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Background In response to public concerns and campaigns, some United Kingdom supermarkets have implemented policies to reduce less-healthy food at checkouts. We explored the effects of these policies on purchases of less-healthy foods commonly displayed at checkouts. Methods and findings We used a natural experimental design and two data sources providing complementary and unique information. We analysed data on purchases of small packages of common, less-healthy, checkout foods (sugary confectionary, chocolate, and potato crisps) from 2013 to 2017 from nine UK supermarkets (Aldi, Asda, Co-op, Lidl, M&S, Morrisons, Sainsbury's, Tesco, and Waitrose). Six supermarkets implemented a checkout food policy between 2013 and 2017 and were considered intervention stores; the remainder were comparators. Firstly, we studied the longitudinal association between implementation of checkout policies and purchases taken home. We used data from a large (n [almost equal to] 30,000) household purchase panel of food brought home to conduct controlled interrupted time series analyses of purchases of less-healthy common checkout foods from 12 months before to 12 months after implementation. We conducted separate analyses for each intervention supermarket, using others as comparators. We synthesised results across supermarkets using random effects meta-analyses. Implementation of a checkout food policy was associated with an immediate reduction in four-weekly purchases of common checkout foods of 157,000 (72,700-242,800) packages per percentage market share-equivalent to a 17.3% reduction. This decrease was sustained at 1 year with 185,100 (121,700-248,500) fewer packages purchased per 4 weeks per percentage market share-equivalent to a 15.5% reduction. The immediate, but not sustained, effect was robust to sensitivity analysis. Secondly, we studied the cross-sectional association between checkout food policies and purchases eaten without being taken home. We used data from a smaller (n [almost equal to] 7,500) individual purchase panel of food bought and eaten 'on the go'. We conducted cross-sectional analyses comparing purchases of common checkout foods in 2016-2017 from supermarkets with and without checkout food policies. There were 76.4% (95% confidence interval 48.6%-89.1%) fewer annual purchases of less-healthy common checkout foods from supermarkets with versus without checkout food policies. The main limitations of the study are that we do not know where in the store purchases were selected and cannot determine the effect of changes in purchases on consumption. Other interventions may also have been responsible for the results seen. Conclusions There is a potential impact of checkout food polices on purchases. Voluntary supermarket-led activities may have public health benefits., Author(s): Katrine T. Ejlerskov 1, Stephen J. Sharp 1, Martine Stead 2, Ashley J. Adamson 3, Martin White 1, Jean Adams 1,* Introduction In most industrialised countries, large supermarket chains [...]

This paper proposes and tests a model of supermarket competition based upon an endogenous fixed cost (EFC) framework (Sutton, J. Sunk Cost and Market Structure: Price Competition, Advertising, and the Evolution of Concentration. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1991.). The relevance of the EFC framework to supermarket competition stems from the industry's surprisingly uniform competitive structure: irrespective of the size of the local market, a small number of firms (between three and six) capture the majority of sales. As markets grow, local rivalry drives firms to expand their fixed investments, limiting the number of firms that can profitably enter even the largest markets. Although markets stay concentrated, competition remains fierce, reflecting the inherently rivalrous nature of the underlying competitive mechanism. The goal of this paper is to identify the strategic focus of this rivalry, namely the drive to provide an ever greater variety of consumer products, and to eliminate alternative explanations for the observed structure by highlighting the unique form of firm conduct that characterizes this industry. (JEL D21, D43, L 11, L 13, L22, L81), I. INTRODUCTION This paper proposes and tests a model of the supermarket industry based upon endogenous fixed cost (EFC) framework (Sutton 1991). The relevance of the EFC framework to supermarket [...]

This paper describes and discusses a Plackett-Burman experiment aimed at increasing supermarket sales of a top-selling national magazine. The experiment involved 10 factors relating to in-store advertising and the location [...]

At the Price Chopper supermarket in Putnam, CT, right behind the pharmacy and next to the cough syrup and Tylenol, a 160-doctor medical group called ProHealth Physicians operates a glorified [...]

