Large Retail Chains Research Articles

Strategic Consumer Behavior in Response to Government Policy

This paper studies consumer behavior in the retail setting in response to a government policy aimed at economic transparency, and quantifies its unintended consequences for retailers vis-a-vis the policy goal. Using transaction-level data from a large retail chain in India, we document consumer strategies, that leverage the presence retailers, to avoid costs associated with the country's currency reform policy. We observe both an increase in returns of cash-purchased items that were bought before demonetization (strategic returns) and a spike in final cash purchases with soon-to-be-illegal notes (strategic purchases). Both practices serve consumer incentives to either receive legal notes from the retailer or to avoid depositing cash to formal bank accounts. Our analysis suggests that strategic consumers benefited the retail chain overall while partly hindering the intended effect of the policy, leaving more than 100 billion INR (1.5 billion USD) of demonetized notes outside the formal tax network. Our findings (i) offer implications for policy makers and retailers by quantifying the economic significance of strategic consumer practices, and (ii) document a new role of the retail industry - of absorbing and responding to macro shocks.

Unsupervised Anomaly Detection of Retail Stores Using Predictive Analysis Library on SAP HANA XS Advanced

Abstract The retail industry is quite exposed to fraudulent situations. Daily, thousands of transactions are processed, which may include some frauds difficult to detect, mainly when the perpetrators are the own employees at the retail stores. Large retailers with several stores across different locations may have considerable difficulty in detecting frauds involving their cashiers since they have to take into account different contexts of operation. To reduce fraud losses, retailers get an overview of the transactions in each store to filter the ones that look suspicious deviating from what would be normal. Data mining algorithms can be useful to detect anomalies, differentiating the normal from the abnormal. This study adopted the k-Means clustering algorithm for anomaly detection on a sample of 90 stores in a large food retail chain, revealing the existence of some outliers in the data. The anomaly detection process was fully implemented in SAP HANA XS Advanced using the Predictive Analysis Library (PAL). In the end, it was possible to identify the stores with abnormal behavior and conclude for the usefulness and ease of use of such a library, despite some lack of documentation to use it.

Enhancement Operations Management in Supply Chain based on Intelligent Support Techniques: A Case study.

The onset of the information technology revolution, economic globalization, and high customer expectations have all contributed to significant developments in businesses supply chain management (SCM). Due to the plethora of data generated throughout the entire supply chain has transformed how SCM analysis is conducted. Also, Retailers, in particular face the challenge of managing SC effectively to meet customer demands while reducing costs. Herein, we suggest an approach to optimize SCM using retail analysis techniques. As one of the most well-known artificial intelligences (AI) approaches and machine learning (ML) applications in SCM are the main goals of this study. By constructing conceptual framework, data analytics, ML, and optimization techniques are integrated to generate Intelligent Support Techniques (ISTs) for analyzing SC data and identify opportunities for improvement. We apply retail analysis techniques such as demand forecasting, inventory management, and assortment planning to optimize supply chain operations. The efficiency of our ISTs verified through employing it in a real-world case study of a large retail chain. Our results show that the suggested ISTs can lead to significant improvements in supply chain performance, including increased sales, reduced inventory costs, and improved customer satisfaction.

Developing Safe Foods as a Competitive Mechanism

This article presents the results of a study of safety indicators, nutritional value and sales of bakery products obtained using progressive baking technologies. The purpose of the research is to determine the feasibility of production and sale of bakery products made using improved technologies, and to ensure the safety of products. The methods used in commodity science determined the quality indicators of bakery products, established the terms of implementation and indicators of food safety. Marketing studies of the use of malt preparations in dough science have shown a limited range of malts: fermented rye malt, roasted malt flour and malt extract. The market for bakery products of large retail chains and holdings, mini-bakeries and bakeries selling this group of food products is limited. Consumers aged 18 to 35 are in demand for the certain indicators of the quality of bread, characteristic of the types of used malt: soy, pea, triticale, rye, wheat, and barley. Bread and bakery products in the process of fermentation of dough and baking acquire non-traditional organoleptic characteristics inherent in legumes and cereals. Each developed type of bread and buns has found its consumer with specific, individual preferences.

