Postmodernism, the wheel of retailing and will to power

Abstract

Postmodernism has been described as something everyone has heard of, but no-one can quite explain what it is. This paper explores the nature of the postmodern condition and examines its epistemological implications for one of retailing's longest established, most cited and vigorously debated concepts, Malcolm P. McNair's wheel of retailing theory. The analysis reveals that, although the concept is premised on assumptions that are anathema to many postmodern thinkers, the wheel is not entirely out of place in a postmodern world of fragmentation, difference and plurality. Indeed, Like postmodernism itself, the wheel of retailing theory owes an enormous debt to the philosophical principles of Friedrich Nietzsche. McNair's original exposition, in particular, represents a paradigmatic example of Nietzsche's principal constructs: Übermensch, eternal recurrence and will to power

Keywords:

• Postmodernism
• wheel of retailing theory
• Friedrich Nietzsche