Byline: Pradeep K. Chintagunta (1), Jean-Pierre Dube (2), Vishal Singh (3) Keywords: price discrimination; customer welfare; demand modeling Abstract: We investigate the impact of price discrimination by a large Chicago supermarket chain. First we measure the impact of the chain's current zone-pricing policy on shelf prices, variable profits and consumer welfare across its stores. Using the chain's database to simulate a finer store-specific micro-pricing policy, we study the implications of this policy on profits and welfare. We show how a store-pricing policy that is constrained to offer consumers at least as much surplus as a uniform chain wide pricing policy still enables the retailer to generate substantial incremental profits. To ensure our pricing problem exhibits a well-defined optimum, we use the parsimonious, mixed-logit demand function that allows for flexible substitution patterns across brands and also retains a link to consumer theory. We discuss the issue of price endogeneity when estimating the demand parameters with weekly store-level data. Standard instrumental variables techniques used to account for such endogeneity also seem to increase the magnitudes of own-price elasticities thereby offsetting the problem encountered by previous researchers of predicted prices from a demand model exceeding those in the actual data. Author Affiliation: (1) Graduate School of Business, University of Chicago, 1101 E. 58th Street, Chicago, IL, 60637, USA (2) Graduate School of Business, University of Chicago, 1101 East 58 Street, Chicago, IL, 60637 (3) Graduate School of Industrial Administration, Carnegie Mellon University, Schenley Park, Pittsburgh, PA, 15213 Article History: Registration Date: 17/10/2004

A paper examinijng the issue of corporate social responsibility in the UK supermarket industry is presented. The paper draws on previous research (Moore, 2001) that was based on a 4-measure financial performance index and a 16-point social performance index.

The comparison of corporate social performance with corporate financial performance has been a popular field of study over the past 25 years. The results, while broadly conclusive of a positive relationship, are not entirely consistent. In addition, most of the previous studies have concentrated on large-scale cross-industry studies and often with a single variable for corporate social performance, in order to produce statistically significant results. This weakens the richness of understanding that might be obtained from a single industry study with multiple social variables, which would also allow investigation of inter-relationships between individual and sub-sets of social performance measures and between individual and sub-sets of social performance and financial performance measures. There have also been criticisms that the results lack a rigorous theoretical basis, and the paper demonstrates clearly how stakeholder theory must form the basis for this area of research. Following a review of the literature this paper presents the initial findings from a study of the U.K. Supermarket industry which suggest that contemporaneous social and financial performance are negatively related, while prior-period financial performance is positively related with subsequent social performance. Positive relationships between both age and size of the company with social performance are also found. KEY WORDS: business-ethics, corporate-financial-performance, corporate-social-performance, corporate-social-responsibility, U.K.-supermarkets

Byline: JEONGWEN CHIANG (1), RONALD WILCOX (2) Keywords: cross-category analysis; retailing; shelf space Abstract: Retailers' allocation of shelf space as well as the breadth of varietyoffered varies across categories. Many researchers have developedheuristics for determining what retailers should do with regard tothese decisions. We explore how these constructs are actually relatedin practice. We utilize data obtained from Marsh Supermarkets, a largeIndianapolis-based grocery retailer, to explore the relationshipsbetween these variables. The results of this analysis are a set of rawfacts concerning the relationship between some of grocery retailers'more important category-level decisions. Author Affiliation: (1) Department of Marketing, John M. Olin School of Business, Washington University, One Brookings Drive, St, Louis, MO, 63130 (2) Department of Marketing, Graduate School of Industrial Administration, Carnegie Mellon University, Schenley Park, Pittsburgh, PA, 15213-3890 Article History: Registration Date: 20/09/2004

The growing impact of globally sourcing fresh produce on supermarket chains is examined. North American and European chains are considered for the study as emphasis is given on the fresh produce supplier market for New Zealand. It is shown that the relationships involving the chains can be described in terms of systemic power, where a market agent has the ability to influence the whole system of other agents.