British co-operative societies as retail innovators: Interpreting the early stages of the self-service revolution

Abstract

This article examines the early stages of the self-service and supermarket innovations in post-war Britain. It does so in the context of co-operative retailers and in particular investigates both why such organizations were pre-eminent in the adoption of self-service as well as how they interpreted the innovation. These ideas are framed within a more general discussion of the ‘models’ of retail innovation and especially the notion of format innovations.

Keywords:

• self-service
• supermarket
• co-operative societies
• retail innovation
• post-war Britain

View correction statement:

British co-operative societies as retail innovators: Interpreting the early stages of the self-service revolution

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the Leverhulme Trust for its generous funding.

Notes

1. For example, Bonner (1970) gives only scant attention to self-service: ‘it seems probable that this form of retailing is likely to become more general’ (p. 249). This being written after the major developments of larger supermarkets in the 1960s. Similarly, Kinloch and Butt (1981) provide a rather limited perspective on the drive towards self-service stores in Scotland.

2. See Shaw, Curth, & Alexander (2004), which discusses aspects of government control of self-service in the immediate post-war British economy.

3. In addition, the whole issue of post-war austerity and the long queues have been debated by Hinton (1994). Also see Zweiniger-Bargielowska (2000).

4. See also du Gay (2004) for an alternative discussion of this report.