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Den här boken handlar om den svenska varuhandelns historia 1720-1920. Boken består av två kronologiska kapitel, ett om perioden 1720-1850 och ett om perioden 1850-1920. Den första perioden benämns protoindustriell varuhandel, en period som präglades av institutionell förändring från strikt reglerad handel till en ökad avreglering från sent 1700-tal med skråväsendets upplösning 1846 som slutpunkt då inte minst handel på landsbygden blev tillåten. Periodens handelsformer hade, liksom lagstiftningen, sina rötter i medeltidens ekonomi. I städerna fanns grossister, detaljister och hantverkare, liksom torghandel och marknader. På landet, där varuhandel egentligen inte skulle bedrivas, återfanns gårdfarihandel, bondehandel liksom marknader. Den andra perioden kallas industrisamhällets varuhandel. Institutionellt präglades denna period av näringsfrihetsreformerna, men också annan lagstiftning och organisering anpassad till det framväxande industrisamhälle. Under denna period etablerades handelsformer som butiker med skyltfönster, varuhus, postorder och konsumentkooperation. Äldre handelsformer levde kvar, men minskade i betydelse. En viktig förändring var att det inte länge fanns några hinder att etablera vilken verksamhet som helst på landet och nästan alla handelsformer, utom varuhus, bedrevs också utanför städerna.

The Swedish consumer co-operative movement was from its beginnings in the late 19th century a dynamic factor in both retailing and industry. The focus of this chapter is to discuss KF and its strategies of renewal 2000–2020, and the basis for the analysis are the annual reports of KF. Espen Ekberg has contributed by comparative studies on the overall success of Nordic co-operatives as well as an analysis of the failure of Coop Norden. From the mid-1950s KF increasingly adopted a business, rather than a democratic, perspective, focusing on economic efficiency and centralization. One aspect characterizing this shift was the effort to decrease the number of cooperative societies. In the early 2020s, the business model of KF was explicitly focused on grocery retailing and wholesaling, where, in principle, all wholesaling operations had been co-ordinated under Coop Sverige AB while retailing operations were run by Coop Butiker and Stormarknader AB, both limited companies owned by KF.

This article presents a simple analytic framework that can be used to write economic histories of the distributive trades whereboth retailing and wholesaling are systematically discussed. It is argued that a focus on the innovation of formats of distribution, inturn related to technological and organizational innovations and institutions, laws, rules and norms, is a fruitful approach whenanalyzing national histories of this economic sector and when making international comparisons. The framework is derived fromprevious historical studies, where a selection of ten major works is analyzed and discussed. The major strengths of the suggestedframework are that it is firmly grounded in previous discussions, but also that it is simple, focused on important aspects, and adaptableto any place or any time.