Abstract
During the 1960s and 1970s, several voluntary retail chains were started in Sweden; they quickly gained a significant market share in industries as diverse as home furnishings, sporting goods, and jewellery. The business model, however, is unusual today. The entrepreneur and advertising man Erik Elinder organized seven of these chains. Through access to unique source material from Erik Elinder's archive, we have had the opportunity to study the creation of these chains and compare how the concept was sold to the retailers and how the business models were adapted to different industries. The voluntary chains can be seen partly as a way to limit competition and partly as an adaptation to the unique conditions that prevailed in Sweden during a period of rapid urbanization, the establishment of new shopping centres, and the structural transformation of the retail trade.