Retailing out of the recession

Abstract

In 1980 Gordon Simmons Research, in association with M & MD, interviewed a cross‐section of top management at 12 major retail organisations to examine their reactions to the recession and the likely effect of the economic climate on their policies throughout the 1980s (RDM, May/June 1981, p.10). This article is based on an update conducted two years later during August and September 1982, with the same organisations. These retailers, though few in number, represent a high proportion of retail turnover because of the concentration of trade. They cover a wide cross‐section of retailing; supermarkets, department stores, electrical goods outlets, variety stores, men's and women's fashion. Interestingly enough, the interviews in this second survey coincided almost exactly with the beginning of a marked increase in consumer expenditure which began in the third quarter of 1982 (RDM, November/December 1982, p.4), and which has persisted up to the time of writing. However, the responses from retailers discussed in this article relate mostly to their experience through 1981 and 1982.