Food Retailing and Sustainable Development: European Perspectives

Faced with dwindling resources and the challenge of climate change, companies are seeking to improve production while consuming fewer resources. At the same time, consumers are altering their behaviors by seeking local production or buying bulk products. Retailers, as boundary spanners between consumers and producers, have a major role in initiating change. Examples include offering more fair trade and organic products, diminishing packaging, reducing emissions and food waste, or by setting up local initiatives and building real partnerships with their suppliers.

Part one of this book will analyze the sustainable development practices of retailers in different European countries and present national case studies that consider best practices on this topic from a number of retailers. These include: Carrefour, Casino, Auchan, Leclerc, Intermarch and System U in France
Inditex, Cortefiel and MANGO in Spain
Edeka, Rewe, Schwarz-Group (with Lidl and Kaufland) and Aldi in Germany
and Tesco and Marks & Spencer in UK. The strategies of these retailers will be studied in Poland to better understand their European development.

Part two will underline the challenges faced by European retailers in the wake of societal and technological changes. The consumers' role and their sustainable development practices will be analyzed to understand the impact on retailing and the main risks for retailers. The importance of Service Dominant Logic as a means to connect the retailer to the customer will be studied to show how to do the right thing and be successful at the same time, particularly in the light of technological innovation.

This book will appeal to academics, students and professional educators alike, providing a crucial understanding of retailers' practices in different countries and their impact on consumers.