Big-box Retailers Research Articles

Mapping liveability: The “15-min city” concept for car-dependent districts in Auckland, New Zealand

This research explores the feasibility of aligning cities with post-COVID realities by retrofitting the emerging 15-min city model into the current urban setup. COVID-19's lasting global effects on trans-territorial mobility, particularly in car-dependent cities, prompt a rethinking of urban models and infrastructure for heightened resilience and post-pandemic liveability. Using network analysis and GIS mapping techniques, this research applies the 15-min city model to identify the most “liveable areas” in two car-dependent suburban neighbourhoods with contrasting service structures—dispersed in Remuera and centralised in Onehunga in Auckland City, New Zealand. “Liveable areas” are defined as areas with overlap coverage of all 6 essential services within a 15-min walk. The analysis involves a horizontal comparison of essential service coverage and a longitudinal analysis of the impacts of essential service coverage, both collectively and individually, within both neighbourhoods. Findings suggest the potential to retrofit both districts' urban infrastructure, while proximity to retail, healthcare, and leisure facilities are the services most urgently needing improvements. Noted issues include excessive big-box retail growth, uneven healthcare distribution, and private, non-everyday access to natural resources. This research methodically tests proximity-based planning for sustainable living, work, and recreation in car-dependent districts with centralised or dispersed urban structures.

Proximity-store introductions: A new route to big-box retailer success?

To accommodate consumers’ increasing demand for access convenience and immediacy, big-box grocery retailers have started to rethink their store formats – adding small-box proximity stores to complement their traditional large-size super- and hypermarkets. Building on a unique data set covering all proximity-store openings in 60+ geographic markets in France by Carrefour, one of the world's largest big-box grocery retailers, the authors adopt an Empirics-First approach to investigate whether, and in what settings, opening proximity stores cannibalizes, or rather acts synergistically with, the retail chain's existing on- and off-line operations. In most markets, small box stores affect the parent store's market position. However, there is considerable heterogeneity in terms of both the channel that is affected (off- or online) and the direction of that impact (positive or negative). The authors identify several contingency factors that help explain this heterogeneity. Interestingly, some location factors that are commonly believed to nurture proximity store appeal turn out to be detrimental to the chain's overall on- and/or offline performance. Even though the authors reveal several novel insights and identify various contingency factors, numerous questions remain unanswered. To that extent, the authors conclude with a research agenda that may help shed insight in how to maintain and strengthen brick-and-mortar store relevance to convenience-seeking customers.

Factors Associated With Hearing Aid Outcomes Including Social Networks, Self-Reported Mental Health, and Service Delivery Models.

This study aims to identify and describe factors that influence hearing aid outcomes including social networks, self-reported mental health, and service delivery models. A prospective cross-sectional online survey was sent to hearing aid users recruited through an online platform (http://www.hearingtracker.com) between October and November 2021. The survey contained questions on patient demographics, audiological variables, general health and social factors, and self-reported hearing aid outcomes using the International Outcome Inventory for Hearing Aids (IOI-HA). Regression models evaluated potential contributing factors of hearing aid outcomes on the IOI-HA. Three hundred ninety-eight hearing aid users completed the survey with an average age of 66.6 (SD = 13.0) years, of which 59.3% were male. Positive contributing factors of hearing aid outcomes (IOI-HA total score) were social network of people with hearing loss with hearing aids (p < .010; Exp[B] = 0.03, 95% CI [0.01, 0.1]), self-reported mental health (p < .05; Exp[B] = 0.6, 95% CI [0.01, 1.2]), work situation (p < .001; Exp[B] = 1.9, 95% CI [0.7, 2.8]), quality of life (p < .005; Exp[B] = 1.2, 95% CI [0.3, 1.1]), and self-reported hearing difficulty (p < .02; Exp[B] = 0.8, 95% CI [0.2, 1.5]). Negative contributing factors of hearing aid outcomes included social networks of people with hearing loss without hearing aids (p < .001; Exp[B] = -0.1, 95% CI [-0.2, -0.2]) and service delivery model of private or university clinic compared to big-box retailers (p < .001; Exp[B] = -1.6, 95% CI [-2.7, -0.7]). Novel factors including social network of persons with hearing loss who use hearing aids, self-reported mental health, service delivery model, and work situation are significant contributors to hearing aid outcomes. These newly identified factors can inform public hearing health promotion and individualized audiological care to optimize hearing aid outcomes. https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.24060486.