Integrated marketing communications as a tool for building strong retail chain brand loyalty: case of Lithuania

In Lithuania, there is an intense competition happening between large retail chains for consumer loyalty. The research investigates the impact of retail chain brand factors and integrated marketing communication on retail brand loyalty. Two main brand outcomes are established for the study, i.e., retail brand factor and retail brand loyalty. For the retail brand factor five largest food and non-food retail chains in Lithuania: Maxima, Lidl, Rimi, Iki, and Norfa are selected. The relationships between integrated marketing communications (IMC), brand factors, and retail brand loyalty are examined. An online survey questionnaire was used to collect data from 272 consumers. For data analysis, statistical, mathematical methods such as correlation and regression analysis were applied. The research results revealed a statistically significant impact of retail brand identifiers and integrated marketing communication regarding consumers’ behavior to the retail brand chains’ choice. Regression is statistically significant and the coefficient of determination R2 is more than > 0.20, and the ANOVA p-value is less than 0.05, and a non-standardized coefficient of impact (non-standard β-coefficient) In terms of IMC tool impact on retail brand Maxima = 0.682, Lidl = 0.663, Rimi = 0.522, Iki = 0.469, Norfa = 0.540. The impact of the retail brand Maxima on customers’ retail brand loyalty is 0.961; Lidl is 0.882; Rimi is 0.824; Iki is 0.780; Norfa is 0.836, the impact of retail brand IMC tools on customers’ retail brand loyalty perceived values is Maxima = 0.721; Lidl = 0.558; Rimi = 0.737; Iki = 0.465; Norfa = 0.715.The paper’s value is reflected by identifying factors affecting consumer loyalty to retail chain brands through IMC in the retail market in Lithuania. Retailers should consider these factors as they impact consumer decisions to stay in a long-term relationship with them.

Planning of the cow milk assortment for large retail chains in North Italy: A comparison of two metropolitan cities

This research has assessed what large retail chains actually do, in terms of assortment depth and size of conventional cow milk, by comparing different retail formats and two metropolitan cities (Milan and Turin). The differences in the composition of the assortment were determined considering the milk categories according to their brand, origin, packaging, fat content and price. The differences in association between the milk categories and the retail formats were also analyzed. The results show differences in wide and deep of milk offer between the two areas and that retailers develop a composition offer that is not fully in agreement with the local preferences.

The Rollercoaster: How to Go from Global to Local and Back Again—The Case of a Walking Drive Model in Paris

The act of shopping for food is a very local experience, yet large food retail chains have built their business on homogenizing and standardizing the experience. In this article, we mobilize an ethnographic study carried out in 2018 for a food distributor regarding a new model of online retail pick‐up. The goal of the project was to understand how a new method for food shopping could be scaled across different types of neighbourhoods. We created a scale model that incorporates both individual shopping practices and the demographics of the neighbourhood; using ethnographic methods as the basic unit. Using concepts from gentrification, we also contextualize our insights within the changing dynamics of a neighbourhood—because places are not static entities. We discuss how the scale model could be used to duplicate results from one neighbourhood to another and the reception of our work by the client.

Alcohol purchases from a large Finnish retail chain before and after a change in alcohol legislation

