Large Stores Research Articles

A four-year observational study to examine the dietary impact of the North Carolina Healthy Food Small Retailer Program, 2017\u20132020

BackgroundThe North Carolina (NC) Healthy Food Small Retailer Program (HFSRP) was passed into law with a $250,000 appropriation (2016–2018) providing up to $25,000 in funding to small food stores for equipment to stock healthier foods and beverages. This paper describes an observational natural experiment documenting the impact of the HFSRP on store food environments, customers’ purchases and diets.MethodsUsing store observations and intercept surveys from cross-sectional, convenience customer samples (1261 customers in 22 stores, 2017–2020; 499 customers in 7 HFSRP stores, and 762 customers in 15 Comparison stores), we examined differences between HFSRP and comparison stores regarding: (1) change in store-level availability, quality, and price of healthy foods/beverages; (2) change in healthfulness of observed food and beverage purchases (“bag checks”); and, (3) change in self-reported and objectively-measured (Veggie Meter®-assessed skin carotenoids) customer dietary behaviors. Differences (HFSRP vs. comparison stores) in store-level Healthy Food Supply (HFS) and Healthy Eating Index-2010 scores were assessed using repeated measure ANOVA. Intervention effects on diet were assessed using difference-in-difference models including propensity scores.ResultsThere were improvements in store-level supply of healthier foods/beverages within 1 year of program implementation (0 vs. 1–12 month HFS scores; p = 0.055) among HFSRP stores only. Comparing 2019 to 2017 (baseline), HFSRP stores’ HFS increased, but decreased in comparison stores (p = 0.031). Findings indicated a borderline significant effect of the intervention on self-reported fruit and vegetable intake (servings/day), though in the opposite direction expected, such that fruit and vegetable intake increased more among comparison store than HFSRP store customers (p = 0.05). There was no significant change in Veggie Meter®-assessed fruit and vegetable intake by customers shopping at the intervention versus comparison stores.ConclusionsDespite improvement in healthy food availability, there was a lack of apparent impact on dietary behaviors related to the HFSRP, which could be due to intervention dose or inadequate statistical power due to the serial cross-sectional study design. It may also be that individuals buy most of their food at larger stores; thus, small store interventions may have limited impact on overall eating patterns. Future healthy retail policies should consider how to increase intervention dose to include more product marketing, consumer messaging, and technical assistance for store owners.

Predicting consequences of POP-induced disruption of blubber glucose uptake, mass gain rate and thyroid hormone levels for weaning mass in grey seal pups

Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are endocrine disruptors that alter adipose tissue development, regulation and function. Top marine predators are particularly vulnerable because they possess large fat stores that accumulate POPs. However, links between endocrine or adipose tissue function disruption and whole animal energetics have rarely been investigated. We predicted the impact of alterations to blubber metabolic characteristics and circulating thyroid hormone (TH) levels associated with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), and organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) on suckling mass gain and weaning mass in wild grey seal pups. Glucose uptake by inner blubber was a strong predictor of whole animal mass gain rate, which in turn, resulted in heavier weaning mass. Weaning mass was predicted to increase by 3.7 ± 1.59 (sem) %, through increased mass gain rate, in the absence of the previously reported suppressive effect of dioxin-like PCB (DL-PCBs) on blubber glucose uptake. PBDEs were, conversely, associated with faster mass gain. Alleviation of this effect was predicted to reduce weaning mass by 6.02 ± 1.86% (sem). To better predict POPs effects on energy balance, it is crucial to determine if and how PBDEs promote mass gain in grey seal pups. Weaning mass was negatively related to total T3 (TT3) levels. A 20% (range = 9.3–31.7%) reduction in TT3 by DL-PCBs partially overcame the effect of DL-PCB -mediated reduction in blubber glucose uptake. Overall, DL-PCBs were thus predicted to reduce weaning mass by 1.86 ± 1.60%. Organohalogen impacts on whole-animal energy balance in grey seal pups appear to partially offset each other through opposing effects on different mechanisms. POP effects were generally minor, but the largest POP-induced reductions in weaning mass were predicted to occur in pups that were already small. Since weaning mass is positively related to first-year survival, POPs may disproportionately affect smaller individuals, and could continue to have population-level impacts even when levels are relatively low compared to historical values. Our findings show how in vitro experiments combined with measurements in vivo can help elucidate mechanisms that underpin energy balance regulation and help to quantify the magnitude of disruptive effects by contaminants and other stressors in wildlife.

