The independent shopkeeper in France has always played a very important role, and historically they have been supported — if only in theory — by government intervention. Hypermarkets began to develop in France in the early 1960s and it was not long before their increasing share of total...

Most people have two basic ideas about retailing in eastern European countries — firstly that there are lots of queues, and secondly that if you are privileged there are special shops for you (usually taking hard currency). Beyond this there is little knowledge of what the retail scene really...