Abstract Background In January 2018, the legal limit for alcoholic beverages in grocery stores changed from 4.7 to 5.5 % alcohol. The increased availability of stronger beer, cider and ready-to-drink beverages was expected to increase the total amount of 100% alcohol bought. The study aimed to examine how the change in alcohol legislation affected the purchasing of 100% alcohol from grocery stores by comparing the years 2017 and 2018. Methods The study data consisted of 47,066 loyalty card holders of Finland's largest retail chain, who gave their consent and provided background information by an online questionnaire. The data contained the type, volume and alcoholic content of the purchases, from which we calculated the amount of 100% alcohol bought. The mean individual alcohol purchases in the years 2017 and 2018 were compared by age, gender, level of education and household income using repeated measurements ANOVA models. Results There was only a small, non-significant change in the total amount of 100% alcohol between 2017 and 2018 (mean 1.9 l and 2.0 l, respectively, p = 0.220). Lower income was associated with a decrease in total 100% alcohol purchased, whereas higher income groups showed an increase. Increase in 100% alcohol bought as ready-to-drink beverages was seen in all population groups. Conclusions The availability of stronger alcoholic beverages in grocery stores did not result in a notable overall increase in total purchases of 100% alcohol. The increased purchases of alcohol as ready-to-drink beverages were, on the average, compensated for by decreased purchases of alcohol as other beverages. The association of income with total alcohol purchases may indicate the effect of price in consumer behavior. Key messages The raise in the legal limit of alcohol content raised did not result in a significant increase in the total amount of 100% alcohol bought from grocery stores. Alcohol purchased as ready-to-drink beverages increased in all population groups.

Modeling price response from retail sales: An empirical comparison of models with different representations of heterogeneity

We assess the performance of store sales models with discrete versus continuous representations of heterogeneity. Specifically, we compare the general heterogeneity model introduced by Allenby et al. (1998) and Lenk and DeSarbo (2000) to its nested versions, a homogeneous model ignoring heterogeneity in marketing effects, a hierarchical Bayes model and a latent class model within a fully Bayesian framework. In an empirical application with scanner data of a large retail chain, we analyze the possible improvements in model fit and predictive validity for approaches that allow for heterogeneity compared to the homogeneous model, and illustrate differences between the various model versions regarding price elasticities. We further compare the performance of the different models to the zone pricing model practiced by the retailer. We find that the more parsimonious models with discrete representations of heterogeneity clearly outperform their continuous counterparts in terms of the model likelihood. Moreover, incorporating heterogeneity does not improve the model fit for many brands compared to the homogeneous model. The prediction accuracy of models with discrete representations of heterogeneity is comparable or even superior to that of continuous heterogeneity models. Noticeably, the predictive performance of the retailer’s zone model is considerably worse than that of the best model for the majority of brands. Our empirical study further demonstrates that models with different representations of heterogeneity provide similar implications for price elasticities, suggesting that there is little benefit from using more complex continuous heterogeneity models from a managerial point of view, at least for the present data.

Attitudes about community pharmacy access to HIV prevention medications in California

ObjectiveIncreasing access to human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and postexposure prophylaxis (PEP) is a high priority for the Ending the HIV Epidemic Initiative. Expanding access to PrEP and PEP through a variety of health care settings, including community pharmacies, may increase access in communities most in need. California is the first state to allow community pharmacists to furnish PrEP and PEP directly to consumers. Our objective was to assess attitudes among key stakeholders about a California policy to allow community pharmacists to furnish HIV PrEP and PEP. MethodsWe conducted a qualitative case study with key pharmacy stakeholders. Semistructured phone interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. We generated analytical memos for each interview and working with these analytical memos, we conducted a constant comparison across cases to identify commonalities and differences. ResultsWe launched the study in October 2018 and interviewed pharmacists (n = 7) working in a variety of settings, including retail-, clinic-, and community-based pharmacies. We also interviewed medical providers (n = 2) working in high-volume PrEP clinics and sought input from representatives of large retail chain pharmacies (n = 2). Overall, pharmacists and medical provider informants shared similar opinions about the central benefits as well as the key challenges related to pharmacist-delivered PrEP and PEP services. Benefits included: community pharmacists are widely accessible, PrEP and PEP protocols are similar to other preventative medications, policy may lead to efficiencies in the health care workforce, and community pharmacists are authorities on medication adherence. Challenges included: implementation issues may limit pharmacist involvement, and missed opportunities to diagnose and treat other health conditions. ConclusionThis study characterizes the types of benefits and challenges that can be expected when PrEP and PEP prescribing privileges are extended to community pharmacists. This information may be useful to policymakers and other stakeholders considering legislation to permit direct prescription of PrEP and PEP by pharmacists.

