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This study attempted to explore the development of an industry‐specific, quantitative instrument for assessing the customer‐perceived service quality level of casual‐wear chain stores. It was the wish of the authors that this alternative approach would supplement existing generic measure instruments for assessing service quality when used in fashion retailing. Applications of the proposed instrument in fashion retailing were also discussed.

The purpose of this study is to compare the patrons of chain home centers and patrons of small hardware stores.

A questionnaire was administered to individuals residing in two adjacent metropolitan areas located in the US Midwest. Respondents were contacted via telephone and were asked to respond to questions addressing their hardware store/home center preferences and shopping activity.

Respondents' assessments of the importance of eight attributes relating to shopping experience were not able to differentiate between patrons of small hardware stores and patrons of large home centers. Furthermore, the type of hardware retailer that individuals most commonly patronize does not appear to affect their assessments of various types of hardware retailers stores nor the amount of time respondents spent during a typical visit to their most patronized home center/hardware store. Finally, the only demographic difference noted involved income – respondents who shopped most often at large home centers were found to have a significantly higher income than those who shopped most often at small hardware stores.

The results of this study indicate that, at least for the issues examined, there appears to be relatively little difference between the individuals who patronize chain home centers and those who patronize small hardware stores. Consequently, individuals' choices of hardware retailer to patronize appears to be more complex than anticipated.

The growth of chains in hardware retailing has not received the same degree of attention as chain stores in other areas of retailing.

The present paper compares the protests that CVS, a leading chain retailer, experienced as it attempted to establish a new drug‐store on the Upper West Side of New York City’s borough of Manhattan with those Walgreen, another major chain pharmacy, encountered as it attempted to enter a neighborhood shopping area in Madison, Wisconsin, a medium‐sized city in the mid‐western region of the USA. It finds that well‐educated, affluent residents in both locations believe that they should have input regarding the retail composition of local shopping areas, and that their resistance to new stores can be successful. It also reveals that such consumers may be protective of small retailers and may harbor strong anti‐chain‐store sentiments.

The purpose of this paper is to examine out‐of‐stock (OOS) challenges in the independent grocery sector with a special emphasis on in‐store root causes. The analysis aims to assess the extent and root causes for OOS in the independently controlled retail sector and provide a comparison of these results with the centrally controlled chain sector in Denmark. The paper also seeks to examine the practices and challenges of store ordering and store replenishment processes in the independent sector and identify practical implications for store management and other members of the grocery channels.

The research design includes two studies. Study‐I surveys and compares the extent and root causes of OOS of 42 stores from eight chains in the two sectors. Study‐II identifies, based on qualitative interviews with 17 store managers/owners of independent stores, specific insights on store operations.

The quantitative study shows that the OOS rates in the independent sector are significantly higher than in the centrally organized sector. Furthermore, the independent grocery sector faces OOS challenges in more categories than the centrally controlled sector. The study also reveals a very large variation in the performance of independent stores. Contrary to the centrally controlled chain store sector, the major root cause for OOS in the independent sector is found in the store ordering process. The qualitative study shows that the main discriminating issues between stores with a low and a high OOS rate are: store management emphasis and commitment to OOS issues; the resulting priority and managerial guidance in store ordering and store replenishment tasks; the stability of staff and the proper planning for replenishment peaks; the store size and resulting space conditions; and the use of appropriate decision heuristics and use of inventory in store ordering.

The findings have practical implications for store management as it reveals practices to pursue and to avoid. Also, it is argued that the findings have implications for the other members of the grocery channels.

Empirically, this paper explores two issues not being dealt with in depth in previous research, i.e. the OOS challenge in the independent sector and the emphasis on store operations.

The purpose of this paper is to explore and identify the causes of the failure of the Larkin Company (Buffalo, NY), once one of the nation's largest mail‐order houses in the decades surrounding 1900.

Borrowing conceptual frameworks from both recent management and historical scholarship on organizational failure that integrates exogenous and endogenous factors, this study employs traditional historical methods to explain the causes of Larkin's failure. The main primary sources include the Larkin Company records, government documents, personal papers, trade journals, and other primary sources.

Begun as a modest soap manufacturer by John D. Larkin, in Buffalo, in 1875, the Larkin Company grew to become one of the largest mail‐order houses in the USA in the decades surrounding 1900 owing to its innovative direct marketing practices, called the “factory‐to‐family” plan, that relied on unpaid women to distribute its products. In 1918, anticipating the chain store boom, Larkin established two grocery store chains (other retail ventures followed). The company regularly lost money in these ventures and, combined with a shrinking mail‐order economy, struggled during the 1920s and 1930s, and eventually liquidated in 1941‐1942. A number of exogenous and endogenous factors, acting alone and in various combinations, proved too challenging to second‐ and third‐generation family members who ran the company after 1926.

This research paper tries to understand the decline of an important progressive firm during the interwar period. Whereas Sears Roebuck and Montgomery Ward were able to make the transition from mail order to stores, Larkin Company failed to navigate this transition successfully. It also adds to the small but important literature in management and business history on organizational failure and may serve as a cautionary tale for family businesses.

The purpose of this paper is to appraise the spread of supermarkets in Canada during the mid‐twentieth century. It examines how corporate chains altered the organization of distribution, reconfigured shopping experiences, and promised gains realized through greater business volume.