Highlighting supply-abundance increases attraction to small-assortment retailers

Over the past few years, traditional big-box retailers such as Walmart and Target have increasingly opened small-format stores. Venturing into small-format retailing requires a rethink of product assortment, as this strategy involves truncating assortment variety. Literature suggests that consumers are less attracted by retailers that offer a small variety of product options, as small assortments are associated with the fear of not having much choice, which threatens consumers’ need for personal control. The present paper provides small-size retailers or service providers with an approach to enhance the attractiveness of their assortments. With six studies the authors show that highlighting supply abundance—by creating a sense of abundant availability of each product option within an assortment—compensates for the lowered sense of personal control that consumers may experience with a small assortment. Consequently, it enhances consumers’ evaluation of small assortments. The positive effect of supply abundance is mitigated when consumers review a large assortment or when product options are highly curated, as sense of personal control has likely been satisfied in those cases.

Re-predict and Improve the Outlook for The Overall Decline of The Big-box Retailer Industry: Case of Target's Tailures in Canada

The rise of e-commerce in the 21st century has dramatically impacted the Canadian and global consumer markets. During this period of high economic volatility, many big-box retail chains have gone out of business due to ineffective modes of business. Through the case study of the rise and fall of Target Canada between 2013-2015, and cross-referencing the company’s statistics with the successes of other surviving competitors such as Walmart, many flaws of its operations were exposed. The four fundamental flaws in Target Canada’s operations were found to be: Overly-aggressive expansion into a foreign market niche; a high level of competition with other retailers due to a lack of specialties in merchandise; Low brand loyalties due to poor consumer experience, and Lack of user-friendly online shopping platforms, mobile app platforms, and other auxiliary services. This study has concluded that Target Canada’s lack of implementation of technological innovations and its ineffective logistical planning were the two major causes of its ultimate downfall. Suggestions for correction and improvements are discussed, which may give insight to current and future entrepreneurs who wish to enter the Canadian market as a retailer.

Potential energy saving opportunities in big box retail stores in Northern climates––Case study towards sustainable buildings

The current paper proposes effective energy saving opportunities in a retail store located in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Scarce research has been reported on such applications in North American Climate. Ottawa is characterized by its harsh winter climate where temperatures can be as low as -30 °C. The paper presents a performance comparison between three stores: an original store, a new nearby store for the same company, and a proposed energy efficient store to replace the second store. The proposed store by the authors considers the implementation of a number of proposed retrofits. The simulations were performed on the eQuest software. The model results were validated against collected site data with a maximum deviation of 5%. The results have shown that space heating, and light technology upgrades constitute a major contributor to potential energy saving. The upgraded store energy consumption is about 39% lower than the original one. The space heating upgrade contributes to more than 60% of this saving potential, and the light upgrade makes up for the rest. In addition, economic analysis performed on RETScreen software has revealed that the proposed measures have a payback of 5 years. This is considered reasonable for the application. The debt ratio and interest rates have adverse effect on increasing the payback. Renewable (solar thermal, and photovoltaic) integration can double the payback of the project due to the high cost of PV panels. The current study is a valuable guidance for widespread retail stores in North America.

Defining and applying an electricity demand flexibility benchmarking metrics framework for grid-interactive efficient commercial buildings

