Editorial

Citation

Fernie, J. (2008), "Editorial", International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, Vol. 36 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijrdm.2008.08936aaa.001

Editorial

Editorial

Welcome to our first issue of 2008 which features papers from authors based in the USA and Spain.

Our first paper is by Jason Carpenter of the University of South Carolina and investigates the patronage motives of US supercenter consumers. Based on a sample survey generated from Retail Forward data, he shows that supercenter shoppers tend to be younger than the US average with lower incomes and larger households. Not surprisingly, they seek value for money with a preference for named brands in health/beauty and electronics categories compared with the apparel/home furnishings categories.

The paper by Susan Sampson continues the theme of “big box” retailing in the USA. In contrast to the Carpenter paper, Sampson undertakes a longitudinal study of large store formats in the USA over a 17-year period. The results show that by 1996, all sectors were dominated by large store formats although the home furnishings and electronics sectors were laggards in terms of development. Furthermore, the nature of competition in recent years has forced some market leaders to rationalise their store portfolios and even open smaller format stores.

Myron Gable, Susan Fiorito and Martin Topol discuss customer retail loyalty programmes implemented by retailers in the SE of the USA. Members of a state-wide association provided co-operation to carry out a questionnaire to its membership. The questionnaire elicited responses on the nature of their loyalty programmes and the benefits to customers. Follow up telephone calls were made to glean more detail on the specific components of loyalty programmes. The research shows that a mixture of hard benefits (financial incentives) and soft benefits (thank you notes to customers) were used by retailers. From this work, a model was developed for retailers who had formed loyalty programmes.

Our final two papers are from Spain, Monica Gómez and Natalia Rubio discuss manufacturers' perceptions of retailers' actions with regard to shelf space management of store versus manufacturers' brands. Questionnaires were sent to 801 companies representing the mass commodity markets of food, drink, personal hygiene and home cleaning; 161 valid responses were received. The research confirmed much of the evidence in the literature that store brands are beginning to increase their shelf space allocation in Spanish supermarkets. It is clear that manufacturers view their role as a passive one in that some store brands are allocated a disproportionate amount of space in relation to their potential sales. However, the production of sub brands is undertaken for different reasons according to the relative market strength of the manufacturer.

The final paper by Justo de Jorge Moreno discusses hypermarket efficiency in the Spanish retail sector. After giving a background to retail regulations around the world, he studies the influence of the Retail Trade Act 1996 on hypermarket efficiency. Using a DEA model and applying it to 234 Spanish hypermarkets, he shows that there is an inverse relationship between regulation and efficiency whereby lower regulation promotes greater efficiency.

John Fernie