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The independent shopkeeper in France has always played a very important role, and historically they have been supported — if only in theory — by government intervention. Hypermarkets began to develop in France in the early 1960s and it was not long before their increasing share of total retail trade began to alarm the smaller operators. In 1973 the Loi Royer, which attempted to restrict hypermarket expansion beyond certain limits, was introduced. Has it had any effect? Or has the slowing down in hypermarkets in France has been due to a number of other causes? Steve Burt suggests that the law may not have had the restrictive effect that was expected. Any decline in the number of large units opened may be attributable to changing economic conditions and organisational trends.

The marketing system — as expressed through institutions such as wholesalers and retailers — has in recent years made a marked impact on city centres and suburbs. The author here examines the effect of hypermarkets, particularly in France, and city centre shopping centres in this country; he also looks at the advantages of pedestrianisation.

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the understanding of hypermarket retailers' marketing efforts by exploring consumers' attitudes toward marketing practices (CATMPs) of three retailers (Tesco‐Lotus, Big C, and Carrefour) in Thailand.

A non‐probability convenience sampling procedure was employed. The data were collected from an intercept survey administered face to face. Three versions were tailored to each specific hypermarket retailer using similar questions related to consumers' attitudes toward different areas of marketing practices. The measures were adapted from the Index of Consumer Sentiment toward marketing and consumers' attitudes toward marketing.

The results showed that although Thai consumers displayed different attitudes toward retail services, positive advertising, and fair price, they expressed similar attitudes toward business provisions and product quality across samples. Main and interaction effects of a limited number of demographic variables were also identified.

Multinational hypermarket retailers need to understand the similarities and differences related to areas of their marketing practices to be able to market effectively to Thai consumers. However, since the data were obtained from one city, the major limitation in the study is the generalizability of the findings.

This study is among the first to attempt to investigate CATMPs of multinational hypermarket retailers operating in Thailand.

This study aims to present an approach for analyzing hypermarkets efficiency data envelopment analysis (DEA) in Spanish retailing. In particular, the influence of the Retail Trade Act of 1996, by means of which the Spanish state transferred authority to concede licenses for opening commercial establishments to the regions, is to be studied.

The analysis is based on a DEA model that allows for the evaluation of categorical variables in DEA in cross‐section data.

The findings suggest the existence of three different production frontiers in relation to the markets' regulation process where the hypermarkets operate; high, medium and low regulation. In the second place, the effect of the regulatory restrictions carried out by the autonomous communities is corrected in the second stage. This correction (once managerial inefficiencies have been eliminated) allows the hypermarkets operative in areas with low restrictions to be more efficient than those located in areas of greater regulation.

The generalization of the conclusions of the study to the whole sector should be made with caution, because only one of the players in the distribution channel has been analyzed.

The implications that can be derived from the analysis carried out could be of great interest to policy makers in Spain with regard to the influence of the Retail Trade Act of 1996.

The paper uses the model mentioned as evaluation of the efficiency in relation to the environment or regulation carried out in the sector. The methodology proposed to analyze the impact of this environment variable is one of the main contributions of the work.

In recent years a great deal of information has been collected and published (much of it in this journal) on the perpetually contentious issue of the hypermarket and the superstore — their effect on other forms of retailing, their capacity to reduce operating costs and therefore prices, their impact on the consumer. Many generalisations have also been made about the attitudes of local authorities to these large‐scale units, and some leading hypermarket operators have made bitter accusations against local authorities for endlessly protracted planning negotiations which inevitably lead to increased construction costs. But little information has been gathered up to now (so far as we know) on the precise attitudes of planning authorities, and little attempt has been made to define the highly variable range of responses which they have expressed over the years. This study by Jennifer Sumner and Keri Davies of St David's University College sets out to throw light on this murky area. The broad trend is one of increasing acceptance of the superstore, but not of the hypermarket. In general the attitude to large‐scale retailing developments seems vague and non‐committal, with some councils adopting the attitude of “we won't worry about the problem until it arises.” But the authors believe that trends are changing and that, with further co‐operation between developers and planning authorities, an agreeable compromise could be made.

The purpose of this paper is first, to find out store image attributes valued by Chinese consumers in Beijing; second, to understand Chinese consumers' preference by comparing an international retailer with a domestic retailer; and third, to provide both international and domestic retailers with suggestions for store image improvement.

This study used a three‐stage approach to collect the data. First, two waves of semi‐structured interviews were carried out, followed by a survey, concluding with another wave of interviews. The survey data were analyzed using SPSS.

