"This book provides a significant contribution to the discursive analysis of service encounters. It demonstrates, in a very elegant way and based on a solid empirical investigation, how mediated discourse analysis may be enacted to describe and understand the social and cultural practices associated with space, time, ethnicity and identity construction. A must-read for researchers and practitioners interested in language use in professional contexts." -- Laurent Filliettaz, University of Geneva, Switzerland "This book contains one of the most thorough and productive applications of the theoretical and analytical apparatus of mediated discourse analysis I have come across, demonstrating how the moment-by-moment ways that people appropriate discourse to perform mundane daily activities such as shopping contribute to the broader maintenance of social identities and communities. The analysis is meticulously undertaken and communicated in clear, elegant prose. This book will be of interest to anyone working in the field of discourse studies." -- Rodney Jones, University of Reading, UK This book investigates the social practices of service encounters in the context of a typical Persian shop in Sydney. Although by nature goal-oriented speech events, the book posits that service encounters are not simply limited to achieving business transactions, but that they incorporate a range of social and discursive practices. Analysing ethnographic data using the frameworks of Mediated and Multimodal Discourse Analysis, the author explores how people use everyday activities to enact social and cultural identities, construct linguistic authenticity, and maintain strong economic ties to the community. It will be of interest to scholars and students of the sociolinguistics of ethnic/ minority sites and urban spaces. Dariush Izadi holds a PhD in Sociolinguistics and teaches Language and Linguistics Research Methods, Sociolinguistics, Discourse Analysis and TESOL Units at Western Sydney University, Australia. In his work, he applies mediated discourse and nexus analysis to investigate practices and methods through which participants accomplish their actions in social settings.

Retail Geography and Intelligent Network Planning demonstrates the importance of geographical thinking in a wide variety of situations. The book exemplifies the importance of sophisticated and intelligent spatial analysis techniques in dealing with the range of location, distribution and channel management issues which now face retail and service businesses. This technology is especially crucial in an age when traditional channels of physical distribution such as bank branches and shops are increasingly complemented by electronic and virtual channels.

Building on the success of Intelligent GIS (1996), which set out the principles and applications of GIS and spatial modelling for strategic planning, this new title concentrates on the concept of retail intelligence applied to retail planning by presenting examples relating to a wide range of business problems.

Retail Geography and Intelligent Network Planning is an innovative book in several ways:

• Explores some of the key retail trends impacting on retail location and store location studies by drawing on research undertaken in grocery and supermarket retailing, financial services, travel and leisure in Europe, North America and Australasia

• Examines the role of e-commerce and its growth, and argues that geography will still be crucial to its success in the retail sector

• Presents readers with various spatial analysis methods and their usefulness for addressing retail growth strategies such as branch optimization.

• Draws examples from the authors' own expertise over the past fifteen years in retail consultancy

The modernist bookshop, best exemplified by Sylvia Beach's Shakespeare & Co. and Harold Monro's Poetry Bookshop, has received scant attention outside these more prominent examples. This writing will review how bookshops like David Archer's on Parton Street (London) in the 1930s were sites of distribution, publication, and networking. Parton Street, which also housed Lawrence & Wishart publishers and a briefly vibrant literary scene, will be approached from several contexts as a way of situating the modernist bookshop within both the book trade and the literary communities which it interacted with and made possible.

The retail market in the UK is worth more than GBP400 billion annually and employs over 3 million workers, while in the US 29 million people create over USD $4 trillion of revenue through the industry. Despite the challenge to establish stores and big-box retailers, there's a rapid increase in the number of retail start-ups and consistent growth in the independent sector. From beard shops and barbers, through cafes and coffee shops, to 'retailment' concept stores and boutique consumer-focused experiences, the specialist retail sector is booming. The Retail Start-Up Book provides clear guidance and advice on how to develop a winning retail strategy that seamlessly merges online and offline tactics. Introducing the science of shopping and how to understand customer behaviours and needs, it explores the essential steps of developing a business plan, marketing and promoting a business and advising on buying and visual merchandising. Building on years of retail experience nationally and internationally, in large groups and with independent retailers, The Retail Start-Up Book meticulously provide invaluable practical insights to help new retailers hit the floor running, or more established organizations grow their business and nurture their profits.

Bookstores are treasure troves of knowledge and ideas, invaluable for the imagination, and often reflect their owners' personalities in ways internet behemoths could never recreate. In this book, photographer Horst A. Friedrichs opens the door to the world of bricks-and-mortar bookstores, showcasing their variety, quirkiness, and vitality with lavish photography. It celebrates the passion and commitment of the owners with interviews and anecdotes. Explore William Stout Books, a specialty store for architecture and art books in San Francisco, and Baldwin's Book Barn in Pennsylvania, a 5-story bookstore housed in a dairy barn open since the mid-1940s. Discover Gay's the Word, the UK's first and only dedicated LGBTQI bookshop and Livraria Lello, whose art deco interior is a temple to reading in the middle of Porto, Portugal. Some of the featured bookstores specialize in a certain genre, some are massive with vaulted ceilings, some are tiny and filled to the brim with books, some are in historic buildings that evoke a different time and place, and some are brand new, high- tech, architect-designed spaces. What all the bookstores have in common is that they are all dedicated to spreading the written word to their communities. This is an ideal book for anyone who loves to read, browse, or simply linger in the analog world of books and bookstores.