• Introduces a novel demand flexibility (DF) benchmarking metrics framework • Allows benchmarking across geographic areas with different climates and grid needs • Enables empirical approaches to achieve understanding of key influential factors of DF • Framework tested with two benchmarking case studies of 132 office and retail buildings • Identified load shed intensity range and variability; influence of event duration and timing Building demand flexibility (DF) research has recently gained attention. To unlock building DF as a predictable grid resource, we must establish a quantitative understanding of the resource size, performance variability, and predictability based on large empirical datasets. Researchers have proposed various sets of theoretical metrics to measure this performance. Some metrics have been applied to simulation results, but most fall short of exploring the complexities in real building applications. There are practical metrics used in individual demand response field studies but they alone cannot fulfill the job of DF benchmarking across a diverse group of buildings. The electrical grid's geographically diverse and changing nature presents challenges to comparing building DF performance measured under different conditions (i.e., benchmarking DF ). To address this challenge, a novel DF benchmarking framework focused on load shedding and shifting is presented; the foundation is a set of simple, proven single-event metrics with attributes describing event conditions. These enable benchmarking and visualization in different dimensions for identifying trends that represent how these attributes influence DF. To test its feasibility and scalability, the DF framework was applied to two case studies of 11 office buildings and 121 big-box retail buildings with demand response participation data. These examples provided a pathway for using both building level benchmarking and aggregation to extract insights into building DF about magnitude, consistency, and influential factors. Potential applications of the framework and real-world values have been identified for grid and building stakeholders.

Alternative modes of entry and unexpected events in franchising

Store-in-store franchising or corner franchising is the application of a franchise format within another business, such as big box retailers, supermarkets, and gas stations; and pop-up stores are temporary store formats opened in shopping malls or other venues for a short period. Despite the regular application of these strategies by franchisers, the academic literature on store-in-store franchising and pop-up stores is relatively limited. There is a particular need after the COVID-19 outbreak to construct new lenses through which to explore how these modes of entry adapt to the new environment of business interruptions and border closures. Motivated by this research gap, this paper explores the implementation and application of store-in-store and pop-up franchising in the retail industry before COVID-19. The paper thereby consolidates the research into stores-in-stores and pop-up stores and provides a disaster studies-based research framework, a set of theoretical propositions, and some managerial implications.

Inventory management practices at a big-box retailer: a case study

PurposeManaging inventory continues to be a growing area of concern for many retailers due to the multitude of issues that arise from either an excess or shortage of inventory. This study aims to understand how a large-scale retail chain can improve its handling of excess seasonal inventory using three common strategies: information sharing, visibility, and collaboration.Design/methodology/approachThis study has been designed utilizing a case study method focusing on one retail chain at three key levels: strategic (head office), warehouses, and retail stores. The data have been collected by conducting semi-structured interviews with senior-level employees at each of the three levels and employing a thematic analysis to examine the major themes.FindingsThe results show how three common strategies are being practiced by this retailer and how utilizing these strategies aids the retailer in improving its performance in regard to seasonal inventory. Among our research findings, some challenges were discovered in implementing the strategies, most notably: human errors, advanced forecasting deficiencies, and the handling of return merchandise authorizations.Originality/valueThis research takes a case study approach and focuses on one big-box retailer. The authors chose to study three levels (head office, warehouses, and retail stores) to gain a deeper understanding of the functions and processes of each level, and to understand the working relationships between them. Through the collection of primary data in a Canadian context, this study contributes to the literature by investigating supply chain strategies for managing inventory. The Canadian context is especially interesting due to the multi-cultural demographics of the country.

How does big-box retail entry affect labor productivity in durable goods retailing? A synthetic control approach

How does big-box retail entry affect labor productivity in durable goods retailing? A synthetic control approach

Vinyl Revival

Vinyl Revival

Nightcrawler commodities: A brief history on the commodification of the humble dew worm

Each year, 500 to 700 million dew worms are sold from thousands of gas stations, convenience stores, big box retailers, making this particular species, Lumbricus terrestris, the most popular live bait for recreational freshwater fisherman across North America. In fishing parlance, these effective bait worms are referred to as “Canadian Nightcrawlers,” not because they are native to the region (they are not) or because they cannot be found elsewhere (they can), but because the entire global supply comes from a stretch of rural land between Toronto and Windsor in Ontario, Canada. How did this simple garden worm become a valuable commodity, and why is production relegated to one single region in the world? In this paper, I rely on newspaper archives and key informant interviews to construct a “capitalist commodification story” that explain why demand for Canadian Nightcrawlers emerged in North America, why the production of nightcrawlers is relegated to southwestern Ontario, and how this lowly living, breathing, squirming creature beneath our feet became a capitalist commodity producing value through competitive markets. In sum, I argue L. terrestris became a capitalist commodity when burgeoning demand from a new class of recreational fishermen increased competition between nightcrawler suppliers. The inability of capital to take hold of the ecological conditions of nightcrawler production relegated the most productive producers to southwestern Ontario who had the contingent privileges of useful soils combined and cheap and efficient labor. The materiality of L. terrestris physiology is thus constitutive of how capital seeks to accumulate surplus value in a peculiar industry. At the same time, this research shows that no matter how peculiar or banal a commodity may be capitalist logics are constantly experimenting with heterogenous peoples and environments to find a way to increase productivity and accumulate surplus value through market exchange.