ASHP Pharmacy Technician Forum Executive Committee.

JoAnne Myhre, current member JoAnne Myhre’s affinity for the field of pharmacy started when she was a 16-year-old clerk at a corner drugstore near her home in St. Paul, MN. Over the years, Myhre has come a long way, serving as a pharmacy technician in independent community pharmacies, large retail chain pharmacies, and the health system pharmacy environment, where she is now the drug diversion program manager for Allina Health in Minneapolis, MN. “Moving through all of those practice settings, I was able build on a lot of skills, some of which I didn’t realize I had,” Myhre said. For example, the strong project management skills she had built in the community pharmacy setting came to light after she moved into the hospital setting. In the retail setting, Myhre—like many pharmacy technicians—juggled in-person customer interactions with using cash registers, answering phones, and entering information into the pharmacy computer system. “When I started working in the hospital outpatient pharmacy, I realized I could draw on my multitasking abilities and my familiarity with workflow processes and help make things more efficient,” she said.

Assessment of the Impact of State Regulation of Retail Trade Networks Development on the Wholesale Sector

The article is dealing with the issues of state regulation of the consumer market, where the interests of producers, wholesale intermediaries, and retail trade are traditionally encountered. The authors consider the features of state regulation of the formation and development processes of multi-object and omnichannel trading systems in Russia in the context of the country's entry into the global economy, the opening of the domestic market for foreign business structures, and commodity imports in a situation with a small business that is not fully established. The results of the conducted study complement the experience of the international community in regulating system formation in trade. The article analyzes significant differences in the state intervention mechanisms in the economic relations of retail chains and their suppliers, as well as the impact of stricter legislation on wholesale trade, and its place and role in the commodity distribution system. The authors prove that excessive regulation of the retail market causes negative consequences in its adjacent segments, justify the upcoming redistribution of the market between large retail chains and specialized wholesale companies in favor of the former ones, show the development prospects of the distribution, and the impact of this process on small retail businesses, as well as formulate proposals for optimizing approaches to regulating the transformation of the trade sector in the transition economy.

Increase of the Сentral bank payment service provider efficiency for ensuring financial stability

The food retail sector is characterized by high competition between the largest retail chains, which explains the urgency of searching for additional competitive advantages for companies. The market capitalization of companies was chosen as an indicator of competitiveness, and intangible assets were chosen as a key factor influencing it in the conditions of digitalization. The author assessed the impact of intangible assets on the capitalization of Russian and foreign companies in the field of food retail. The research results can serve as a basis for developing new strategic goals for food retailers in the modern economy.

Outbreak of human infections with uncommon Salmonella serotypes linked to pet bearded dragons, 2012-2014.

Reptiles are one of the fastest growing sectors in the United States pet industry. Reptile-associated salmonellosis (RAS) continues to be an important public health problem, especially among children. We investigated an outbreak of human Salmonella infections resulting from serotypes Cotham and Kisarawe, predominately occurring among children. An outbreak of illnesses was identified in persons with exposure to pet bearded dragon lizards. Human and animal health officials, in cooperation with the pet industry, conducted epidemiologic, traceback and laboratory investigations. Onsite sampling was conducted at two US breeding facilities, one foreign breeding facility, and a large pet retail chain. A total of 166 patients in 36 states were identified with illness onset dates from 02/2012-06/2014. The median patient age was 3years (range, <1-79years), 57% were aged ≤5years, and 37% were aged ≤1year. Forty-four patients (37%) were hospitalized, predominantly children. Sampling at breeding facilities and a national pet store chain resulted in isolation of outbreak serotypes at each facility; isolation proportions ranged from 2%-24% of samples collected at each facility.Epidemiologic, microbiologic and traceback evidence linked an outbreak of uncommon Salmonella serotypes to contact with pet bearded dragons. The high proportion of infants involved in this outbreak highlights the need to educate owners about the risk of RAS in children and the potential for household contamination by pet reptiles or their habitats. Strategies should be developed to improve breeding practices, biosecurity and monitoring protocols to reduce Salmonella in the pet reptile trade.

