AN OVERVIEW OF AMERICAN RETAIL TRENDS

Abstract

Looking beyond and “beneath” the short‐term effects of the 1990‐1991 recession, the general trends taking place in American retailing as it enters the third year of the 1990s are reviewed. These include: the effects of demographic changes, the significance of retailing in the economy, specialisation, “value” retailing, merchandise “scrambling”, the increasing segmentation of retail “offers”, the decline of the American department store, the “hangover” from the 1980s “space race”, the continued decentralisation of retail floorspace, the impacts of LBO debt problems, a return to “basics”, store “localising”, the “internationalisation” of American retailing, and the contributions of information technology. In conclusion, a brief prognosis is given for the remainder of the 1990s.