The availability of big data, low-cost commodity hardware, and new information management and analytic software have produced a unique moment in the history of data analysis. The convergence of these trends means that we have the capabilities required to analyze astonishing data sets quickly and cost-effectively for the first time in history. They represent a genuine leap forward and a clear opportunity to realize enormous gains in terms of efficiency, productivity, revenue, and profitability especially in digital marketing. Data plays a huge role in understanding valuable insights about target demographics and customer preferences. From every interaction with technology, regardless of whether it is active or passive, we are creating new data that can describe us. If analyzed correctly, these data points can explain a lot about our behavior, personalities, and life events. Companies can leverage these insights for product improvements, business strategy, and marketing campaigns to cater to the target customers. Big Data Analytics for Improved Accuracy, Efficiency, and Decision Making in Digital Marketing aids understanding of big data in terms of digital marketing for meaningful analysis of information that can improve marketing efforts and strategies using the latest digital techniques. The chapters cover a wide array of essential marketing topics and techniques, including search engine marketing, consumer behavior, social media marketing, online advertising, and how they interact with big data. This book is essential for professionals and researchers working in the field of analytics, data, and digital marketing, along with marketers, advertisers, brand managers, social media specialists, managers, sales professionals, practitioners, researchers, academicians, and students looking for the latest information on how big data is being used in digital marketing strategies.

"Why do white women shoppers more often refuse to check their bags at the counter than African American or Latina women shoppers do? Why do male shoppers act more annoyed at having to be in the store than their female counterparts? Based on her experiences working in two toy stores, Christine Williams offers a cornucopia of illuminating observations. By focusing on the various ways gender, race and class influence how we shop and sell, she exposes the concept and ideal of consumer citizenship. In this, Williams give us an important idea and an original angle of vision."--Arlie Russell Hochschild, author of "The Commercialization of Intimate Life," and editor (with Barbara Ehrenreich) of "Global Woman: Nannies, Maids and Sex Workers in the New Economy"
"In this brilliant book Williams lays bare the social complexities of shopping for toys in America. She describes how shopping and working in toy stores are shaped by race, class and gender, and how children are taught how to consume. This is sociology at its best-laying bare the intricate nature of everyday life, showing us how the world can be different and better, all the while documenting the human drama that swirls around us. This book will change the way you shop, and the way you think about consumerism, inequality and the nature of 21st century American life."--Mary C. Waters, author of "Ethnic Options: Choosing Ethnic Identities in America"
"Williams doesn't just talk about consumption. She goes out and gets herself tough jobs selling toys, and comes back to tell the rest of us what selling and buying for kids are all about. Readers who care little about social scientific treatments of consumption will nevertheless learnfrom her lively account. Specialists will rapidly adopt her stories, observations, and arguments."--Viviana Zelizer, author of "The Purchase of Intimacy"
"Christine Williams has really gotten inside the big box selling machines of our day to reveal for all of us the strange, perverse logic of work, authority and sales in a retail industry driven by ethnic, gender, and class hierarchies. Read this book and you'll never buy another toy without thinking about the men and women who put it on the shelf!"--Nelson Lichtenstein, editor of "Wal-Mart: the Face of 21st Century Capitalism"

The general store in late-nineteenth-century America was often the economic heart of a small town. Merchants sold goods necessary for residents' daily survival and extended credit to many of their customers; cash-poor farmers relied on merchants for their economic well-being just as the retailers needed customers to purchase their wares. But there was more to this mutual dependence than economics. Store owners often helped found churches and other institutions, and they and their customers worshiped together, sent their children to the same schools, and in times of crisis, came to one another's assistance. For this social and cultural history, Linda English combed store account ledgers from the 1870s and 1880s and found in them the experiences of thousands of people in Texas and Indian Territory. Particularly revealing are her insights into the everyday lives of women, immigrants, and ethnic and racial minorities, especially African Americans and American Indians. A store's ledger entries yield a wealth of detail about its proprietor, customers, and merchandise. As a local gathering place, the general store witnessed many aspects of residents' daily lives - many of them recorded, if hastily, in account books. In a small community with only one store, the clientele would include white, black, and Indian shoppers and, in some locales, Mexican American and other immigrants. Flour, coffee, salt, potatoes, tobacco, domestic fabrics, and other staples typified most purchases, but occasional luxury items reflected the buyer's desire for refinement and upward mobility. Recognizing that townspeople often accessed the wider world through the general store, English also traces the impact of national concerns on remote rural areas - including Reconstruction, race relations, women's rights, and temperance campaigns. In describing the social status of store owners and their economic and political roles in both small agricultural communities and larger towns, English fleshes out the fascinating history of daily life in Indian Territory and Texas in a time of transition.

