ABSTRACT
The enormous size and complexities of distribution in the British economy can be summarized with a few statistics. According to the first results of the 1966 Census of Distribution published in the Board of Trade Journal on February 23, 1968 there were 498,477 establishments in the retail trade plus 3,012 electricity and gas showrooms, 547 mail order houses, and fifty-six automatic vending machine operators, giving a total of 502,092 establishments. Their total turnover was approximately £11,665 million in 1966. This showed a reduction of 13.7 per cent in establishments between 1961 and 1966 and 14.7 per cent between 1950 and 1966. Turnover had increased by 22.8 per cent over 1961 and by 40.4 per cent over 1957. That figure takes no account of the increase in prices and it is estimated that the change in the volume of sales was about 7.1 per cent since 1961. There are some statistical problems in comparing the two years but broadly these simple figures illustrate major trends. Over two and a half million people work in distribution but some of them are part-timers. There is an apparent rise of 1 4 https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-u.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9780203703465/86e49071-3499-4812-9189-75e144b9406a/content/1by4.tif"/> per cent since 1961 but that may be due to an increase in part-time working—the final census results will provide the answer. On the whole, turnover per person engaged rose by 22 per cent, or 6.3 per cent at constant prices in the five-year period.