Dynamic Inventory Allocation for Seasonal Merchandise at Dillard’s

We consider how to allocate inventory of seasonal goods in a two-echelon distribution network for Dillard’s Inc., a large department store chain in the United States. Our objective is to allocate products with limited inventory from a distribution center to multiple retail stores over the selling season to maximize total sales revenue. Under the assumption that the true demand distributions are available to the retailer, we develop an effective dynamic inventory allocation heuristic. We further consider a more realistic and challenging setting for seasonal goods, where demand distributions are unknown to the retailer, and propose two “learning-while-doing” extensions of our inventory allocation heuristic; these policies update demand distribution estimates in a rolling horizon using censored point-of-sales data. We evaluate the performance of the policies using simulation on Dillard’s historical sales data. Dillard’s Inc. has incorporated the proposed policy into their current replenishment methodology and has been using the policy to set order levels for its seasonal merchandise.

Dual Channel Pricing of Large Fresh Chain Stores Considering Distribution Costs under Split Quotation

After large fresh food chain stores have opened online channels, distribution costs are a key factor affecting consumers' online buying behavior, which affects dual-channel pricing. This paper studies the dual-channel pricing strategy of large fresh food chain stores on the premise of dividing the quotation, considering the consumer's acceptance of online channels and the sensitivity to distribution costs. The research found that the optimal pricing of online channels is lower than that of retail channels. The optimal pricing of online channels is positively correlated with the acceptance of online channels, and negatively correlated with the sensitivity of consumer distribution costs. Moreover, after retailers have opened online channels, the market scale has expanded compared with traditional retail channels. Finally, numerical experiments are used to analyze the influence of various influencing factors on retailers' decision-making.

Association between density of stores and purchases of ultra-processed food and sugar-sweetened beverages in Mexico.

In Mexico, purchases of ultra-processed food and sugar-sweetened beverages (SSB) and the number of large supermarkets, discount and convenience stores are growing. The objective of this study was to analyze the association between the density of different types of food stores and ultra-processed food and SSB (taxed beverages) purchases in a representative sample of Mexican households. Results show that the density of convenience stores (national and in urban areas) was significantly associated with higher purchases of ultra-processed food and that supermarkets were marginally associated. Our findings are stronger for beverages where we found that convenience stores, discount stores, small grocery stores and stores speciliazed in selling candies, popsicles, soft drinks and other food were associated with higher purchases of taxed beverages. Mexico should implement or strengthen current policies to reduce purchases of ultra-processed food and sugar-sweetened beverages and to regulate the location and density of stores.

Climate implications on forest above- and belowground carbon allocation patterns along a tropical elevation gradient on Mt. Kilimanjaro (Tanzania)

Tropical forests represent the largest store of terrestrial biomass carbon (C) on earth and contribute over-proportionally to global terrestrial net primary productivity (NPP). How climate change is affecting NPP and C allocation to tree components in forests is not well understood. This is true for tropical forests, but particularly for African tropical forests. Studying forest ecosystems along elevation and related temperature and moisture gradients is one possible approach to address this question. However, the inclusion of belowground productivity data in such studies is scarce. On Mt. Kilimanjaro (Tanzania), we studied aboveground (wood increment, litter fall) and belowground (fine and coarse root) NPP along three elevation transects (c. 1800–3900 m a.s.l.) across four tropical montane forest types to derive C allocation to the major tree components. Total NPP declined continuously with elevation from 8.5 to 2.8 Mg C ha−1 year−1 due to significant decline in aboveground NPP, while fine root productivity (sequential coring approach) remained unvaried with around 2 Mg C ha−1 year−1, indicating a marked shift in C allocation to belowground components with elevation. The C and N fluxes to the soil via root litter were far more important than leaf litter inputs in the subalpine Erica forest. Thus, the shift of C allocation to belowground organs with elevation at Mt. Kilimanjaro and other tropical forests suggests increasing nitrogen limitation of aboveground tree growth at higher elevations. Our results show that studying fine root productivity is crucial to understand climate effects on the carbon cycle in tropical forests.

