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Past research has shown that consumers believe there is a strong relationship between price and quality; they also believe there is a strong relationship between brand and quality. Therefore, when comparing similar pieces of apparel, items with a designer brand or a higher price are perceived, by most customers, to be of higher quality. The purpose of this study was to compare the pricing and quality of identical designer merchandise sold in department stores and manufacturers’ outlet stores. The researchers found no significant differences in the quality of apparel sold in the two retail formats; however, there was a significant difference in the price. The department store merchandise was 31 per cent higher in price than the outlet store merchandise.

Examines the influence of several size‐related factors on retail management′s choice of the organization′s functional division structure and multiunit operating system based on data collected from a sample of retail department store personnel managers in the United States. Suggests that the retail organization′s size and the number of functional divisions employed are directly related. After nearly two‐thirds of a century, department stores continue to use the basic functional‐division organization developed by Paul Mazur which has been modified into a model that includes: merchandising, publicity and promotion, store operations, finance and control, and personnel. The study further reveals a link between the organization′s size and retail management′s choice of a multiunit operating system. Implications are provided to assist management in evaluating the appropriateness of the firm′s functional division structure and operating system in response to several key factors.

Time was when the lot of the department store was not a happy one. Its glorious past contrasted unhappily with its demise, and until recently, it seemed that the department store had only one fate: to comply with the laws of gravity. However, the results of an URPI workshop, “Planning for Department Stores” seemed to note the beginning of a recovery. The response to this apparently unprecedented move — a workshop about department stores and their particular planning needs — was very well attended and the results were optimistic. The main points of the conference concerned the problems of attracting a department store into town centres, something of importance to local authorities who are facing pressure for these stores from public attitude surveys. Of course, the department stores themselves are equally concerned with finding suitable sites. A report on the findings and papers held at the workshop have been published by the Unit for Retail Planning Information (URPI UIO), Victoria House, 26 Queen Victoria Street, Reading RG1 1TG, Price £6.40 to members and £10.90 to non‐members.

The purpose of this study is to identify grey consumers' perceived service quality at department stores and to examine the relationships between perceived service quality, their satisfaction and loyalty to those stores.

A structured questionnaire was developed to collect the data. Factor analysis was employed to identify dimensions of grey consumers' perceived service quality. Multiple regression analyses were conducted to examine the relationships between grey consumers' perceived service quality at department stores and their satisfaction and loyalty behaviors at those stores.

Three service quality dimensions were identified. The results showed that all three service quality dimensions in the study were significantly and positively related to their satisfaction at their favorite department stores and overall loyalty behavior to those stores. Among three service quality dimensions, personal interaction was the strongest predictor of both grey consumers' satisfaction and overall loyalty behavior. Personal interaction was identified as the most significant factor for promoting positive word of mouth and store image for repeat purchase intention.

With this study, department stores' managers would be able to better understand grey consumers and thereby take advantage of the potential purchasing opportunities of this powerful consumer market. This study also may contribute to the department stores' management in allocating their resources to improve service in a more effective way to satisfy grey consumers.

Despite the increasing purchasing potential this powerful market has created, grey consumers' shopping behavior is under‐researched and their needs are still unmet in the market place.

Fashion retailing has evolved in response to opportunities and market pressures. It has been both reactive and proactive. For example, Palmer, in 2001, analyses what might be called a partnership between Canadian department stores and European couture houses in the 1950s. Her work affords a rare overview of retailing's fit with fashion design and commercial delivery systems, and is a point of departure for closely examining an earlier period (1880‐1920) in Australia. The current paper studies the leading role that department stores played in shaping the Australian fashion scene and the marketing techniques they used. A context, period and country, where a set of major retailers formed the predominant influence on fashion trends, and styles and diffusion throughout the community have been identified. Findings suggest that for the 1880‐1920 period the department store retailers were market‐driving rather than simply market‐driven, implying a more proactive and innovative role for the department stores.

To understand the impact of product specificity on organizational practices of retailers at the store level.

An Aokian framework is used that enables one to discriminate between food products according to their informational properties, and to connect these properties with organizational choices of centralization/decentralization.

Emphasizes the existing tension between the dominant “assimilation” organization pattern and the “encapsulation” pattern which fits better in with some specific product departments.

Proposals are confronted with empirical data coming from professional press and experts interviews. Further empirical research is needed to consolidate the findings.

The paper points out the need to differentiate the management of departments according to their product specificity.

The paper stresses the impact of product specificity on department organization. It can be useful for the design of organizational mechanisms: work organization, incentives and career paths.

The purpose of this paper is to better understand the unique competitive positioning characteristics of off-price retailers and how they compare to other types of retailers. The authors compare off-price and upscale off-price retailers with four major formats of retailers: first, discount department store/warehouse club retailers; second, moderate department store retailers; third, department store retailers; and finally, specialty department store retailers.

