Big Box Retailing: Supermarkets and Superstores

275-289
The research comprised a case study for a co-authored chapter in a volume concerned with the architectural history of shops and shopping. The volume was shortlisted for the 2005 RIBA book award. Audrey Kirby’s contribution was to document and record Tesco’s transformation from a business that began as a street market trader in East London in 1919 to a major retail company trading from monolithic superstores. Particular emphasis was placed within the research on the development of Tesco’s changing architectural and design identities and the ways in which these helped not only to showcase goods but also to create memorable corporate identities. These include the ‘Essex barn’ concept which quickly came to define public expectations of how a supermarket should present itself and which was also popular with planning officers and community groups alike.The chapter provides a contribution to architectural and design history but also to the study of the urban and ‘out-of-town’ landscapes and the phenomena of retail regeneration. Although research into the concept and impact of supermarkets is a growing phenomena, research into supermarket architecture is a highly focused field with much fewer participants. The research involved scrutinising Tesco’s document, film and photography archive and applying this alongside existing published work to complete a case study of 3,000 words and written up, with Kathryn Morrison, as a discreet chapter.Reviewers include Jessica Sewell (Boston University) in Winterthur Portfolio in 2006 The Sunday Times highlighting the case study commenting ‘I know of no other source that can tell you…that “Tesco built 28 new stores in 1991, of which no fewer than 23 had clock turrets…”In the book’s ‘Acknowledgements’ (p. vii) Audrey Kirby is acknowledged as the co-author of the chapter. The volume begun under the auspices of English Heritage and was published by Yale University Press.