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The internationalization of retailing is increasing throughout the global service markets. Among many retail formats, the discount store is one of the fastest growing formats actively engaging internationalization. In managing retail firms in other cultures, understanding of local customers’ perceptions toward the retail formats is especially important. Shopping motives may be a function of retail format, cultural, economic and social environment. Prior studies on shopping motives, however, have focused on Western cultures and on a shopping mall format. This study provides an exploratory examination of Korean discount shoppers’ shopping motives and their shopping typologies based on their shopping motives. A total of 624 questionnaires were administered to married female discount shoppers in Korea using the intercept survey method, and 467 completed questionnaires were available for data analysis. Factor analysis identified three shopping motives for patronizing discount stores: socialization, diversion and utilitarian. Four groups were identified using cluster analysis and labeled as leisurely‐motivated shoppers (n =152, 34.1 percent), socially‐motivated shoppers (n=49, 11.0 percent), utilitarian shoppers (n=132, 29.6 percent) and shopping‐apathetic shoppers (n=113, 25.3 percent). The four groups significantly differ in their appraisals of patronized store in some of store attributes, repatronage intention, and money spent in a shopping trip. Typologies of each cluster, discount retailing environments and managerial implications are discussed based on findings.

This study examines how various characteristics of the discount retail environment and the overall attitude towards a discount retail store, considered to be an abstract and global image component, influence consumers’ satisfaction and how consumers’ satisfaction, in turn, affects store loyalty. The data, collected from a sample of 517 discount retail customers in Daegu, Korea, indicate that: (1) forming the overall attitude is more closely related to in‐store services: atmosphere, employee service, after sales service and merchandising, (2) store satisfaction is formed through perceived store atmosphere and value, (3) the overall attitude has strong influence on satisfaction and loyalty and its impact is much stronger on loyalty than on satisfaction, (4) store loyalty is directly affected by most significantly location, merchandising and after sale service in order, (5) satisfaction is not related to customers’ committed store revisiting behavior. The applications in management and implications for future research are discussed.

The purpose of this paper is to determine the responses of women college students to discount stores and category killers in terms of the importance of seven‐store characteristics as well as their expectations for these attributes. Another purpose was to determine differences, if any, between these two store formats. Further the moderating variables of shopping frequency and orientation were introduced to determine if they influenced the results.

Personal interviews were used to collect data from a random sample of women college students from one university through the administration of a structured survey instrument. Statistical analyses were employed to generate the results.

Differences were found in the respondents' perceptions for both importance and expectations for six of the seven‐store attributes. For one characteristic, continuity of supply, no differences emerged and this characteristic was deemed important for both store formats. Moderating variables did not alter the results.

Given the limited nature of the sample, there is a need for replication of this research in other geographic regions, including international sites in order to corroborate these findings. Also, replication with men is needed.

This study provides guidance to both discount store and category killer executives on the types of strategies and tactics needed to better attract and retain women college students.

Attention was directed to women college students, a highly desired but often neglected market segment. Further, continuity of supply, an attribute not often indicated in most retailing texts emerged as very important and highly expected by respondents.

The purpose of this paper is to determine the difference between service quality dimensions of supermarkets and discount stores.

The paper focuses on service quality dimensions of customers in supermarkets and discount stores. The study has selected one store from each retailer type located in Eskisehir, Turkey and used the scale of the service quality of retail stores. The research has employed a face‐to‐face questionnaire for collecting data from customers on different days and at different hours of the week. A total of 891 questionnaires, 682 for supermarkets and 209 for discount stores, have been analysed.

Results indicate that the customers of the supermarket and the discount store differ in their perception of some service quality dimensions. While the supermarket customers perceive physical aspects and store policy dimensions at a higher level, the discount store's customers give more priority to interaction with personnel dimension.

Further qualitative studies can provide deeper insights about service quality dimensions of supermarkets and discount stores. The results are also a starting point for further academic research about the different retailer types.

The paper contributes to the understanding of behaviours and attitudes of supermarket and discount store customers. Retailers in Turkey will primarily benefit from the study.

The paper compares the customer perception of service quality dimensions of two different types of grocery retailers; a supermarket and a discount store.

This paper explores the antecedents and consequences of consumers’ need for self-image congruence on their retail patronage of department (high-end) and discount (low-end) stores to purchase name-brand products in two product categories, apparel and home décor. It also compared online to offline shopping and considered two mediator variables, frugality and materialism.

The paper analyzed the hypothesized relationships using structural equation modeling (SEM) and MANOVA. Study 1 suggested the model using secondary data, and Study 2 measured and confirmed the relationships using scenario-based online survey data. An MANOVA test was used to compare the shopping behavior of consumers with high and low need for self-image congruence.

A strong causal link was found between concern with appearance and need for self-image congruence, and a positive relationship between need for self-image congruence and high- and low-end retail store patronage offline and online. While the group with high (vs low) need for self-image congruence was more likely to patronize department stores, unexpectedly, both the high and low self-image congruence groups were equally likely to shop at discount stores.

The findings suggest that marketing messages focusing on concern for appearance may succeed by tapping into consumers’ need for self-image congruence with brand product/retail store images. Results also showed that consumers with high self-image congruence often patronize discount retail stores, suggesting marketing opportunities for low-end retailers.