Performance and analysis of retail store‐centered microgrids with solar photovoltaic parking lot, cogeneration, and battery‐based hybrid systems

AbstractTo examine the potential of distributed microgrids using sustainable energy sources centered on retail store parking lots, this study provides a methodology to simulate medium‐scale solar photovoltaic (PV) + combined heat and power (CHP) + battery hybrid microgrid systems deployed at big box retail stores. First, a method is provided to agglomerate 15‐min load data for a community of residences in the region of the store to provide baseline electricity load profiles. The systems are then modeled using dispatch strategies previously shown to be stable for smaller, but more dynamic loaded systems. The methodology is demonstrated with a case study for a Walmart Supercenter located in Nova Scotia, Canada. The electricity generated by each component of the hybrid system is coupled and optimized to fulfill the electric demands of the local community. The results provide the total electricity generated by the PV + CHP + battery hybrid system, total operating hours by each unit, fuel consumed, and hourly energy produced by each unit. The results show that such microgrid systems could serve the electrical needs of ˜1000 people (350 residences) for each parking lot of 3.5 MW PV system and CHP unit of 1 MW. The technical viability of this approach warrants future work.

Impact of green and white roofs on air handler filters and indoor ventilation air

Rooftop surfaces near building outdoor air intakes may contribute to the mass loading on filters and compounds emitted to ventilation air downstream of the filter. In laboratory analyses, we characterized microbial composition, primary volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions, ozone removal rates, and VOC emissions in the presence of ozone on filters collected from air handlers located on the green and white roof sections of a big-box retail store. Total DNA masses per area of filter were 26.3 ± 11.9 ng cm−2 and 6.3 ± 6.5 ng cm−2 for green and white roof filters respectively, with higher mass observed in winter compared to the fall season. Of eight VOCs quantified at constant 23 °C and 50% RH across both seasons, fluxes of m/z 33.02 (putatively attributed to methanol) dominated VOC emissions for green, 10.96 ± 3.09 μmol m−2 hr−1, white, 12.02 ± 3.41 μmol m−2 hr−1, and unused filters, 5.64 ± 1.08 μmol m−2 hr−1. Ozone removal across all filters varied from 3.5% ± 2.8%–14% ± 2.8%, depending on temperature and RH condition. Fluxes of eight quantified VOCs were lower in the presence of ozone, apart from m/z 69.07 (putatively attributed to isoprene), where the presence of ~180 ppb inlet ozone resulted in increased fluxes by a factor of ~2.4. A steady-state mass balance predicted increases in ventilation air methanol levels by green roof filters ranging 0.10 μg m−3 to 19.44 μg m−3, depending on filter face velocity and filter geometry.

Teaching economics using scenes from &lt;i&gt;Superstore&lt;/i&gt;

Superstore follows a group of employees working at Cloud 9, a fictional big-box retailer in Missouri. The television show aired on NBC for six seasons and offers economic educators an abundance of scenes that can be used to teach undergraduate economics. All of the scenes mentioned in the lesson plans, and many more, are freely available online on the Teaching with Superstore website. A benefit of using a show like Superstore to teach economics is that it features a diverse cast and a familiar setting to any student who has shopped in a big box retailer. We highlight four episodes that are rich in teaching content and include assessment questions that instructors can assign in their classrooms. Each of the scenes outlined in the paper pose a particular economic problem faced by characters on the show with clear pedagogical economic concepts.