The aim of EUROPEAN RETAIL RESEARCH is to publish interesting manuscripts of high quality and innovativeness with a focus on retail researchers, retail lecturers, retail students and retail executives. As it has always been, retail executives are part of the target group and the knowledge transfer between retail research and retail management remains a part of the publication s concept. EUROPEAN RETAIL RESEARCH welcomes manuscripts on original theoretical or conceptual contributions as well as empirical research based either on large-scale empirical data or on the case-study method. Following the state of the art in retail research, articles on any major issues that concern the general field of retailing and distribution are welcome.The review process will support the authors in enhancing the quality of their work and will offer the authors a reviewed publication outlet. Part of the concept of EUROPEAN RETAIL RESEARCH is an only short delay between manuscript submission and final publication, so it is intended to become a quick publication platform. "

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.

On 5 December 2017 the Steinhoff group was still worth R199 billion. Twenty four hours later more than R160 billion of this fortune was wiped out. The Steinhoff Empire which took 20 years to build into an international business giant, had crumbled overnight.

Markus Jooste, Steinhoff’s flashy CEO, resigned via SMS and has since been fleeing an avalanche of scandals and accusations: luxury homes for a blonde mistress, allegations of fraud, racing horses and unparalleled extravagance, a lavish, black Jaguar for an old university residence...

What exactly happened here? Who knew what? What is Steinhoff, who is Markus Jooste and what does it all have to do with the so called Stellenbosch mafia? Where does business tycoon Christo Wiese, Shoprite and Pepkor fit in and where is the pensioners’ money?

Well-known financial writer James-Brent Styan unpacks these and other questions in this astounding tale of power and greed, of secrets and deceit, and ultimately the biggest financial breakdown in the history of South Africa.

Through interviews with trustworthy sources, revelations from confidential documents and in-depth research about Steinhoff’s history, Styan uncovers what the group doesn’t want you to know.

Follow the Money: The story of Steinhoff, Markus Jooste and the Stellenbosch Boys is a gripping financial thriller that will be told as cautionary tale or salacious scandal in both boardrooms and living rooms for decades to come.

Originally published in 1950, this book is one of a series of studies regarding the structure of the British economy which were produced by the National Institute of Economic and Social Research after the Second World War. It was produced in collaboration with a group of leading businessmen, all of whom were concerned in one way or another with the distribution of consumer goods and dissatisfied with the existing state of knowledge about distribution. The study represented a substantial advance in the knowledge of distribution and an important contribution to structural economics. It will remain of value to anyone with an interest in the development of the British economy.

For Rosemary, Eve, Betty, Jean and Irene, working in Heyworth's department store in Cambridge is a dream come true. Once the girls step inside the elegant building - surrounded by beautiful dresses, sumptuous fabrics and glamorous accessories - the hardships and struggles of their own lives are temporarily forgotten. Heyworth's is a magical place, where the shop girls - in their smart, simple black dresses - serve the fashionable elite of Cambridge, and glimpse lives of style and ease far beyond anything they had ever imagined. It is also a place where hard work and talent are valued, and where these young women can forge a successful career. Set against the backdrop of the closing years of the Second World War, and moving into the 1950s, The Shop Girls perfectly captures the camaraderie and friendship of five ambitious young women working together in a store that offered them an escape from the drudgery of their wartime childhoods. Each of the girls' stories will be individually published from July 2014 in fortnightly serialised ebooks, leading up to the release of the complete edition (with bonus material) in September.

First published in 1954, this volume presents a description and analysis of trends in the structure, organisation and technique of the distributive trades in the United Kingdom from 1850 to 1950. Special attention in the work was given to the growth of large-scale retailing and changes in the character of consumer-demand and shopping habits in the shops themselves and in retailing techniques. The study was intended to provide a contribution to a little-explored aspect of the social and economic history of the British people and to the economics of distribution and of scale in distribution. This book is complementary to the earlier study issued by the National Institute of Economic and Social Research - The Distribution of Consumer Goods (Cambridge, 1950) - which examined the costs and methods of distribution in one year. It will remain of value to anyone interested in the history and development of the British economy.

This book analyzes the business, geography and politics of shopkeeping in Milan between 1886 and 1922. The author studies the trades, techniques, tax structure and topography of the Milanese retail sector, addresses questions relating to petit bourgeois identity, and explains why shopkeepers were to be found on the political right in the years that led up to the Fascist takeover. This is the first full-scale study of any aspect of the experience of the Italian petite bourgeoisie in the pre-Fascist period.

When Philip Serrell - now well known for his television appearances - gave up teaching to become a professional auctioneer, he thought he was embarking on a sensible and safe career . . . a quiet life in the country with no surprises. In THE AUCTIONEER'S LOT we found out how wrong he was. SOLD TO THE MAN WITH THE TIN LEG Philip describes more of his extraordinary experiences as a country auctioneer, aided and abetted by some of the most colourful characters Worcestershire has to offer. From dodgy cars to fakes in the saleroom; angry livestock, mangled silverware and tortuous - not to mention muddy - experiences in local markets and farm sales, Philip has been there, done that and got the hoofprints on his suit to prove it. And of course, there's the return Philip's tin-legged boss . . .