citizen," with tools to help you connect with your audience wherever they hang out online

This comprehensive book examines the impact of smart technologies in consumer's behaviour from a contemporary perspective, blending marketing and retailing along with other disciplines such as psychology, media studies and sociology. Market forces and technological advancements are making the management of and strategies for innovation more prominent and essential in all functions of business, not least marketing and retailing. Frontiers of marketing are constantly pushed, requiring the development and adjustments of new theories. Prior literature on innovation in marketing has mainly focused on digital marketing strategies and consumer behaviour, while only recently introducing the notion of smart retailing in terms of smart experience and interaction. While these studies provide a basis for defining smart retailing and consumer behaviour in smart retail settings, the concept of smart consumers is still under-investigated. Thus, the smart consumer - consumers making extensive use of smart technologies in all steps of their shopping behaviour and experience of the store (both offline and online) - is emerging as a promising area for future marketing and retailing studies. The chapters in this edited volume seek to understand the effect of innovation in consumer behaviour by proposing original empirical and theoretical contributions, methods, models, tools and case studies that contribute to explain this emergent phenomenon. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Marketing Management.

Provides a comprehensive overview of the key themes surrounding luxury brand management and the core issues faced by luxury firms today; Each chapter is illustrated by well-recognized contemporary cases and examples to demonstrate how the theory translates to practice and provide an exciting teaching resource; Includes insights from a range of expert contributors from both research and consulting backgrounds

Entrepreneurship underpins many roles within the publishing industry, from freelancing to bookselling. Entrepreneurs are shaped by the contexts in which their entrepreneurship is situated (social, political, economic, and national). Additionally, entrepreneurship is integral to occupational identity for book publishing entrepreneurs. This Element examines entrepreneurship through the lens of identity and narrative based on interview data with book publishing entrepreneurs in the US Book publishing entrepreneurship narratives of independence, culture over commerce, accidental profession, place, risk, (in)stability, busyness, and freedom are examined in this Element.

Enter the glamorous domain of world-famous jewellery house, Harry Winston, and discover the true rags-to-riches story of the immigrant family behind the phenomenon. Harry Winston’s famous slogan for his success was: “knowledge, courage, and the ability to finance.” King of Diamonds: The Flawless World of Harry Winston is the quintessential rags-to-riches success story of a very poor immigrant family emigrating from Ukraine to America. It is the story of how one man, Harry Winston, created a famous name with his company, founded in New York City in 1932. Winston became known for the owning and sales of very large diamonds. At one point, he owned a third of the world’s most famous gems, including the Hope Diamond, which earned him the moniker “King of Diamonds.” The book details how author Ronald Winston’s father got his start and began what would eventually become the most famous jewellery house in the world. Peek inside his first office, an upstairs Fifth Ave location, followed by subsequent locations in Rockefeller Centre, an office across from St. Patrick's Cathedral, and finally an image-building store on Fifth Avenue. Known as the “Jewelleer to the Stars,” Winston’s gems have appeared both on the Hollywood red carpet and in famous Hollywood films like Notorious starring Ingrid Bergman and Cary Grant, The Graduate starring Dustin Hoffman and Anne Bancroft, and How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days starring Kate Hudson and Matthew McConaughey. Celebrities such as Marilyn Monroe, Viola Davis, Helen Mirren, Gwyneth Paltrow, and many more have worn Winston pieces on Hollywood’s biggest nights. The story then follows Harry Winston’s successor and heir, Ronald Winston, and his making of the family name. Under Ronald, the company’s name would not remain just famous, but would become world-famous. Ronald built locations in Los Angeles, Hawaii, Japan, and China. Ronald’s saga continued with his entry into the revolution in Angola, buying diamonds from its charismatic leader, Jonas Savimbi. Ronald Winston risked his life in order to make profits that repaid the death taxes caused by his father’s passing. In all, King of Diamonds is a joyous evocation of two men who added an innumerable amount to the image, story, and marketing of luxury products, as well as to the joy of people who love and purchase these objects. After all, as frequent Winston jewellery-wearer Marilyn Monroe would say, “diamonds are a girl’s best friend.”

Logistics and supply chains play a vital role in the overall success of retail management. This fifth edition of Logistics and Retail Management covers the major strides made in retail logistics and the challenges which remain, providing students and professionals with the current thinking and research in this strategic field. Including chapters on internationalization, corporate social responsibility (CSR), and green logistics, the book also explores examples from successful organizations such as Schuh and Tesco. Fully updated with the latest international developments and on-going changes in the field, Logistics and Retail Management, 5th edition is a multi-contributed collection from leading academics and practitioners and an expert editor team. The new edition also includes material on the luxury fashion industry and the logistical challenges of e-commerce. Logistics and Retail Management, 5th edition is the essential text for students of retail logistics and supply chain management.

A green-fingered gardener, Amy Stewart has always delighted in the sight of freshly cut flowers, but she grew increasingly curious and uneasy about the journey those flowers take to reach her bouquet. In Gilding the Lily, Stewart introduces us to the people, places and plants that make up this multi-million-pound industry, from a lily grower in the American Northwest to the rose fields of Ecuador and the tulip greenhouses in Holland. Gilding the Lily is a page-turning enquiry into the controversial practices that lie behind each bloom, including the treatment of the workers in the fields and greenhouses, the issue of patenting and the use of pesticides, and the financial forces that drive the quest for the "perfect" flower. It is also a wonderful story about the romance and the reality of growingand cultivating flowers.