The paper utilizes a mix of primary and secondary sources to compare how companies responded to opportunities for mass marketing that emerged in the post‐war era. The perspective is grounded in the theory of managerial capitalism, which was originally elaborated by Alfred D. Chandler.

The paper highlights how mass food retailing in Canada shared some attributes normally associated with the rise of managerial capitalism, but it also reviews the variations and highlights the difficulties faced by firms despite their jump to giant size. In particular, it stresses how the leading companies did not build secure positions.

Corporate archives in Canadian retailing either did not survive or remain inaccessible. The essay therefore draws upon a mix of sources including company publications and government investigations. The paper highlights the inability of companies to realize permanent gains commonly associated with large firm size or mass retailing. It stresses that there was no one “model” of corporate development.

This paper illustrates the complexities associated with developing strategic leadership in retailing and therefore should be valuable to educators and practitioners.

The objectives of this study were to demonstrate that the high-density 7-Eleven c-stores in Taiwan benefit from economies of scale in distribution and can, therefore, leverage the logistics costs; and to decide the proper locations for the future inauguration of c-stores.

The study spatially analysed the c-stores located in Tainan, Taiwan and examines the influence of spatial configuration on c-store revenue. This study developed models to quantify the revenue and logistics costs that the 7-Eleven convenience store (c-store) chain encountered when adopting a high-density expansion strategy. The revenue models’ parameters were calibrated utilizing data collected from financial statements in 7-Eleven chains’ 2015 corporate annual reports and modelling was used to quantify the influence of agglomeration forces and the distance separating c-stores on revenue.

Positive agglomeration forces increased 7-Eleven’s company-wide sales and the average daily revenue of its individual c-stores, and decreased those of competitors. The study findings demonstrate the high-density 7-Eleven c-stores in Tainan benefit from economies of scale in distribution and can, therefore, leverage their logistics costs. The spatial analysis concluded that higher-density and higher-revenue c-stores were spatially clustered.

The study extends the use of analytical revenue and spatial models to decide the proper locations for the future inauguration of c-stores.

An important phenomenon often observed in supply chain, known as the bullwhip effect, implies that demand variability increases as we move up in the supply chain. On the other hand, the cross-docking is a distribution strategy that eliminates the inventory holding function of the retailer distribution center, where this latter functions as a transfer point rather than a storage point. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the impact of cross-docking strategy compared to traditional warehousing on the bullwhip effect.

The authors quantify this effect in a three-echelon supply chain consisting of stores, retailer and supplier. They assume that each participant adopts an order up to level policy with an exponential smoothing forecasting scheme. This paper demonstrates mathematically the lower bound of the bullwhip effect reduction in the cross-docking strategy compared to traditional warehousing.

By simulation, this paper demonstrates that cross-docking reduces the bullwhip effect upstream the chain. This reduction depends on the lead-times, the review periods and the smoothing factor.

A mathematical demonstration cannot be highly generalizable, and this paper should be extended to an empirical investigation where real data can be incorporated in the model. However, the findings of this paper form a foundation for further understanding of the cross-docking strategy and its impact on the bullwhip effect.

This paper fills a gap by proposing a mathematical demonstration and a simulation, to investigate the benefits of implementing cross-docking strategy on the bullwhip effect. This impact has not been studied in the literature.

The purpose of this paper is to examine consumer behavior towards Greek convenience stores chains and to determine the criteria on which store selection is based. The paper also analyses the stores’ position in the retail sector.

A random sample of 360 convenience store consumers was surveyed across four major cities. Data were collected through personal interviews, using a structured questionnaire. Statistical analysis was applied to further evaluate the information.

Consumers choose convenience stores mainly to cover their daily needs and save time on shopping, despite their dissatisfaction with the provided services. The survey also identified the characteristics of convenience store customers and their preferences.

The principal contribution of the present research is its focus on consumer behavior towards convenience stores in Greece.

This paper aims to investigate the impact of acquisition and organic growth on the operating efficiency and total factor productivity change of retailing networks.

The assessment uses low-frequency data of newly opened stores and acquired stores of a large supermarket (S/M) network in Athens, for a period (financial year 2014) where the network began to refocus on its organic growth after a two-year period of deep recession (financial years 2012–2013). To evaluate the performance effects of both strategies, the authors employ the innovative benchmarking tool of bootstrap data envelopment analysis (DEA) for measuring operational efficiency and the Malmquist productivity index DEA approach for measuring productivity change over time.

The short-run evidence indicates that compared to organic growth, acquisitions lead to lower operating efficiency. However, this difference gradually converges over time as acquired stores show a higher rate of productivity compared to newly opened stores. The authors interpret this as a result of the smooth integration of the acquired chain store into the organizational structure of the existing store network given their significant similarities in terms of products and customers.

The authors inform managers of store chains that during the process of organic growth, a general improvement in efficiency takes place while in the case of acquisitions, the required post-acquisition streamlining actions cause a short delay on the realization of efficiency gains. Therefore, managers should not take it for granted that acquisitions cause a long-term decrease in efficiency.

The study contributes to the literature on growth strategies and retailing performance in general, by offering new evidence regarding the comparative effect of the horizontal growth modes on the efficiency of store chains.