Two decades of changes in spatial distribution of retail and commercial services: Czech experience

The aim of this paper is to introduce basic developmental consequences, changes, trends and the current situation in amenities through retail and commercial services in the rural areas of the Czech Republic. The example illustrated herein is the South Moravian Region. Methodically, the text is built on previous survey (2002), and on our own survey conducted in municipalities up to 3,000 inhabitants of the South Moravian Region in 2018 (n = 355). There are semi-structured interviews (n = 18) that link back to these surveys. The data obtained was processed by the methods of statistical and graphical analysis, comparison, interpretation and synthesis. The paper concludes that since 2002, commercial amenities have experienced remarkably negative development. The smaller municipalities in the periphery have encountered the greatest decline, but stagnation is also seen in the suburban areas of Brno. From among types of commercial amenities, the ones most weakened were specialized shops, which could no longer compete with large retail chains. Almost a fourth of municipalities support commercial trade and services, mainly through subsidies or lowered rent. The regions also provide subsidies. Even simplifying red tape or providing tax relief on the part of the public sector would support civic amenities. Another key may be retaining young and educated people in municipalities where they will live and work. Contributing to this could be not only developing infrastructure in municipalities, but also for example the next wave of digitalization and introduction of stable, high-speed Internet service in rural areas.

КОНКУРЕНТОСПОСОБНОСТЬ КООПЕРАТИВНЫХ ОРГАНИЗАЦИЙ В СФЕРЕ ТОРГОВЛИ: НАПРАВЛЕНИЯ ИССЛЕДОВАНИЯ

The article is devoted to the study of approaches to assessing the competitiveness of cooperative trade organizations. In the face of increasing competition, cooperative trade organizations have to compete not only with private stores, but also with large retail chains that continue to expand into rural areas. Based on the available approaches to assessing competitiveness, the authors proposed a methodology for a comprehensive assessment of external and internal competitiveness, which allows to analyze various aspects, approaches to determining competitive advantages, including the opinion of buyers and an expert approach.

Višekriterijumsko rangiranje raspoloživih oblika promotivnih aktivnosti - analiza slučaja

This paper presents an analysis of the case of multicriteria choice of promotion form for a product group, in one large retail chain. The following forms of promotion were available: commercial propaganda, personal selling, sales promotion, publicity, public relations and direct marketing. The selection was made on the basis of five criteria: the effects of a given form of promotion, the costs of a given form of promotion, the compliance of a given form of promotion with consumer preferences, the appropriateness of a given form of promotion in relation to the promotion of competition and the engagement of human resources for a given form of promotion. The problem of multicriteria analysis was solved with the VIKOR method. The initial decision table and criteria weights were determined using the expert method, in which the opinions of ten experts from the observed company were taken. In this way, subjectivity in these initial procedures is reduced. The expert method and the VIKOR method proved to be very suitable in the given situation. The final conclusion is that in the promotion of the analyzed product group, publicity should be used to the fullest extent possible, economic propaganda should be applied in accordance with financial possibilities, and most attention and energy should be directed towards sales promotion activities.

Innovation towards sustainable fresh-cut salad production: are Italian consumers receptive?

Fresh-cut salads are ready-to-eat foodstuffs with a growing market share and increasingly popular with consumers. However, a significant part of public opinion considers that bagged salad production processes have an effect on sustainability. In parallel, fresh-cut salads producers implement high resources and innovation strategies to improve the production process and product sustainability, highlighting an increasing awareness of their responsibility. The objective of this study was to investigate whether a correspondence exists between consumer preferences and the fresh-cut salad sustainability attributes (environmental, economic and social), indicated by producers (on their packaging and/or company website). Consumer preference analysis of 12 attributes of fresh-cut salads was made using the Best-Worst scaling methodology. Among the selected attributes, 9 were related to sustainability issues and 3 to the intrinsic product characteristics. A paper questionnaire was developed and submitted directly to consumers (n = 216), at different points of sale of several large retail chains in the Turin metropolitan area (Northwest Italy). The analysis of the results highlights that no direct correspondence can be found between the companies’ communications regarding sustainability and the real interest of consumers of fresh-cut salads towards these attributes. Moreover, in contrast to the growing ‘green’ attitude among consumers, the lack of consumer interest in the attributes of environmental sustainability underlines the need to increase consumer awareness of the issue. Thus, this research could contribute to the development of more targeted and accessible communication strategies towards consumers.

