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The purpose of this research is to examine the relationship of older Generation Y (Gen Y) customers' (18‐27) shopping orientations to their expectations for retail services. It also seeks to assess the importance and impact of service expectations and perceptions on customer satisfaction and loyalty when shopping for apparel in different types of retail outlets.

Three different retail settings (department, specialty, and discount stores) were examined with parallel lists of retail service‐related questions using a convenience sample of older Gen Y female customers. Descriptive analysis, exploratory factor analysis, F‐tests, and regression analysis were employed.

Shopping orientations were related to older Gen Y customers' expectations for retail services and patronage in all three apparel retail settings. The modified SERVQUAL scale represented one grand service construct in each retail setting. Older Gen Y customers' expectations for service differed by store type, and their service expectations, service perceptions, and service quality were related to retailer satisfaction and store loyalty.

Generalizability of findings may be limited as the study was conducted with female older Gen Y customers shopping for a singular apparel category.

This study illuminates how retail services create value and satisfaction for older Gen Y customers. Results aid in development of service strategies and training programs by type of store outlet.

The study contributes to the scant literature concerning service quality and service expectations for female older Gen Y customers.

The United States drug store industry is expanding in both sales volume and store count. The most significant market forces shaping these trends are demographic characteristics, economic fundamentals and competitive formats. Demographically, the deceleration of population growth, the ageing of the population and the lifestyles of “baby boomers” are the most significant factors impacting on drug store performance. Limited new shopping centre construction, continued bankruptcies and acquisitions, and consumer concentration on price are the near term economic forces at work in the industry. Competitively, pressure is being applied from outside the industry by the addition of prescription departments in supermarkets and discount department stores. Internally, large discount drug stores have become a new merchandising force. These trends appear to favour the continued growth of well‐capitalised drug store chains that focus on a health and personal care image and emphasise convenience

The Korean government has played an important role in the development of the domestic retailing industry. Korean manufacturers were nurtured until they were able to compete with manufacturers throughout the world. Korean retailers are now caught in the domestic market between the powerful Korean manufacturers and foreign retail competitors who have themselves learned to be competitive by going head to head with world‐class retailers. Manufacturers, rather than retailers, have dominated the Korean distribution industry. Korean retailing is characterized by large department stores owned by the chaebols, and small, inefficient family‐centered operations. In contrast to the department store’s decline in sales, the growth of discount stores is the strongest trend in Korean retailing. The government has chosen the manufacturing sector for aggressive development. The result has been a world competitive, export intensive manufacturing sector and a weak, inefficient retail sector. We use state as strategist in retailing (SSR) model to explain how dimensions and stages of government involvement affect retailing.

This paper examines the Scotch whisky market in Thai department stores over a two‐year period and shows their importance to Thai retailing. The paper then finds that the category behaves as both a fast moving consumer goods market and as a luxury market. Product movement is rapid when compared to other luxury good categories and there is some evidence of discounting. The data, derived from a sample of weekly sales through 25 department stores over two years, show differences in distribution, merchandising, and pricing strategy across different chains. The paper concludes by looking at the potential causes of profit differences across these chains.

US retail executives' perspectives of the future of apparel retailing were explored in this study. Data were collected through personal interviews conducted at the 1996 National Retail Federation (NRF) Convention in New York City. Current and future changes in demographic, consumer behavioural and technological trends impacting apparel retailing were studied; current challenges in the apparel retailing field were discussed and future business strategies were recommended. Respondents' predictions include the emergence of a new competitive culture focused on the development of unique products and business strategies beyond price‐based retail competition. Retail executives recommend the development of niche markets and strong product development programmes. Based on study results, implications for retail practitioners and researchers are discussed with relevant hypotheses inductively generated from study findings. The research was funded, in part, by the Graduate Student Research Fund, College of Family and Consumer Sciences, Iowa State University.

Three basic approaches to retail institutional change can be discerned in the last 30 years. The first contends that institutional evolution is a function of developments in the socio‐economic environment. The second argues that change occurs in a cyclical fashion. The third considers inter‐institutional conflict to be the mainspring of retail change. None of those approaches is found to be entirely satisfactory, and a series of combination theories has been posited. It is argued that regional institutional change is the result of environmental forces and a cycle‐like sequence of inter‐institutional conflict.

A blurring of distinctions among stores and consumers in a changing market‐place has broad ramifications for retailers, manufacturers, and wholesalers. In this paper we will first examine how stores are becoming alike, using a strategic tool to identify problems and anticipate competitive response. Second, we will see how several retail leaders have not fallen into a mold but have been able to differentiate, diversify, and grow. Next, we will consider the implications of the wholesale/warehouse club as a new stage in the evolution of retailing and wholesaling. Finally, we will examine manufacturers' concerns in coping with rapid retail evolution.

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.

Traditional competition across apparel store types reflects the dynamics of market positioning in practice. Previous research found that apparel related purchases accounted for over half of the money rural consumers spent out of town. Research on apparel shopping intentions according to store types helps identify to what extent different retail formats compete with each other for customers and enables rural retailers to improve their positioning strategies. Results describe apparel shopping behaviour, in rural population, relative to store type and variables influencing consumers’ shopping intentions. Factors influencing consumers’ shopping choices among different apparel retail formats are identified. Descriptive statistics indicated most apparel shoppers frequented independently owned stores and cross‐shop among retail formats. When store categories were created, data revealed that the retail format category department, discount, and chain stores attracted more customers than the other retail format categories.

One of the more engrossing facets of marketing in the United States is the metamorphosis of retail institutional form. For well over 100 years, many historians and marketers have been fascinated by the successful entry of new types of retail organisations into the market and the gradual demise of the old. This interest has resulted in an extensive literature describing these changes and, in more recent years, a succession of theories to explain the process.