The Economics Of Retailing And Distribution

This Handbook explores and critically examines current research in economics and marketing science on key issues in retailing and distribution. Providing a rich perspective for the discussion of public policy, contributions from several disciplines and continents range from the history of chains and the impact of multinational retailers on international trade patterns to US merger policy in the retail context, the rise of the Internet, and consumer-to-consumer sales. The chapters address methodological issues such as the structural estimation of entry games between retailers, productivity measurement when both inputs and output are not fully observable, and demand estimation with variable assortment. Policy issues explored include mergers, zoning, and the regulation of buyer power, while other chapters address some of the recent exciting developments in technology, retail formats, and data availability. The book goes on to study the changes in online retailing and ‘big data’, and to examine competition in specific retail sectors including gasoline stations, automobile dealerships, supermarkets, and ‘big box’ retail. This state-of-the-art Handbook is an essential reference for students and academics of economics and marketing science, and offers an outsider’s perspective to specialists in operations research, data analytics, geography, and sociology.

This book should become a standard reference in the field. . . It combines rigorous modeling with sophisticated econometrics and includes telling examples to illustrate general principles. Dennis C. Mueller, University of Vienna, Austria This book provides a uniform and coherent approach to the analysis of distribution systems in general and retail systems in particular. It develops the fundamentals of retail demand and supply, and demonstrates how the provision of distribution services is a principal determinant of economic outcomes in retail exchanges for both retailers and their customers, as well as for other agents such as suppliers and franchisors. The author integrates the existing literature with new applications to provide novel insights into the multi-product nature of retailing, the service aspects of packaging, and the evolution of retail formats such as supermarkets, non-store retailers (including the Internet) and shopping centers. He illustrates how the complementarity that underlies retail activities leads to lower average prices for customers. This integrative process also brings out the role of distribution services as mechanisms to exercise economic power. This is evident not only in channels of distribution but in the evolution of Wal-Mart and the development of franchise contracts. The author also identifies the crucial differences between the retailing of goods and the retailing of services. This impressive volume skilfully integrates conceptual, theoretical and empirical research to analyse critical issues in the economics of retailing and distribution. It will be required reading for academics and professional economists interested in industrial organization, marketing, applied microeconomics and business.

Excerpt from The Economics of Retailing This book aims to present fact material and to suggest constructive thought on the subject of retail distribution. It does not tell how to get rich quick at retailing. It presents but little theory and advocates no particular or special method of doing the work of the retail store. Its purpose is to describe the retail business as it is, and to point out the broad lines along which retailing progress is being made. In this work the attempt has been made to reduce the knowledge about retailing to teachable form, and to make it usable alike to the ambitious, thinking man already in business and to the student who desires to gain an intimate insight into this interesting as well as important field of human work. Except in fragmentary form, there has been but little written upon which the writer could build. The effort has been made, with what success the reader must judge, to bring together in one volume a summary of the best thought so far expressed; but much of the material presented is the result of the writer's own observation and experience in the retail business, and of what he has gathered in conference with over a thousand retail store managers and salespeople who were students in his classes in retail methods during the years 1909 to 1915. Every part of the work has been tested by presentation to groups of people engaged in the retail business. Every point has been held up to the standard of practicability. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Excerpt from The Economics of Retailing This book aims to present fact material and to suggest constructive thought on the sub j ect of retail distribution. It does not tell how to get rich quick at retailing. It pre sents but little theory and advocates no particular or special method of doing the work of the retail store. Its purpose is to describe the retail business as it is, and to point out the broad lines along which retailing progress is being made. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

First published in 1971, The Economics of the Distributive Trades is a comprehensive analysis of all sectors of the British retailing sector, written by the then-head of the Research Department of the John Lewis Partnership. Using economic statistics and modelling, Patrick McAnally examines the the full range of the retailing business, from output to competition, pricing, assortment and transport to location, staff and finance, and in doing so provides an invaluable snapshot of the state of the distributive trades at the end of the Sixties. First published 1971.

First published in 1971, The Economics of the Distributive Trades is a comprehensive analysis of all sectors of the British retailing sector, written by the then-head of the Research Department of the John Lewis Partnership. Using economic statistics and modelling, Patrick McAnally examines the the full range of the retailing business, from output to competition, pricing, assortment and transport to location, staff and finance, and in doing so provides an invaluable snapshot of the state of the distributive trades at the end of the Sixties. First published 1971.