Viewpoint: Reducing waste packaging requires enlightened customers

Packaging is a particularly hot topic at the moment as a growing number of consumers recognise that much of the casing around the products they buy is arguably unnecessary. The major supermarkets have reacted to growing customer discontent and demand for more sustainable practices and now all have various initiatives in place to reduce or…

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Retail Insider roadtests the festive sandwich: The Final One

Retail Insider has been waiting patiently all year to eat the overpriced meat feasts in red packaging otherwise known as the ‘festive’ sandwich. But, as all right-thinking people know, Christmas definitely would not be Christmas without the chance to blow your entire day’s calorie count every lunchtime in December and more and more retailers are…

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Retail Insider roadtests the festive sandwich: Part Seven

Retail Insider has been waiting patiently all year to eat the overpriced meat feasts in red packaging otherwise known as the ‘festive’ sandwich. But, as all right-thinking people know, Christmas definitely would not be Christmas without the chance to blow your entire day’s calorie count every lunchtime in December and more and more retailers are…

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Retail Insider roadtests the festive sandwich: Part Six

Insider has been waiting patiently all year to eat the overpriced meat feasts in red packaging otherwise known as the ‘festive’ sandwich. But, as all right-thinking people know, Christmas definitely would not be Christmas without the chance to blow your entire day’s calorie count every lunchtime in December and more and more retailers are now…

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Movers & Shakers Q&A – Zoe Colegrave, head of online and marketing, Fortnum & Mason

Zoe Colegrave, head of online and marketing, Fortnum & Mason  1. What is the greatest opportunity for your business?
 While there are many, growth in Asia is a current focus. We’ve successfully launched three shop-in-shops in Shinsegae’s department stores in Seoul and our relationship with Lane Crawford goes from strength to strength. This year we’ve re-evaluated…

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Viewpoint: Debate rages globally around data usage

Facebook has gone from being the darling of the tech sector to something approaching a pariah as it finds itself increasingly under attack. It is accused of exposing its members’ data to unscrupulous operators and for putting its profits ahead of people’s privacy. Its most vocal detractors are arguing that the power of its platform…

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More than shop work

There are some very unique jobs to be had in retail. In this new series of Q & A’s Retail Insider will profile some of the most unusual job titles across the sector. We begin by talking to Andre Lewis, Fresh Buying Manager at Harrods about the new ‘vegetable butcher’ post in its food hall.…

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Retail Insider roadtests the festive sandwich: Part Five

Retail Insider has been waiting patiently all year to eat the overpriced meat feasts in red packaging otherwise known as the ‘festive’ sandwich. But, as all right-thinking people know, Christmas definitely would not be Christmas without the chance to blow your entire day’s calorie count every lunchtime in December and more and more retailers are…

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What future challenges does Amazon face?

  “I predict one day Amazon will fail. Amazon will go bankrupt. If you look at large companies, their lifespans tend to be 30-plus years, not a hundred-plus years.” These are not the words of a sceptical analyst, but of Amazon’s very founder Jeff Bezos. By Natalie Berg Amazon is the titan of 21st century…

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A nation of food-shopping-lovers

For many years the UK’s major supermarkets worked hard to convince people shopping for food was a massive chore while there were so many more interesting things they could do with their time. To support their argument, they created sterile environments and put elements in place to ensure customers would be in and out of…

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Queues leave me cold…

The cuisine coming out of the kitchen at the recently opened Berenjak restaurant in central London is described as “Iranian home-style cooking”. What’s most interesting to those people happily trapped in the capital’s restaurant bubble is JKS Restaurants is backing the venture. Berenjak is run by a chef who formerly worked in the kitchens of…

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Lessons for the High Street: Peckham Palms

We continue our new series of articles on retailers that are operating in ways that provide some interesting and valuable lessons to the wider industry. Name: Peckham Palms Location: Peckham (where else), London SE15 In a nutshell: A good example of where local people and a progressive council can together create a hub of the…

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Healthy High Streets at all costs.

Haringey in North London is a borough that hosts both the healthiest and unhealthiest high streets in London, according to recent research from The Royal Society of Public Health (RSPH), and since Retail Insider is a local resident we decided to investigate. The survey certainly received a great deal of publicity for its second ‘Health…

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Retail Insider roadtests the festive sandwich: Part Four

Retail Insider has been waiting patiently all year to eat the overpriced meat feasts in red packaging otherwise known as the ‘festive’ sandwich. But, as all right-thinking people know, Christmas definitely would not be Christmas without the chance to blow your entire day’s calorie count every lunchtime in December and more and more retailers are…

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