Marks and Spencer and the Changing Face of Staff Dining Culture in Twentieth Century Britain

Evans, Bryce (2026) Marks and Spencer and the Changing Face of Staff Dining Culture in Twentieth Century Britain. History of Retailing and Consumption, 12 (1). ISSN 2373-518X

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Abstract

In recent years - against a backdrop of public concerns around food poverty and diet-related disease in Britain - there have been calls from some for a return to a national ‘canteen culture’. This article seeks to explore this by scrutinising the wider historic impact on British staff dining culture of a giant of UK retail, Marks and Spencer, examining the company’s impact upon a key aspect of food culture in the twentieth century: the staff canteen. As this article shows, the company’s impact upon national policy around canteen dining reflected social changes in the British twentieth century, with welfarist approaches to social eating eventually challenged by a ‘Thatcherite’ consumption ethic of individualism and privatisation.

Item Type:	Article
Faculty / Department:	Faculty of Creative Arts & Humanities > School of Humanities
Depositing User:	Bryce Evans
Date Deposited:	15 May 2026 15:21
Last Modified:	15 May 2026 15:21
URI:	https://hira.hope.ac.uk/id/eprint/4891

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