Did the Macy’s in my mall close? Revisiting the closures of Macy’s, Sears, and JCPenney stores

The large number of closures of department stores in recent years has called into question the role of traditional brick and mortar stores in today’s retail environment. Under this context, this research investigates if the characteristics identified as significant contributors toward department store closures are consistent across time and how store closures are related to spatial accessibility. The study employs logistic regression to identify the main contributing variables toward department store closures and a 2-Step Floating Catchment Area Method is to measure the spatial accessibility of department stores. Findings reveal that early on, stores in the Western United States were the safest from closures but that effect wore off over time. Larger stores in large shopping centers were more likely to close but that effect wore off for JCPenney by 2010. Older JCPenney stores are more likely to close consistently across time, while Macy’s and Sears closures have no association with store age. The results also suggest that in general there are more stores in areas with lower accessibility but the proportion of open versus closed stores within the different ranges varies by chain, with a general trend of less closures occurring in areas with higher accessibility scores. These findings provide important information for industry practitioners and retail managers to make strategic decisions.

Distributed application provisioning over Ethereum-based private and permissioned blockchain: availability modeling, capacity, and costs planning

Blockchain and cloud computing are two of the main topics related to the distributed computing paradigm, and in the last decade, they have seen exponential growth in their adoption. Cloud computing has long been established as the main mechanism to test, develop, and deliver new applications and services in a distributed manner across the World Wide Web. Large data centers host many services and store petabytes of user data. Infrastructure and services owners rule the access to data and may even be able to change contents and attest to its veracity. Blockchain is a step towards a future where the user’s data are considered safer, besides being public. Advances in blockchain-based technologies, now, support service provisioning over permissioned and private infrastructures. Therefore, organizations or groups of individuals may share information, service even if they do not trust each other, besides supporting infrastructure management tasks. This paper presents and evaluates models for assessing the availability and capacity-oriented availability of cloud computing infrastructures. It aims at running blockchain’s distributed applications based on the Ethereum blockchain platform and the required expenses to perform service delivery in public and private infrastructures. Most of the obtained results also apply to other blockchains-based platforms.

Comments to Jean-Claude Burgelman's article Politics and Open Science: How the European Open Science Cloud Became Reality (the Untold Story)

Comments to Jean-Claude Burgelman's article <i>Politics and Open Science: How the European Open Science Cloud Became Reality (the Untold Story)</i>

Declining Summertime pCO2 in Tundra Lakes in a Granitic Landscape

AbstractAs climate change accelerates, positive feedback loops could establish between atmospheric warming and increasing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from natural ecosystems. Of particular interest are high‐latitude environments, many of which contain large stores of organic carbon and have experienced decades of accelerated warming. Freshwater ecosystems situated in carbon‐rich Arctic landscapes are predicted to respond to warming with higher respiration rates relative to primary production rates, increasing their carbon dioxide partial pressure (pCO2) and thus CO2 emissions to the atmosphere. However, large areas of shallow soil/bedrock occur in Arctic and sub‐Arctic regions and could respond differently due to the lower availability of stored carbon. Here, we used pH and alkalinity to calculate 23 years (1994–2017) of summertime (July and August) pCO2 and CO2 fluxes for 19 sub‐Arctic tundra lakes located on the shallow‐bedrock granitic Canadian Shield in Nunavut, Canada, and found a significant decline in CO2 emissions. Regional precipitation did not change over this period, yet dramatic increases in pH, conductivity, and total alkalinity indicated that longer ice‐free periods and changes in primary production, both functions of accelerated climate warming at higher latitudes, may be suppressing lacustrine CO2 emissions. Northern lakes overlying differing geological landscapes may thus be responding in contrasting ways in terms of pCO2 and CO2 fluxes, with potential major implications for regional carbon budgets and predicted climate change feedbacks.