The paper finds that there are 18 important attributes in building a hypermarket retailer's store image in China. Beijing consumers are more concerned with a retailer's reputation and services than with the price. In terms of store image dimensions, the paper concludes that store atmosphere is the most important, followed by service personnel and merchandise.

The research scope is limited to Beijing.

The practical implications of the findings are that: store atmosphere is the most important store image dimension for Beijing consumers; Chinese consumers no longer look only for low prices; international hypermarket retailers hold better store image than domestic retailers; and corporate reputation is important for hypermarket retailers in China, followed by quality of goods and staff's service attitude.

This paper is the first to investigate Chinese consumers' perception of store image and top concerns when shopping at a hypermarket.

In Taiwan, hypermarket stores should implement hazard analysis and critical control point (HACCP) according to regulations. The aim of this study was to investigate key factors influencing successful implementation of HACCP in hypermarket stores that prepare hot meals.

We used a survey design and thus posted four questionnaires to each of the 136 hypermarket stores in Taiwan (two questionnaires for employees and two for managers). Therefore, a total of 544 questionnaires were posted, and 188 responses were received, yielding a 34.6% response rate.

Food safety knowledge, teamwork, perceived cost, perceived benefit and leadership were tested. Binary logistic regression results indicated that food safety knowledge and teamwork were key factors related to successful HACCP implementation. Perceived cost, perceived benefit and leadership were not related to successful HACCP implementation. Control variables, such as number of full-time employees and number of products sold, were discovered to be related to successful HACCP implementation.

Overall, the findings of this study can help the hypermarket industry assess its current quality management practices and focus on food safety performance improvement.

This study seeks to explore the issue of individual opposition to the organized retailing system in an emerging country. It aims to identify the motivations for rejecting such retail outlets as well as how the resistance that is generated expresses itself and to point out the amazing precocity of the emergence of this resistance in these developing countries.

In‐depth interviews using the critical incident technique were conducted to explore the reasons for consumers' partial or total defection from mass retailing. Respondents were selected through snowball sampling to identify information‐rich cases using personal and professional social networks.

The study's results highlight non‐organized individual initiatives of avoidance and defection from hypermarkets in the emerging country under study as opposed to the structured protest movements in developed countries. In addition, the findings show a two‐fold orientation of this resistance: on the one hand towards the hypermarket format as a whole, and on the other towards foreign (as opposed to local) retailers, indicating an incongruency between some Western values associated with the foreign retailers, or even linked to globalization, and the values of the Arab‐Muslim local culture.

Only individual resistance motivations were explored, although their interactions with more collective shared motives for resisting would lead to a fuller understanding of the rejection of hypermarkets. The reason for this choice was mainly because organized movements are still embryonic in emerging countries or at best not sufficiently structured.

This paper extends and enriches knowledge on consumer resistance by showing that even in an immature retail market, consumers are able to reject and oppose the introduction of retail formats that are deemed not to be congruent with local cultural values. It underlines in particular some unusual motives for rejection of imported hypermarkets due to consumers' dislike of, and non‐adherence to, the way modern food stores put forward consumption as a spectacle resulting in voyeuristic behaviour and social marking, and their religiously inspired culture and education that limits consumption and emphasizes the fairness, human and ethical dimensions of commerce.

To evaluate the chances of success for Auchan in Russia, and draw conclusions for retail internationalisation theory.

Provides a comprehensive analysis of the Russian retail landscape and emerging patterns of consumption, especially in the capital Moscow.

The success of Auchan's Russian venture will depend on the extent to which the retailer is able to leverage its three sources of competitive advantage in its domestic market, namely the hypermarket concept, the channel mix, and the environmental context. This in turn will be a function of its ability to exploit its retail marketing skills, distribution abilities, unique retail formula, strong retail brand, or a combination of these.

The paper is not built on empirical data, but is speculative.

The paper's primary value lies in the call which it contains for a more eclectic conceptual framework underpinning retail internationalisation theory. Such a framework would reflect the importance of a firm's capital structure, and also pay greater attention to organisational dynamics. Attention to these issues would enable researchers to reflect more accurately the reality of the retail internationalisation process in emerging markets.

“The large store is the future”, states Ian MacLaurin, in a positive affirmation of belief in the superstore. In the hypermarket lies the most practical answer to the problem of reduced costs and lower price. In distribution terms, the advantages of one massive delivery to a single hypermarket are obvious. Apart from the hypermarket, there are other target areas for cost reduction: transport and delivery, packaging, advertising, stock control — even items such as store lighting and administration. In an economic climate where margins are being government‐controlled it becomes not merely desirable but mandatory to examine these areas with the closest possible attention. This is a summary of Ian MacLaurin's paper to the Food Manufacturers' Federation conference at Bournemouth.