Seit Jahrzehnten ist der Lebensmitteleinzelhandel von einem Strukturwandel hin zu weniger und größeren Geschäften gekennzeichnet. Gerade in kleineren Orten ländlicher Räume bestehen daher Probleme, die Versorgung mit Gütern des täglichen Bedarfs in fußläufiger Entfernung, das heißt die...

Nach nur leichten Umsatzausweitungen in den letzten Jahren konnte der Lebensmitteleinzelhandel im Jahr 2000 bei günstigerem Konsumklima ein nominales Umsatzwachstum von 2,6% erzielen. Zum Jahreswechsel 2000/2001 kam es im Gefolge der Lebensmittelskandale allerdings zu einem Umsatzeinbruch, von...

This paper analyzes the effect of competition on a supermarket firm’s incentive to provide product quality. In the supermarket industry, product availability is an important measure of quality. Using U.S. consumer price index microdata to track inventory shortfalls, I find that stores facing...

This paper empirically examines the impact of entry by Wal-Mart on competition in the supermarket industry. Using a detailed panel dataset spanning 1994 to 2006, we estimate the impact of Wal-Mart on firm outcomes and market structure, controlling for persistent local trends and systematic...

This paper examines the evolution of the supermarket industry, from the birth of the chain store concept in the early 1900s to the recent rise of the Wal-Mart supercenter. The central message is that the major themes relevant today (the importance of scale and standardization, technological...

Unlike most retrospective merger studies that only focus on price effects, we also estimate the impact of a merger on product variety. We use an original dataset on Dutch supermarkets to assess the effect of a merger that was conditionally approved by the Dutch Competition Authority (ACM) on...

This paper measures the impact of the entry of large supermarkets on incumbents of various sizes. Contrary to the conventional notion that big stores drive small rivals out of the market, data from Tokyo in the 1990s show that large supermarkets' entry induces the exit of existing large and...

I use a unique data set of retail food prices to analyze mergers between supermarket chains. The data allow for an examination of the effects of mergers on prices, the frequency of promotions, and the depth of promotions. I find that increases in a chain's share of the total US food sales are...

This study estimates the price effects of horizontal mergers in the U.S. grocery retailing industry. We examine fourteen regions affected by mergers including both highly concentrated and relatively unconcentrated markets. We identify price effects by comparing markets affected by mergers to...

Supermarkets play a limited but increasingly important role in Latin-America groceries retail markets. Traditional grocery retailers still play a substantial role in most Latin American countries and the penetration of supermarkets is still behind the developed countries. Paradoxically, within...