Retailing to the “grey pound”: Understanding the food shopping habits and preferences of consumers over 50 in Scotland

The number of older people is growing globally and therefore there is an implication for providing products and services to facilitate access to nutritious food, considered fundamental for maintaining health and independence. Historically, older consumers have been unattractive to marketers, however improved finances and lifestyles indicate the “grey pound” has the potential to become lucrative. This exploratory research seeks to identify the current expectation of Scottish older consumers in relation to the products and services available in the supermarket and food retailers. A questionnaire was distributed to participants aged over 50 years in Scotland to voice the opinion of the older consumer in relation to shopping experience and availability of product. The results support previous research indicating the improved lifestyles of older consumers, demonstrating that previous perceptions of older people as impoverished and immobile are not representative of this group. This study contributes to the demand for more information on older consumers׳ food shopping habits and preference in Scotland. It attempts to provide useful recommendations for supermarkets and food retailers in fulfilling the needs of this rising consumer segment. This research concludes that supermarkets could improve access to both products and services to meet the demand from this growing segment of society, through better understanding of their requirements in terms of customer service, shopping experience, product size, price, access and mobility.     

Don't ignore the floor: Exploring multisensory atmospheric congruence between music and flooring in a retail environment

In retail environments, consumers commonly evaluate products while standing on some type of flooring and concurrently being exposed to music; however, no study has examined the interaction of these two atmospheric cues. To bridge this gap, this research examines whether retailers can benefit from creating multisensory atmospheric congruent rather than incongruent retail environments of flooring and music. The results of an experiment in a real retail store reveal positive effects of multisensory congruent retail environments (e.g., soft music combined with soft flooring) on product evaluations. This study provides a new process explanation with consumers’ purchase‐related self‐confidence mediating these effects. Specifically, consumers in congruent rather than incongruent retail environments experience more purchase‐related self‐confidence, which in turn leads to more favorable product evaluations. Furthermore, this study shows that consumers with a low rather than a high preference for haptic information are influenced more by multisensory atmospheric congruence when evaluating a product haptically.     

The Role of Retail Competition,Demographics and Account Retail Strategy as Drivers of Promotional Sensitivity

We study the determinants of sensitivity to the promotional activities of temporary price reductions, displays, and feature advertisements. Both the theoretical and empirical literatures on price promotions suggest that retailer competition and the demographic composition of the shopping population should be linked to response to temporary price cuts. However, datasets that span different market areas have not been used to study the role of retail competition in determining price sensitivity. Moreover, little is known about the determinants of display and feature response. Very little attention has been focused on retailer strategic decisions such as price format (EDLP vs. Hi-Lo) or size of stores. We assemble a unique dataset with all U.S. markets and all major retail grocery chains represented in order to investigate the role of retail competition, account retail strategy, and demographics in determining promotional response. Previous work has not simultaneously modeled response to price, display, and feature promotions, which we do in a Bayesian Hierarchical model. We also allow for retailers in the same market to have correlated sales response equations through a variance component specification. Our results indicate that retail strategic variables such as price format are the most important determinants of promotional response, followed by demographic variables. Surprisingly, we find that variables measuring the extent of retail competition are not important in explaining promotional response.     

天津市珠宝首饰零售业状况及消费市场浅析

天津市珠宝首饰经销企业 ,已达 130余家 ,从所有制结构来看 ,既有国有、合资及独资珠宝金店 ,也有少量个体珠宝店 ,经营规模相差较大。经销足金、铂金、K金、K金镶嵌首饰、铂金镶嵌首饰、玉饰、玉器、珍珠饰品、银饰品及仿真饰品等多品种、多档次首饰。在实地调查与问卷调查的基础上 ,就目前天津市珠宝首饰零售业状况及消费市场作一分析和探讨。     

Preference for a career in retailing: a question of personality

Drawing on previous findings from the field of brand personality research and employer branding, this paper aims to explore the symbolic attributes of the retail industry image in South Africa and to identify those personality traits that distinguish preferred industries from the retail industry. The research provides a contemporary overview of the current image of the retail industry in South Africa from the perspective of young university students and allows retailers to strengthen their joint communication effort accordingly. Therefore, a quantitative survey study with 1426 participants from five South African universities was conducted. Participants assessed personality characteristics of the retail industry as well as their most preferred industry. The main results suggest that retail and non-retail students hold different personality perceptions of the retail industry and that prior retail involvement accounts for this difference to some extent. Moreover, the analysis shows that retailing performs significantly worse on those personality attributes that are of major importance for future job seekers. Additionally, the study identifies those attributes that exert a strong effect on students’ preferences for the retail industry. The findings provide useful communication themes for educational institutions, retail companies, and industry associations in order to foster positive personality perceptions associated with the retail industry.     

Is Africa integrating? Evidence from product markets

This paper presents a price-based assessment of product market integration in Africa using disaggregated retail prices for 91 products and 12 African cities from 1991 to 2008. We find evidence of substantial deviations from the law of one price ? product price differences between the cities averaged 76% over the period – a result that is consistent with the presence of large barriers to trade in the continent. Mean price differences across cities fell by close to a quarter over the period, but the decline was concentrated in the early 1990s with little progress subsequently, despite the regional trade policies implemented by the countries. Gravity-style estimates reveal that reductions in external tariffs and global trends towards price convergence in the early 1990s are the key contributors to the trend in price integration amongst the African cities.     

Factors affecting donations in U.S. retail stores: A conceptual framework

The purpose of this study is to identify the factors that influence consumer donations in U.S. retail stores. The study provides a conceptual framework of factors derived from the cause-related marketing, consumer behavior and psychology literatures. These factors are categorized as consumer-related factors, retailer-related factors and context-related factors. Consumer-related factors include consumer-retailer identification, consumer-cause affinity, impure altruism, civic engagement and post-purchase cognitive dissonance. Retailer-related factors consist of retailer-cause fit, retailer's commitment to the cause, retailer image as being altruistic, and retailer credibility. Context-related factors include time pressure, social pressure, shopping amount, and perceived savings during the shopping trip. This conceptual framework serves as a foundation for future empirical studies.     

餐饮业在吉林省经济发展中的重要作用

餐饮业是满足人们对饮食方面需求的行业。“民以食为天”。餐饮业的快速发展满足了人们对吃好、喝好的要求,提高了人们的生活质量和消费水平,同时也促进了农业、农产品加工业、旅游业和会展业的发展。     

关于我国连锁企业供应链管理的研究

详细分析了供应链管理引发连锁企业内部管理巨大变化的两种表现和供应链管理对连锁企业构建竞争优势的积极作用。在此基础上,提出了推进我国连锁企业实施供应链管理的两种主要策略。     

Does Store Brand Patronage Improve Store Patronage?

Review of Industrial Organization - We investigate the relationship between a household's store brandpatronage and store patronage through its impact on store revenuesand profits. The nature of...