Luxury Strategy Comparing SPA Brands and Luxury Brands — Flagship Store Strategy for Large Store Location —

Not only luxury brands, but also fast fashion brands such as ZARA and H&M have successfully opened flagship stores in prime locations such as Ginza, Tokyo. The market-entry strategy via flagship stores appears to be successful, as numerous companies have adopted it. However, for this strategy to work, it is important to consider and verify not only the place, but also the product, price, and promotion aspects. This study systematically investigates the flagship store strategy by comparing the strategies of luxury brands, represented by Chanel and Louis Vuitton, and those of SPA (Specialty store retailer of Private label Apparel) brands, represented by ZARA, developed by the Spanish Inditex Corporation.

Field scale estimates of soil carbon stocks on ten heavy textured farms across Ireland

The world's soils store vast amounts (≈2,500 GT) of Carbon which acts as a vital sink to counterbalance the effects of increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide. There have been fruitful efforts to quantify soil Carbon stocks at national scales, which are required for policy level decisions but lack the high resolution required to support farm specific decisions. It is hypothesised that farm scale evaluations of soils can provide insight that is masked in national scale studies and can allow for spatially explicit management approaches to optimise soil Carbon storage and sequestration, such that it can be prioritized within profitable production systems. The objective of the present study was to estimate Carbon stocks on a range of heavy textured soils at field and farm scale and to quantify Carbon storage relative to national scale estimates. Ten grassland dairy farms (mean area of 52.2 Ha) were surveyed, sampled and classified to determine soil types and quantify soil Carbon stores. The level of Carbon present (mean: 346.0 T/Ha) at these sites was greater than previous averages on such soils quantified at national scale (by a factor of 1.1–3.9 depending on soil type). Furthermore, if Carbon saturation potential was realised, the amount of Carbon stored could be increased by an average of 792.1 T/Ha in each profile (from 346.0 to 1138.1 T/Ha). Current management has fostered the retention of large stores of soil Carbon on such soils/farms which co-exist within highly productive farm systems. As there is a societal demand to retain and enhance soil carbon stores to mitigate climate change, high Carbon soils should be identified and, under appropriate policies, commodified to offer a direct incentive to retain soil Carbon. The value of this resource should be recognised and polices to ensure a spatially explicit approach for soil Carbon management should be adopted.

Preimaginal caste-related bias in the paper wasp Polistes jokahamae is limited to the first brood

Whether the caste fate of social insects is determined before or after emergence is a key question for understanding the evolution of eusociality. Paper wasps are a suitable model for answering this question because there are no critical morphological differences between queens and workers in paper wasps, and these animals appear to represent an early stage of eusociality. We explored the above question by determining the effects of photoperiod during the adult stage on caste-fate determination in the paper wasp Polistes jokahamae. We collected colonies at different stages in the field and exposed emerging adults individually to long or short days. Under these isolated conditions, gyne-destined (diapausing) females were expected to exhibit large lipid stores without mature eggs, while the reverse was expected to be true for worker-destined (nondiapausing) females. The proportion of wasps with mature eggs was higher under long days in the second and subsequent broods, but not in the first brood. Lipid stores were larger among large females and under short days, and smaller for the first brood. These findings together suggest that the first brood emerges with a strong preimaginal bias toward workers (nondiapausing form), whereas the other broods emerge with no bias or an easily reversible bias. However, it is difficult to conclude whether the bias came from body size or the season of emergence. We discuss the possibility that the ancestor of paper wasps had workers with and without preimaginal bias toward becoming workers at emergence.

