Retailing should be simple: sell the right products, in the right place, at the right price to the right customer in the right way and success is almost guaranteed. But retailing isn't simple - it's complex, capricious and notoriously difficult to attain success... and that’s mostly thanks to one thing: the consumer. How Britain Shops: Clothing examines shifts in consumer shopping patterns against a backdrop of strong competition in a slowing market, growing emphasis on value for money, and a year of frenetic M&A activity where the market leader became the subject of an aborted takeover bid.