General Hardware, Inc.

The owners of a chain of hardware stores are preparing the most recent quarter financial statements. A number of business details are provided, including information to assess accrual accounting net income: sales, cost of sales, operating expenses, interest, depreciation, and taxes. The most recent balance sheet is provided, enabling an assessment of basic accruals (e.g., tax payable). This case may be used as a stand-alone exercise to illustrate the preparation of balance sheets and income statements using transactions and accruals. Excerpt UVA-C-2446 Dec. 16, 2020 General Hardware, Inc. Ginny and Joe Miller opened a small hardware store in 2004, using their own cash savings and borrowing a small sum from Ginny's parents. Nothing gave them more pride than owning and operating a locally owned business, even if it was complicated by the constant pressures placed on them by big-box retailers. But by 2019, business was booming. General Hardware had five locations, and the Millers were considering an even greater expansion in the coming year, perhaps offering their own version of a national franchise model. The drop-off in activity during the first quarter of 2020, however, dampened those plans. The quarter turned out to be a time for retrenchment and planning for a sustained period of contraction. The following is a summary of first quarter activity for the year 2020, along with the final December 31, 2019, balance sheet (see Exhibit1). · Product sales totaled $ 3 million (all customers paid with cash), and the company had paid $ 2.2million for that inventory sold. . . .

A Guide to Teaching Economics with Superstore

Superstore follows a group of employees working at Cloud 9, a fictional big-box retailer in Missouri. The show also portrays an abundance of scenes that can be used to teach economics at the undergraduate level. We analyze four particular episodes that are rich in teaching content, but also provide a breakdown of scenes in the series that can be used to teach concepts.

Competition and mergers in the retail market for toys

ABSTRACT I study competition between big box retailers, K-Mart and Wal-Mart, and toy retailers, KB Toys and Toys R Us with the aim of estimating Wal-Mart’s effect on the profits of toy retailers. Using recent techniques for the moment inequality models, I estimate chains’ exit decisions in each market as arising from a Nash equilibrium of a static game of entry and exit. My results show that Wal-Mart has a significantly negative effect on the profits of KB Toys and Toys R Us, while the effects of KB Toys and Toys R Us are mostly positive on each other’s profits. I run a series of counterfactual simulations to study the effect of a merger between KB Toys and Toys R Us on post-merger market shares and concentration. Upon merging, the rate of exit drops from 52.3% to 48.6% for KB Toys and from 32.1% to 11.7% for Toys R Us. If the merging parties share distribution centres, the rate of exit drops even further to 31.1% for KB Toys or remains about the same at 12.2% for Toys R Us. Surprisingly, the merger lowers market concentration, as measured by the Herfindal–Hirschman Index.

How does Big-box Retail Entry Affect Incumbents in the Hospitality Industry: Evidence from a Natural Experiment

We use entry by IKEA in four Swedish municipalities as a natural experiment to measure the effects of big-box retail entry on the revenues of incumbent firms in the hospitality sector. We further investigate whether the effects depend on the size of the local market before entry. Our results show a negative impact on the revenues of incumbents in Haparanda, Kalmar, and Karlstad, but insignificant effects in the metropolitan region of Gothenburg. As most firms in the hospitality sector are restaurants, we expect that our results are due to increased competition since all IKEA stores come with large, popular, and reasonably-priced restaurants.

Losing Access to Care: Your Pharmacy is Closing

Many folks who have a minor ailment, a question about medicines, or a health concern in general often stop by their local pharmacy to ask the pharmacist for advice. I grew up in a rural area of Southern Illinois that did not have a fulltime physician. The health department clinic was only open on select mornings each week to administer vaccines. The pharmacist was the only healthcare professional that my family could easily see within 30 miles. Regardless of where we live, we've likely taken for granted that there is a pharmacy nearby. Today those pharmacies are often owned by CVS or Walgreens or are situated in a grocery store or big box retailer like Wal-Mart, Costco or Target. Health systems like Loma Linda University Health also own community pharmacies. There are still nearly 22,000 privately owned pharmacies in the U.S.