Replaced with revised version of paper 12/16/10.

The Retail Food Industry Center established the Supermarket Panel in 1998 as the basis for ongoing study of the supermarket industry. The Panel is comprised of individual stores that provide information annually on store characteristics, operations, and performance. The Panel has two overall...

Based on interviews with retail food store managers and a subsequent survey, this paper traces the pathways that spawn competence acquisition in the retail food industry. It finds that having an essential capability for learning, that is, obtaining new ideas, concepts, methods, tends to breed...

Increased concentration in ownership of retail and wholesale food companies in the United States naturally leads to the question "How does concentration of ownership affect consumers?" Does it lead to higher or lower food prices, better or worse service, more or less choice between stores and...

This paper contains two chapters related to changes in retail food delivery and sales. The first discusses trends in consumer demographics and lifestyles and how these continue to drive changes in the way food is prepared and delivered to consumers. Retail stores are responding with new formats:...

The Supermarket Panel collects data annually from individual supermarkets on store characteristics, operations, and performance. It was established in 1998 by the Food Industry Center as the basis for ongoing study of the supermarket industry. The Panel is unique because the unit of analysis is...

As the practice of a firm in one country owning production facilities in another has increased, several theories have developed to explain why production facilities do not always have local owners who would presumably be more familiar with local business conditions. A transaction cost...

By 2010, foodservice establishments are projected to capture 53 percent of consumers' food expenditures, whereas in 1980, foodservice captured less than 40 percent. The foodservice industry accounts for approximately 4 percent of the Gross Domestic Product and about 11 million jobs. It has been...

Efficient Consumer Response (ECR) is an industry-wide, collaborative initiative to re-engineer the grocery supply chain. This report presents findings from a study of ECR adoption in Minnesota grocery stores. Data were collected through interviews with managers of forty stores that are broadly...

The demand for natural foods has been growing steadily over the past decade. As more mainstream grocers and investor-owned, natural food chains respond to this increased demand, the viability of local, independent natural food co-ops (TCNFCs) was used to assess organizational options. The study...