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Urban planning experts and retail analysts offer conflicting theories to explain the food store development in the UK in the post-property crisis period. There are those who argue that the food retail store development process was a direct result of strict land-use planning laws that prevented out-of-town development and instead encouraged reinvestment in town center retail development. Others, however, reject this view. They contend that the lessons of the property crisis of 1993-1994 compelled food retailers to seek new ways of improving their profitability and market share.

The experiences of the state of Connecticut regarding antitrust regulation at the local level and retail divestments were analyzed and related to policy debates in the UK. Parallelism was noted between the monopolistic potential of acquisitions of regional chains in Connecticut and those found in UK. Caution should be exercised by policy-makers in decreasing competitive pressures so that consumer interest would not be compromised.

Consumer spending habits have become a greater factor in determining where retail operations might open locations over labor and capital costs. The UK took a more active role in regulating retail operations as the government believed such action was necessary to improve and encourage consumption by consumers. The way in which the action increased helped improve profits and capital for the UK food industry is examined. The industry gained greater value because of stimulated market and social influences.

A study of food retailing in the UK reveals the inadequacy of existing generalized models of the State as a regulatory body. There is a need to periodically update the definition of competition boundaries and contingent state practices that aim to create legitimate retail procedures. Retail regulations aimed at reducing anticompetitive food retailing practices in the UK must be adaptable and creative to be effective.

In this paper it is demonstrated how disparities which emerged between British and US grocery retailing in the 1980s--in corporate concentration, power relations, profitability, return on capital employed, and in geographical structure--owe a considerable amount to the differential nature of the regulatory environments in which the industries operated. In particular, the author focuses upon antitrust (competition) legislation and its differential interpretation and enforcement in the two countries. Following a survey of that legislation, the regulatory experience of grocery retailing in the postwar period is considered in detail. The hostility of the US regulatory environment to the development of big capital in retailing throughout much of the period is contrasted with the benign regulatory environment experienced by UK grocery retailers. Finally, the implications of this differential regulatory experience during a more recent period of nonenforcement and regulatory convergence are considered.