Information and Bias Effects in Discretionary Pricing: Evidence from an OTC Drug Pricing Quasi-Experiment

In theory, discretionary pricing improves the company's performance by allowing managers to incorporate local information into their pricing decisions. However, in practice, managers are vulnerable to behavioral biases that can lead to inaccurate estimation of the customer's willingness to pay and price sensitivity, and precipitate poor decisions. This paper investigates the effectiveness of discretionary pricing and examines how information advantage and behavioral bias influence managers' pricing decisions. Collaborating with a pharmacy retailer, we analyze a quasi-field experiment that delegates pricing power to local pharmacy managers. Our analysis reveals that under discretionary pricing, managers incorporate local information into their pricing decisions. However, they are also subject to behavioral biases, which leads to aggressive, sub-optimal price adjustments. We find that managers increase prices of high-priced drugs by 8.6\%, resulting in significant sales and revenue losses. The effect is particularly prominent in stores located in low-competition areas. Moreover, we find that manager experience can alleviate such behavioral biases---more experienced managers from larger stores are not subject to these biases. Our findings highlight the importance of recognizing managers' behavioral biases in business decisions. We provide implications for pricing practices and offer solutions that allow companies to leverage local information while reducing the impact of human biases.

Estimation of aboveground biomass and carbon stock in a pine-mahogany mixture stands at specific purpose forest area of Gunung Bromo, Karanganyar

Forest plays an important role on reducing the impact of global warming as carbon sink. Forest has an ability to absorb carbon on large scale and store it as biomass. This research was aim to determine the potential of aboveground biomass and carbon stock in pine-mahogany mixture stands in Specific Purpose Forest Area (SPFA) of Gunung Bromo. The systematic sampling with random start was used to determine the plot, and the distance between plots were 100 m. In total, there were 35 square plots, 20 × 20 m in size, that had been set up under the pine-mahogany mixture stands. This research was conducted by using non-destructive sampling method by measuring the tree volume. The pine-mahogany stands dominated by the trees with diameter class 20-30 cm. The tree density and stand volume were 431 trees/ha and 229.4 m3/ha. Estimated aboveground biomass, carbon stock, and CO2 equivalent in pine stands were 136.53 ton/ha, 64.17 ton C/ha, and 235.29 ton/ha, while for mahogany stands were 33.01 ton/ha, 15.56 ton C/ha, and 57.04 ton/ha, respectively. Thus, the total biomass and carbon stock in pine-mahogany mixture stands were 169.63 ton/ha and 79.73 ton C/ha. Meanwhile, total CO2-equivalent was 292.23 ton/ha.

МОЖЛИВОСТІ ДРОПШИПІНГУ В БІЗНЕСІ

The article highlights the definition of dropshipping, provides a diagram of a dropshipper, shows models of the dropshipper entering the B2C and B2B markets. The essence of the requirements for the dropshipper on the market is clarified and the creation of the importance of its brand is shown. Dropshipping is one of the models of doing business, when the entrepreneur may not have stocks of goods in the warehouse, in fact, there may be no warehouse at all, but buyers order the goods in the online store. When the dropshipper receives an order to purchase goods, then he or she can buy goods from the supplier or even transfer the customer’s data to the supplier, who in turn makes the sale and delivery, and the dropshipper deducts the agreed percentage of sales. Dropshipping is beneficial to all participants in the process. The dropshipping process is traditionally reduced to the following scheme: the initial stage of concluding a contract with the supplier; creation of an online store and further work on promotion; attracting buyers and concluding sales agreements; transfer of orders through the site to the supplier in a way that is usually agreed in advance; the dropshipper sends the completed order to the specified recipient. With such an arrangement, you can easily open your own online store without being a manufacturer of goods. An entrepreneur in the organization of mediation usually focuses on marketing and promoting himself or herself as a businessman, and also begins to work more actively to increase sales channels. In Ukraine, dropshipping is considered to be the safest way to trade. Entrepreneurs are attracted by such advantages as the absence of the need to find premises for rent, as well as the lack of staff, i.e., the absence of the need for large financial investment at the start. The main tool for starting sales through dropshipping is the Internet. Suppliers see real benefits from such cooperation, so are willing to respond to offers. Sites that work on this model are gradually filling free market niches. And even large online stores are partially switching to such a system of cooperation with manufacturers.

