Geodemographic and socioeconomic characterization of the retail attraction of leading hypermarket chains in Spain

This paper aims at examining the impact on demand of the competitive positioning strategies developed by the leading hypermarket chains in Spain. Specifically, the purpose is to carry out a geodemographic and socieconomic characterization of the potential consumers of each chain. As retail attraction has traditionally been divided into three components, distance, mass and image, a gravitational model is proposed which distinguishes them and facilitates the evaluation of existing differences across any a priori segmentation base. The empirical test identifies significant geodemographic differences in the retail attraction of hypermarket chains. Chains seem to target the whole market by developing an image balanced against the advantages and disadvantages derived from the spatial coverage strategy. Social class is not as good an indicator of hypermarket choice as expected, although some interesting patterns have been detected.