Because consumers with high need for self-image congruence patronize both department and discount stores, it is suggested that self-image congruity may be multi-dimensional. The current study is also the first to examine structural relationships to test patronage behavior between department and discount stores offline and online.

The overall purpose of this study is to enhance the understanding of customer perceived service quality within grocery retailing in a North European context. We do this by comparing customer perceived service quality evaluations of the traditional supermarket store with evaluations of the discount store.

This study is based on empirical data from four store cases (two traditional and two discount stores), including information gained from a total of 542 respondents. In the study, we have used and tested a model of grocery store service quality, presented in Vázquez et al. (2001), with structural equation modelling (LISREL) and traditional multivariate analysis (SPSS).

The ability of the Vázquez et al. (2001) model to capture customer perceived quality was below 40 per cent for both concepts which signals limited relevance and that important dimensions in the service evaluation could be missing for both of the two concepts, at least in a North European context. The results show that the traditional supermarket outperforms the discount stores on all service aspects but availability and reliability. When comparing the determinants of the service quality evaluation, the two concepts are very similar. Finally, the overall results regarding determinants of service quality show resemblance to retail studies in other countries and cultures.

This study has been limited to investigate service quality in Sweden and from two out of at least five possible retail concepts. As the explanatory power of the model is limited, future studies should explore other possible determinants of service quality, e.g. the role of technological innovations.

Kotler and Keller (2012) proposes five generic differentiation strategies: product, service, people, channels and image. The results suggest that traditional grocery stores that choose to differentiate and position themselves by focusing on service rather than physical product differentiation should work with assortment issues as well. In order to decide which aspect of service to choose and promote, companies should emphasise differences that are considered important by customers, distinct from competitors and superior in terms of delivering the overall benefit – in this case – in terms of service quality. The results show that the policy dimension would satisfy all three criterions.

The study enhances the understanding of customer perceived service quality within grocery retailing, specifically in comparison between the supermarket and the discount store concept.

This study is the first to focus on whether there is a divergence in service quality and service quality measuring between the traditional supermarket concept and the growing discount concept, and if so to what extent. Furthermore, it is a test of a model that has gained acceptance in Latin and South European countries, but in the context of Northern Europe.

As the competition in domestic markets increases, multinational retailers are expanding globally. Multinational discounters such as Wal‐Mart and Carrefour have been vying against Korean discounters for market share with the full liberalization of the distribution sector in 1997. This study examined various aspects of discount store retailing (store attributes, shopping costs) and consumers’ shopping motives, values, and retail outcomes (e.g. shopping excitement, satisfaction and repatronage intention), to understand Korean consumers’ discount store patronage. Significant differences were found in store image perceptions and shoppers’ internal orientations between multinational discount store patrons vs Korean discount store patrons. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.

This paper aims to study the consequences of listing national brands in discounters. Is the discount channel a promising outlet for manufacturer brands? Is it an effective means to attract new buyers? Which combination of brand and discount destination at which price is best suited for this strategic move?

Based on a unique dataset (tracking grocery purchase behavior for a representative sample of German households) and employing both descriptive and multivariate statistical techniques, the authors examine the outcome for 134 national brands introduced in six discount chains in Germany between January 2003 and July 2004.

Both the manufacturer and discounter are able to grow their total performance in excess of the market following the introduction for the majority of the brands. Hence, potential cannibalization is more than offset by incremental revenues. It is found that, on average, close to 80 per cent of national brands' sales at a discounter is from new brand buyers. Discounters typically benefit less, as only 29 percent of brand sales are from new category buyers at their store.

Including manufacturer brands into a discount assortment will benefit both the manufacturers and the discounters. Examination of the substantial cross‐brand differences reveals that manufacturers and discounters attract more new customers with brands for which market penetration is still modest. Also, discounters gain more from adding branded offerings in underperforming categories, and benefit from brands that enjoy higher customer loyalty. Finally, national‐brand prices should be set carefully at discounters. It is advised to maintain their price premium even at a discounter.

Discounters are the fastest growing grocery format in Europe. Lately, many discounters add national brands to their private‐label dominated assortment, a move widely discussed in media with substantial implications for grocery channel management. This study provides a comprehensive evaluation of that trend.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of product display based on colour, discount and brand on retail pleasure, arousal, flow, perceived merchandise quality, time spent, satisfaction and patronage intentions in both 3D and 2D interfaces. This study uses the flow theory and stimulus-organism-response framework to understand the effects of product coordination methods and interface dimensions on consumers’ emotional, cognitive and behavioural outcomes.

This study conducted a 2 (interface: 3D and 2D) × 3 (product coordination method: colour, discount and brand) between-subjects experimental design. The coordination of display refers to the way products are arranged based on similar properties, such as similar colour, discount or brand. 3D stores were designed using Mockshop, a 3D virtual retailing software. A total of 144 US female college students from various universities participated in the study.

The findings showed that the 3D interface produced higher flow, satisfaction, time spent and patronage intention than the 2D interface. Also, among the six display scenarios, participants who were in the colour-coordinated 3D store showed the highest levels of emotional, cognitive and behavioural outcomes except for retail pleasure and arousal.

This study investigates product display based on colour, discount and brand in both 3D and 2D interfaces. Although product coordination methods have been tested in 3D stores in previous studies, they have not been compared with their effects in the 2D interface such as online shopping sites. Therefore, this study fills in this gap in the literature, which can guide retailers in making the right decisions for visuals.

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.