British co-operative societies as retail innovators: Interpreting the early stages of the self-service revolution

摘要

This article examines the early stages of the self-service and supermarket innovations in post-war Britain. It does so in the context of co-operative retailers and in particular investigates both why such organizations were pre-eminent in the adoption of self-service as well as how they interpreted the innovation. These ideas are framed within a more general discussion of the 'models' of retail innovation and especially the notion of format innovations.