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Within a context of the globalization of retailing, examines the current structure of pan‐European food retail consolidation. Portrays the interlinkages between firms in the EU food retail market, and offers an assessment of the three leading consolidators (Carrefour, Wal‐Mart, Ahold) in that market. Considers potential acquisition/merger targets in France and the UK, and conceptualizes the future process of consolidation as a struggle between competing models of globalized retail operation. Assesses the strengths and weaknesses of those models.

This article has been withdrawn as it was published elsewhere and accidentally duplicated. The original article can be seen here: 10.1108/09590559710156062. When citing the article, please cite: Neil Wrigley, (1997), “British food retail capital in the USA - Part 1: Sainsbury and the Shawʼs experience”, International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, Vol. 25 Iss: 1, pp. 7 - 21.

This article has been withdrawn as it was published elsewhere and accidentally duplicated. The original article can be seen here: 10.1108/09590559710160346. When citing the article, please cite: Neil Wrigley, (1997), “British food retail capital in the USA - Part 2: Giant prospects?”, International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, Vol. 25 Iss: 2, pp. 48 - 58.

A two‐component framework for strategic marketing research, focused on the corporate level and the business‐unit level, to structure an interpretation of the strategic dimensions of the acquisition in November 1998 of Star Markets, a Boston, USA‐based food retail chain, by J. Sainsbury plc the UK’s second largest food retailer. Set within a broader context of the wave of acquisition‐driven consolidation rapidly transforming the US food retail industry during the late 1990s, the paper considers the extent to which the acquisition of Star Markets represented a strategic fit with Sainsbury’s existing US business, the alternative strategies available to the company at the time of the acquisition, and the resulting strategic centrality of the US business to Sainsbury’s corporate future. Focuses on the highly contested nature of the retail internationalization process and issues of sustaining international expansion during periods of retrenchment and strategic reassessment. Highlights the tensions which can be created within the portfolio of business units of a large multidivisional firm during the internationalization process, and the stresses in the relationship between management and the capital markets which can develop if the internationalization process is perceived, correctly or incorrectly, to threaten the strategic credibility of the firm.

This paper outlines the research agenda of the food deserts in British Cities project, and reports findings from a set of qualitative focus group studies conducted following a major retail provision intervention in a low‐income, deprived area of Leeds. It explores the impacts of the transformation of physical access to full‐range retailing in the area, and assesses the views of the residents who had switched their main food source as a result of the intervention compared to those who had not. Finally, it interrogates residents’ perceptions of the impact (if any) of the intervention on their food consumption habits and their potential to eat a more healthy diet.

Several commentators have expressed concern over the methods used by the retail sector in the UK in deciding on the location and scale of future developments. Most firms appear simply to react to development opportunities as they arise, or make decisions on the basis of ‘hunch’. Very little statistical information is used to assist them. One reason for this must be that forecasting methods and factual information available are frequently quite inadequate to permit of reliable judgments about the performance of new stores in specified locations. This reflects not only the lack of retail turnover statistics at local level, but also the lack of detailed information about the routine shopping behaviour of representative samples of the population. In recent years there has been very little applied general research into shopping behaviour in the UK; consequently very little is known about many of its aspects, particularly those factors which influence and motivate people's choice of store for their everyday shopping trips. In this article the authors have a positive objective; after discussing existing sources of information they describe a new and potentially valuable source — the Cardiff shopping diary survey, which they themselves carried out in the first half of 1982. Finally, they deal with some ways in which the results of this survey can be put to practical use by retail organisations.

Provides a preface to the two‐part paper on “British food retail capital in the USA” reprinted from International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, Vol. 25, 1997. Updates that two‐part paper with an account of Sainsbury’s experience with its US food retail businesses in 1997, and reflects on the firm’s corporate prospects in the USA.

Tightened UK land‐use planning regulation governing retail development, specifically the 1993 and 1996 revisions of the Department of the Environment’s PPG6 Town Centres and Retail Developments, appeared to usher in a new era of more restricted and redirected food store expansion. This paper explores to what extent that restriction and redirection has occurred, sifts rhetoric from “reality” in the intense debates that have surrounded PPG6, poses alternative interpretations of the contemporary food store development dynamic, and assesses the food choice implications of these developments.

The purpose of this paper is to trace the modernisation of the retail structure of Vietnam from a closed market to one that is increasingly open to retail transnational corporation (TNC) entry and associated Western retail formats.

The authors undertake this study of retail change through the analysis of a wide range of governmental and industry secondary data – much of which has not entered western academic debate given the challenges of access and translation. In doing so, this period of adaptation is related to well‐known studies concerning the diffusion of western forms of retailing discussed across the social sciences.

As a country encountering the third wave of supermarket proliferation within emerging markets, Vietnam's experience is found to broadly fit the models of retail foreign direct investment (FDI) entry and retail “modernisation” suggested by Natawidjaja et al. and Dries et al. The retail change process was affected by a slow, progressive creep of market liberalisation where, as late as 2009, a foreign partner could hold only up to 49 per cent of capital in a joint venture. While analysis of the evidence suggests some retailers flouted these laws or employed creative approaches to mitigating their effects, such regulations clearly underpinned a less intense initial influx of retail FDI than had been experienced elsewhere in Asia and maintained a high domestic ownership level in the retail market. Retail modernisation has intensified in recent years, with greater international entry, expansion and retail format proliferation diffusing from cities to more rural locations, though the top five grocery operators still account for less than 4 per cent of the grocery market.

Studies within retail management of retail internationalisation have tended to focus on fully liberalised countries that have attracted high rates of retail capital. In contrast, this paper focuses on understanding the emergence of one of the countries somewhat later to these trends.

To examine the impact of the merger of the two largest US department store companies on the competitive state of the sector and specifically the anti‐trust implications of the consolidation.

Based on semi‐structured interviews with leading US department store executives as well as an ongoing close dialogue with US retail analysts.

The consolidation raises considerable anti‐trust issues with the creation of a $30bill sales company. However, consistent with previous recent rulings, the Federal Trade Commission has adopted a broad view of the department store market from the standpoint that the consolidation is essentially defensive – in short, the sector is failing because it is not a separate and distinct market. However, the divestiture of 75 stores will give competitors footholds in new markets thereby changing the geography of competition in many catchments. This is likely to be the largest consolidation that the competition authorities will effectively allow, representing the last opportunity for the sector to become a more robust competitor against alternative formats that have intervened in its key product lines.

Recent restructuring of the US department store industry has generated a relatively limited academic literature, despite considerable M&A activity, subsequent organisational reorganisation, and sales of $88 billion per year. Transformation of the competitive landscape of the industry raises important issues of market regulation and corporate strategy.