Estimating the Demand Spillover Effect of Inventory Stockouts in a Fashion Footwear Retail Setting

Problem definition: In brick-and-mortar fashion retail stores, inventory stockouts are frequent. When a specific size of a fashion product is out of stock, the unmet demand might not be completely lost due to spillovers to adjacent sizes of the same style or to products with different styles. Little research has been done to study consumer responses to stockouts of fashion products because researchers had limited access to the proprietary data of fashion retailers and because it is challenging to estimate stockout-based substitution patterns using existing approaches due to the enormous number of stock keeping units (SKUs) and frequent stockouts in fashion retail stores. To fill this void in the literature, we empirically estimate the SKU-level demand spillover effect of inventory stockouts in a fashion footwear retail setting. Methodology/Results: We obtain a large-scale data set from a large sportswear retail chain, whose retail stores are dedicated to distributing products of a single world-renowned brand. Employing around 1.5 million granular and real-time sales and inventory records of 217 stores, 503 men’s footwear products, and 4,024 SKUs over a two-year period, we develop a difference-in-differences framework to estimate the cross-size demand spillover effect of inventory stockouts. We demonstrate the validity of this framework by conducting a pre-trend test and a placebo test. We find that roughly over 50% of the unmet demand caused by the stockout of a men’s footwear SKU spills over to adjacent sizes of the same style and significantly increases their daily sales: on average a 23.0% increase for the adjacent-larger-size and a 19.8% increase for the adjacent-smaller-size. The cross-size demand spillover effect is larger in regular stores than in flagship stores, larger for casual sports shoes than for specialized sports shoes, and larger for low-price products than for high-price products. Using an attribute-based model to estimate the cross-style demand spillover effect, we find that it is much smaller than the cross-size spillover effect. Managerial implications: First, we empirically demonstrate that consumers have a strong tendency to substitute between adjacent sizes when purchasing footwear products in a brick-and-mortar fashion retail setting. Second, our counterfactual analysis shows that incorporating the cross-size demand spillover effect into the sportswear retail chain’s proactive transshipment decision can reduce its transshipment cost substantially and improve its profitability.

Why Do Women Struggle to Climb the Corporate Ladder? Evidence from Retail Frontline Managers

Today women are still struggling to climb the corporate ladder. While existing gender studies have focused on individual workers or C-suite executives, why men climb the corporate ladder faster than women remains a mystery. To fill this void in the literature, we explore gender differences and disparities in low-level management by empirically investigating the performance of frontline managers in a large sportswear retail chain. We observe a substantial performance gap between male and female managers—stores with male mangers generate 34.4% higher sales than stores with female managers. Meanwhile, we find male managers are more likely assigned to stores with high sales potential than female managers. After matching stores based on sales-potential characteristics, the performance gap becomes quantitatively and statistically insignificant. These results suggest that the seemingly large gender gap in managerial performance reflects the fact that store assignment is inequitable across genders. This interpretation is supported by a triple differences (DDD) estimation—we find no evidence that manager gender changes associated with manager changes affect store sales. We rule out an alternative hypothesis that differential manager ability across genders contributes to the gender gap. We conduct a maximum likelihood estimation of a discrete-time Markov chain that models the processes of store assignment and manager turnover, and we rule out the possibility that inequitable store assignment can be explained by a gender preference hypothesis. We develop a resource inequity index to measure gender inequity in store assignment and link it to the gender pay gap based on manager compensation data.