Page 49 - DMGT550_RETAIL_MANAGEMENT

Retail Management

Notes Canada

In Canada the French term dépanneur is used for a general store in the province of Quebec. The
oldest continually run general store in Canada is Trousdale’s, located in Sydenham, Ontario,
which has been operated by the Trousdale family since 1836.
United Kingdom

Village shops have become increasingly rare in the densely populated parts of England, although
they remain common in remote rural areas of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland along with
some lesser populated areas of England such as North Yorkshire, Northumberland and the Lake
District.
Their rarity in England is due to several factors, such as the rise in car ownership, competition
from large chain supermarkets, the rising cost of village properties, and the increasing trend of
the wealthy to own holiday homes in picturesque villages, consequently houses which used to
be occupied full-time are often vacant for long periods.
Of those villages in England who still have shops, these days they are often a combination of
services under one roof to increase the likelihood of profit and survival. Extra services may
include a post office, private business services such as tearooms, cafes, and bed and
breakfast accommodation; or state services such as libraries and General Practitioner (GP) or
Dental clinics; and charity partners such as Women’s Institute (WI) coffee mornings held on the
day most elderly villagers might collect their weekly pensions.
Some villages now have neither shop nor post office, but the village pub has largely survived
(although recent economic downturns and changed drinking laws have begun to impact upon

and change the survival of even this village stalwart and these often function as small shops or
post offices as well. Many village pubs have become notable dining experiences, attracting trade
from their villagers, tourists and nearby town dwellers with their trendy chefs or local produce/
organic menus. In village areas close to Towns and Cities with a modern, mixed ethnic picture,
out of town dining experiences of an ethnic kind have become popular in former pub premises.
Most notable are large Indian and Chinese restaurants in areas such as Leicestershire, in the
English East Midlands.
Community shops have become popular in some villages, often jointly owned and run by many
villagers as a co-operative. The Village Retail Services Association promotes the role and
function of the village shop in the UK. Many modern village shops choose to stock items which
draw in customers from neighbouring areas who are seeking locally sourced, organic and
specialist produce such as local cuts of meat, local cheeses, wines etc.
In towns and cities, the corner shop has largely survived by dominating the local and light night
convenience market.
The 1970s saw the death of the traditional grocery shop, which would have once dominated in
the kind of buildings most corner shops operate from today, such old traditional family grocery
stores began to face competition on two fronts: on the one hand from immigrant-owned corner
shops, trading longer hours (typically British Asian families), and on the other from the rise of
the supermarket, which amalgamated many specialist retailers such as butchers, bakers, and
grocers under one roof at increasingly cheaper prices and with room for a greater choice of
products. With the gradual loss of the traditional grocers came the loss of many aspects of old
British shopping culture such as grocery deliveries and being enabled to have a “Tic” account
with the grocer, a form of unofficial advanced credit. The cornershop is now much more the
local convenience shop than the family grocer of days gone by.

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