The paper employs a representative sample that was randomly drawn from four primary metropolitan cities in the USA. The data were collected using telephone interviews by a prominent, marketing research firm. A series of discriminant analyses were conducted to examine the data.

The findings of the paper indicate that the off-price formats were consistently positioned at extreme points along the price/value continuum, signifying the strongest value-orientation among the other retail formats. The authors also found that while the upscale off-price format followed the specialty department stores in terms of fashion. The results point to an important disadvantage of the off-price format – although strong on price/value, they often fall short on fashion and many other store attributes that may be important to luxury-oriented customers.

The paper employed a sample from several cities collected using a telephone interview methodology within the US. Due to these limitations, the findings of this paper may be hampered by this methodology and not generalize to regions outside of the US. Future research should examine how the demise of most of the upscale off-price retailers and growth of flash web sites have changed the competitive structure of retailing.

The results demonstrate that the positioning of the off-price retail format is unique from other formats. The retail formats occupy distinct positions. The off-price retail format is strongly associated with the price/value position but only moderately fashionable to customers, especially when compared with the department and specialty department store formats. In contrast, the upscale off-price format, while also strongly positioned along the price/value continuum, is considered much more fashionable than the off-price retail format. In fact, the upscale off-price retail format only trails the specialty department store format in terms of fashion.

The unique characteristics of the off-price retail format and growing interest from upscale department stores underscores the need for a comprehensive understanding of the motives of the off-price shopper. This paper provides retailers with a more complete understanding of the store attributes that differentiate the off-price retail format from other major retail store formats. The overall objective of this study is to offer a comprehensive view of the positioning of off-price retailers compared with many alternative retail formats.

Focusing on the early development of the three major forms of local advertising employed by independent department stores across the USA – newspapers, radio, and television – this paper examines continuity in the industry's commercial use of new technologies.

The research draws on different types of primary sources, including department store financial records and correspondence, retailing trade literature, industry publications, newspaper advertisements, and radio advertisement transcripts.

The local and regional markets of the independent department store, and to some extent, department store chains, required local advertising, something best served by newspapers in the period under study. While many retailers embrace the commercial potential of radio and television as they appear in the 1920s and late 1930s, respectively, others are reluctant to divert their advertising budget away from newspapers. Trade writers for the department store industry and radio and television reveal tension between the National Retail Dry Goods Association, with its progressive orientation and professionalizing goals, and the more traditional merchants these experts are trying to modernize. The paper also suggests, perhaps as a subject for future research, that as radio and television lost their local orientation and became increasingly commercialized and national, independent department store advertising would not have been able to compete with department store chains.

Although much has been written about national advertising, cultural, and business historians have conducted little research on local advertising, the type typically employed by independent department stores. This paper provides an introduction to the three major advertising formats most often used by independent department stores as each medium first emerged as a potential selling tool.

Over the years, department stores have dealt with unique challenges, including massive changes in city and then suburban landscapes and shopping patterns, shifts in consumer preferences, and, more recently, electronic commerce. The purpose of this paper is to discuss additional community-oriented marketing approaches for department stores.

The approach looks at the role of traditional department stores in communities and their economic impact and uses ideas from a variety of community-based mobile services, including medical, food and library outreach.

The findings are that the importance of physical retailers such as department stores to a community deserves further consideration by civic and business leaders and that a variety of services and products have been successfully marketed in communities through additional approaches such as mobile units.

The approaches presented could enhance community development.

While department stores have held distinctive places in many cities, these enterprises lack the type of regional fan base that advocates actively for other kinds of industries. A community-oriented marketing approach for department stores is discussed, with ideas for future research that could build on these stores’ special brand attributes and on their contributions to the viability of an area.

The early decades of the twentieth century witnessed a significant transformation in managerial control practices within the US department store. New principles of scientific management, already employed on the factory floor, were now implemented on the retail “shop floor”. The purpose of this paper is to provide insights into this transition by examining three such scientific management initiatives introduced by store management during this era. The paper draws on a number of sources in its historical examination of early department store scientific management initiatives. These include archival records, published literature of the era, and particularly the proceedings of meetings of the annual Controllers Congress of the National Retail Dry Goods Association (US). The paper finds how notions of the rationality of science reined over such store operations as inventory valuation, credit control and overhead expense allocation. Traditional positions of power were recast and new managerial roles created in the name of science. The paper illustrates the insights that can be gained from an examination of scientific management practices in an alternative arena to the factory floor. Further historical research in the area of retail management may prove productive not only for our understanding of this site but also our knowledge of the process by which new managerial initiatives become assimilated. The study of the managerial practices of such vast organizational forms proves fruitful not only for the history scholar. Given the centrality of the department store in the creation of a contemporary culture of consumption, such examination becomes all the more insightful.