The role of plastic packaging in transforming food retailing

Whilst plastic packaging has recently been critiqued for its detrimental effects on the environment, it is largely overlooked in histories of food retailing. This paper presents a historical perspective on plastic packaging, highlighting its role in transforming UK food retailing throughout the middle to late twentieth century.

This paper is based on an analysis of the Marks & Spencer Company Archive, supplemented by company histories and biographical sources. Three examples were purposively selected based on their technologically innovative role in maintaining and enhancing Marks & Spencer's core values.

The analysis highlights plastic packaging's significance in enabling Marks & Spencer's product development process whilst maintaining and enhancing the company's core values of standards, quality, safety, freshness, hygiene and convenience. The examples demonstrate the role of plastics in technological innovation, achieving key commercial objectives in product development and contributing to the transformation of food retailing.

The research focuses on three specific examples of packaging innovation, drawing out their wider implications for socio-technical change in UK food retailing.

This historical research suggests that greater attention should be paid to plastic packaging including its material properties and the services it provides, moving beyond a blanket condemnation by acknowledging its multiple affordances in the food sector. These historical insights are instructive when thinking about the future of retailing and shopping in the context of the need for better environmental outcomes.