SOME PERSPECTIVES ON RETAILING IN THE 1990s

This article, based on the winning essay in the 1989‐90 Minit Prize competition, looks beyond the problems currently besetting many retailers and tries to uncover the important factors which will influence retailing in the next decade. It examines retailing′s historical development, and it sees much continuity in the retail environment of the 1990s. It discusses some of the key problems and opportunities which are likely to confront retailers, and suggests that retailers will need to capitalise better on their proximity to consumers in order to maintain their high profits and dominant position in the distribution chain.