Антикризисные тренды рынка FMCG в период пандемии: e-grocery, маркетплейсы, цифровые технологии

While studying the structure of the Russian FMCG market, the authors conclude that the crisis has provoked the emergence and rapid development of a new area of interaction between retailers and large chain stores e-commerce with consumers in the FMCG segment. Three main trends in this process are identified: e-grocery, marketplaces and digital technology. The authors describe the omnichannel model of sales technology in the FMCG sector and define it as the most effective for retailers using online stores and marketplaces.

The Grocery Trolley Race in Times of Covid-19. Evidence from Italy

We study sales dynamics of grocery chain stores during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemics in Italy. We document a sustained growth in revenues for storable products, such as food staples and household supplies, arising right before restrictions to mobility were introduced, and protracted throughout the whole lockdown period. We further look into the revenue surge, by disentangling the role of different types of stores. We find that the increase has been driven by the dynamics of smaller outlets, located in urban areas, closer to the city center, while hypermarkets faced a drop during the lockdown period, plausibly related to their more peripheral position. We also exploit both the remarkable granularity of scanner data, and the staggered implementation of restrictions across Italian regions to causally identify the short-term effects of mobility constraints on outlets' sales. According to our estimates, large grocery stores in areas subject to lockdown measures earned revenues around 10 percent lower than their control group's.

Проблеми конкурентоспроможності малих форм роздрібної торгівлі продуктами харчування в м. Львові

The article discusses the defining competitive advantages of food retail stores. It is defined that the competitive advantages that determine the level of competitiveness of production and trade enterprises do differ. The main competitive advantages of trading enterprises are their location, product range, pricing policy and quality of service. As a result of the analysis of the trade infrastructure of the city of Lviv, it was concluded that there were problems in shaping the competitiveness of small forms of retail trade in food products, which are associated with the active development of national retail chains and the emergence of international trade operators in the market. The classification of stores by the signs of the size and territory of the girth was carried out. The peculiarities of their competitive advantages are determined. It is identified that the emergence of networks of the latest large formats of stores with the possibility of purchasing goods at lower prices was a threat to the functioning of traditional stores «close to home» and the reason for the decrease in their number. A comparative analysis of advantages and disadvantages of small forms of retail and large retail is carried out. The main competitive advantages of small retail stores are the proximity of the location to the buyer and trusting relationships with regular customers. The price, product range and possibilities of implementing loyalty programs are identified as the main strategic competitive advantages of large store formats. The emphasis on these advantages makes it possible to effectively manage the competitiveness of retail.

DeTraS: Delaying Stores for Friendly-Fire Mitigation in Hardware Transactional Memory

Commercial Hardware Transactional Memory (HTM) systems are best-effort designs that leverage the coherence substrate to detect conflicts eagerly. Resolving conflicts in favor of the requesting core is the simplest option for ensuring deadlock freedom, yet it is prone to livelocks. In this work, we propose and evaluate DeTraS (Delayed Transactional Stores), an HTM-aware store buffer design aimed at mitigating such livelocks. DeTraS takes advantage of the fact that modern commercial processors implement a large store buffer, and uses it to prevent transactional stores predicted to conflict from performing early in the transaction. By leveraging existing processor structures, we propose a simple design that improves the ability of requester-wins HTM systems to achieve forward progress in spite of high contention while side-stepping the performance penalty of falling back to mutual exclusion. With just over 50 extra bytes, DeTraS captures the advantages of lazy conflict management without the complexity brought into the coherence fabric by commit arbitration schemes nor the relaxation of the single-writer invariant of prior works. Through detailed simulations of a 16-core tiled CMP using gem5, we demonstrate that DeTraS brings reductions in average execution time of 25 percent when compared to an Intel RTM-like design.