Small independent retail
firms and locational
decision-making:
outdoor leisure retailing
by the crags
Elke Pioch and
John Byrom
The authors
Elke Pioch and John Byrom are both based at the Retail
Management Subject Group, Manchester Metropolitan
University Business School, Manchester, UK.
Keywords
Localization, Decision making, Retailing, Small enterprises,
United Kingdom
Abstract
The importance of location to retail organisations has long been
recognised in the geography and retail marketing literatures,
with subjective and “gut feel” methods of evaluation emerging
as highly significant factors in the decision-making process.
Through the application of existing frameworks we seek to
highlight the importance of location to small independent
retailers in the context of outdoor leisure retailing. The case of
“UpFront”, a pseudonym for a retailer operating four outlets in
Great Britain, is presented. It is shown that, although based
largely on luck and opportunism, the firm’s locational “strategy”
has been crucial to its success as a leading player in the sector.
Based on detailed interviews with the managing director and
employees, the role and importance of location as a critical
success factor to the organisation is presented. In conclusion, a
call is made for greater engagement with the nuances of location
to small retail organisations, given its impact on a large number
of retail operations.
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Introduction
Small independent shops are still numerically
dominant in the UK. Nevertheless, the mantra
“location, location, location”, which stresses the
importance of place and has been long applied in
the field of retailing (Brown, 1992), has not yet
been extended to analysis of small independent
companies. Rather, it has been applied in the
context of large multiples and their locational
strategies and decision-making characteristics
(Bennison et al., 1995; Clarke, 1998; Clarke et al.,
1994).
The term “multiple retailing” is often
understood to refer to organisations with large
turnovers and a store portfolio ranging from
upwards of ten stores (Competition Commission,
2000). This emphasis on the role of location
to large retail organisations, including the
techniques and methods of site evaluation and the
decision-making cultures apparent therein,
appears to have been matched by a lack of
engagement with the role of location to small
independent retailers. It is our intention here,
therefore, to highlight how location has impacted
strongly on the operation of such retailers.
The case of a successful outdoor leisure retailer
with its roots in the English Peak District illustrates
how place-specific the variables have affected the
various aspects of this small business.
The small retail firm
In the recent past there has been little academic
work focusing on the role of small independent
retailers in the UK, with the vast majority of work
tending to concentrate on the multiples. This
situation has also been mirrored in research
concentrating on retail locational decision-
making, with little emphasis on how locational
planning activities take place in small enterprises.
Academic research that has focused specifically on
small, independent retailing in the UK dates
mainly from the 1970s and 1980s (Dawson and
Kirby, 1979; Kirby, 1987). The work that has
emanated in the last few years has been largely
concerned with food retailing (Baron et al., 2001),
particularly food availability in rural areas
(Skerratt, 1999), or with the state of small
independent retailing in defined geographical
areas such as Scotland (Smith and Sparks, 2000).
With few exceptions (Pioch and Schmidt (2001),
Schmidt and Pioch (2001) on independent retail
pharmacies), work on non-food retailing has been
limited.
Debates centred on the interface at which
marketing and entrepreneurship meet are also
Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development
Volume 11 · Number 2 · 2004 · pp. 222–232
q Emerald Group Publishing Limited · ISSN 1462-6004
DOI 10.1108/14626000410537164
222