The Times: "Future of Retail"

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"... Nowhere has this sense of stagnation been more in evidence that in the retail sector, which has been squeezed between consumer belt-tightening, high rents and once-in-a-century technological shifts. Since 2008, 218 medium-to-large retailers have gone bust, affecting 21,369 bricks-and-mortar stores and 201,658 employees, acording to the Centre for Retail Research, with a host of household names vanishing from the high street for good.

"But despite this litany of gloom, the UK has much to crow about."