Reasons for Change

Development in Retail Services

Task 2 Reasons for Change

Q. Describe the Changing relationship between the location of retail services and developments in the infrastructure since 1980.

In 1980 there was obviously a lot less motorway and truck road communication and a lot less people had cars, so a lot of people would usually walk to their local shops and buy particular things from particular shops.

Even the people who did have cars would not really be happy with travelling far in them, as they weren’t exactly reliable. But as cars have become more and more popular retailers have had to work around the changing infrastructure.

As bigger and busier roads were being built, the supermarkets would set up around them. So this meant that retailers were moving from town centres into retail parks or individually by a busy main road. It was obviously a lot less expensive than being situated in the town centre and it also meant that there was a lot more space.

This means that the store can be easily accessed by people in cars, because more and more people were using cars for shopping. It soon became apparent that it was a lot more convenient to do a big weekly shop and to be able to just load it all in to the car. All supermarkets nowadays have their own large car parks for the customers so everything has just been made so easy and convenient for the customer.

It was also a lot more convenient for deliveries. It is very difficult for a lorry to drive through the town centre and even more so to park and unload the goods. So by having vast amounts of space the lorries can easily park up round the back of the supermarket and people can unload the lorries through holes in the wall.

In 1980 garages used to sell fuel, oil, spark plugs and fan belts and would always be situated by the road.

Then the supermarkets started moving out of town into areas which were easily accessible by car, which then made sense for them to have their own garages, selling fuel at much cheaper prices. This then caused the garages problems so then they were starting to sell more things that would normally be found in a corner shop and this of course then caused the corner shops trouble and then started to disappear.

In 1980 Garden centres sold sheds, compost, gardening tools and plants. Now you can walk into a “garden centre” and come out with anything from children’s clothes to a pet snake.

Garden centres are more like huge warehouses full of cheap things that you never even knew you could have.

Garden centres in 1980 used to be situated in villages or rural areas but now they are taking up the same sort of spots as the supermarkets, on the outskirts of the town but easy to get to.

All while this is happening the town centre shops struggle to get by and the ones who are remaining are there because of the people who don’t want something because its amazingly cheap, they want something because its different and is usually extraordinarily expensive.

Q. Clearly describe the impact of technology on retail operations since 1980

In 1980 retailers would be equipped with an electronic cash register with a calculator,