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Supermarkets

How supermarkets came to dominate food retail.

Supermarkets: they are ubiquitous yet hard to define, lauded and vilified in roughly equal measures, and in many countries they have a huge influence on what we eat. Technological innovations, big social changes and new shopping habits have all shaped their development and today’s megastores are a far cry from their small-scale ancestors of the 1930s. And yet, some quirks of supermarket design remain constant: for instance, why are the eggs always so hard to locate in the stores?

Iszi Lawrence navigates supermarket aisles with the help of historian and economist Marc Levinson; Aarti Krishnan, Lecturer in Sustainability at Manchester University; Simona Botti, professor of marketing at London Business School and Forum listeners from around the world.

(Photo: A customer in a supermarket. Credit: Adene Sanchez/ Getty Images)

Available now

49 minutes

Last on

Thu 29 Feb 2024 00:06GMT

Broadcasts

  • Sat 24 Feb 2024 12:06GMT
  • Sun 25 Feb 2024 03:06GMT
  • Sun 25 Feb 2024 17:06GMT
  • Wed 28 Feb 2024 10:06GMT
  • Thu 29 Feb 2024 00:06GMT

Podcast