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Argues that hypermarkets in the UK may not yield net benefits, as the price savings claimed are unlikely, and the impact of hypermarkets on other parts of the retail system is also considered in the light of continental experience. Discusses the economic justification for hypermarkets, as well as broader questions of the effects of hypermarkets generally on the retail system. Summarises that the development of hypermarkets, in economic terms, may well prove not to be the next wheel of retailing, but simply a form of the self‐service revolution which Britain experienced some 15 years ago, but which France largely missed out on at the time.

The purpose of this paper is to see how children aged 7–11 years can become the actors of tomorrow’s hypermarket experience by providing a review of past research on children as retail consumers, with a specific reference to their customer experience.

The literature review will be organised by presenting a “child hypermarket customer experience” model. Finally, a conceptual and methodological critique of past research will be presented followed by the revised model and conclusions.

The literature review finds six independent variables presented in the model: customer satisfaction, in-store conflicts, buying intention, purchase basket value, loyalty and average time spent in store measure a positive hypermarket shopping experience for children. There are then six types of mediators presented in the updated model: type of product, product offering, pocket money amount, environment, technology (games, tablets) and experiential marketing that mediate the impact of these independent variables on children as the actors of tomorrow’s hypermarket experience.

This paper is conceptual in nature. Future research should empirically validate the conceptual model developed in the paper for children 7–11 years of age.

The conceptual discussion shows that hypermarket managers can use technology such as games and tablets not only to reduce the conflicts between parents and children in hypermarkets but also positively impact on the average time spent in the store. Further, the discussion shows that hypermarket managers can offer children the experience they expect with the use of specific experiential stimuli adapted to children in “children’s aisles” such as toys, children’s clothing, children’s hi-tech and children’s books. They can also theme the experience for children using memorabilia and the engagement of senses. Managerial research should empirically validate this for children 7–11 years of age.

This is the first study that conceptually creates a model of children as the actors of tomorrow’s hypermarket experience. This is something that empirically researched will enhance the understanding of young consumers’ behaviour in the retail process in this advanced age of retailing.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the factors affecting store image and customers’ choice of hypermarkets in Oman and compares two big hypermarkets in Sohar– the prominent industrial city of Oman.

A detailed review of literature was conducted initially to identify the attributes affecting store image and choice of hypermarkets in Oman and a questionnaire was developed later using the key attributes, vetted by a panel of professionals and consumers. Data were collected using convenience sampling from the targeted customers with due care to reduce possible biases. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA), using SPSS, was then performed to arrive at the key factors affecting store image and choice of hypermarkets in Oman. Two most popular and leading hypermarkets of Sohar – Lulu and Al Safeer were selected to study consumers’ preferences for store choice and comparisons. The Mann-Whitney U-test in association with the Wilcoxon W-test was applied, using Minitab, for further comparison of the two hypermarkets.

Retailing industry in Oman is changing. The focus of consumers is shifting from traditional markets to modern retail formats. The presence of hypermarkets has attracted customers away from traditional souqs. Customers are attracted to hypermarkets for various reasons, including the local and socio-cultural ones. The factor analysis produced four components, namely, “purchase experience”, “visit experience”, “augmented experience”, and “repeat-purchase experience” affecting customers’ choice of hypermarkets and store image in Oman. A comparative analysis of two leading hypermarkets revealed that Lulu hypermarket acquired, overall, a better store image over Al Safeer on all the components. Purchase experience and visit experience, in Omani hypermarkets, were forerunners in satisfying customers than the augmented and repeat-purchase experience.

The study contributes to the narrow base of extant literature on consumer preferences of hypermarkets and their choice of related retail formats in the Islamic world. Although the use of EFA has been quite informative in revealing the findings, the limitation mainly arises due to the lack of confirmatory techniques, which were not intended at this stage of research. Whist the study opens room for researchers to contribute further in this regard, it brings forth certain implications for the managers, academics, and professionals working in the retail sector.

Analysis and discussions reveal that hypermarkets, particularly in Oman, need to take into account the factors, as identified in this study, and the differences in context of local conditions and religion. The study emphasizes that managers of retail formats in Oman need to give due importance to consumer experience to secure better store image and consumer patronage.

The study makes a pioneering attempt to analyse consumer preferences for retail stores, especially hypermarkets in Oman. It recognizes that the consumer expectations and business requirements of Oman, in particular, or Gulf countries in general are somehow different than the rest of the world. A heed to the identified factors and underlying variables would help the retail sector in serving consumers better as well as in increasing the store image and consumer patronage.

Hypermarket is the most successful amongst organised retail formats in India. The purpose of this paper is to identify segments of hypermarket shoppers based on shopping motivation. The study profiles the identified segments on demographic characteristics and shopping outcomes, and compares the shopping motivation of hypermarket consumers with that of traditional store shoppers.

The study involved a survey of 201 actual shoppers in a hypermarket and that of 117 actual shoppers in 20 traditional stores. Principal components analysis of the motives for shopping at hypermarket and traditional store identified the respective dimensions of shopping motivation. Cluster analysis of the factor scores obtained on shopping motivation at hypermarket revealed the typology of hypermarket shoppers. Chi-square test and MANOVA were used to profile the identified segments of hypermarket shoppers on demographic characteristics and shopping outcomes respectively.

Results revealed different dimensions of motivation to shop at the hypermarket and traditional store and four types of hypermarket shoppers were identified: utilitarians, maximisers, browsers and enthusiasts. The utilitarians are motivated by functional benefits such as the price and variety of products; the maximisers seek functional as well as recreational benefits; the browsers are high on social motivation; and the enthusiasts are high on all dimensions of shopping motivation. These segments showed overall significant differences on demographic characteristics and shopping outcomes.

The proposal for allowing FDI in multi-brand retail in India, a rapidly emerging market for global retail players, is at an advanced stage of policy making. Many national and multi-national retailers are in the process of expansion in India. This study adds to their understanding of Indian consumers. Based on the identified typology, the study suggests different strategies to target different segments of hypermarket shoppers.

The study contributes to the growing field of cross-cultural research on shopping motivation by highlighting the typology of Indian hypermarket shoppers.

The hypermarket industry in Malaysia has created a huge momentum for modern retailing concepts. The industry has been developing impressively, and the word hypermarket seems in need of a new definition. There is an overlap of the definitions for hypermarket, supermarket and shopping mall. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to focus on recent Malaysian hypermarket retailing developments that could be used as sources for definition. A few expansion opportunities are also emphasized in this paper.

A review of the literature from various research studies in the field was made. In order to strengthen the existing findings, practical implementations on hypermarket retailing within the Malaysian market were also studied in this research. In general, this research focuses on hypermarket retailing in the Malaysian scenario.

Malaysian hypermarkets can be defined using retail developments within the industry as sources for definition works. This industry can also be expanded further through: product brand extension; service experience enhancement; self‐checkout technology; coupons promotion; online hypermarket; and one district one industry (SDSI) market intervention program.

The definition of hypermarket in this research paper is streamlined further to differentiate it from a supermarket or shopping mall. With the potential expansion opportunities, it is expected that there will be a clearer path to outgrow this industry.

Hypermarkets face a very competitive environment, as their rivals also include traditional markets, convenient stores and supermarkets. In addition to offering innovative services, hypermarket managers must also pay attention to customer shopping patterns and behaviors in order to gain market share. The purpose of this paper is to posit that there will be significant differences between male and female hypermarket customers in terms of both shopping time and categories of goods purchased.

To investigate actual shopping behaviors, this study observed customers in hypermarkets and recorded how long they spent shopping and what they purchased.

The results of this study implied that gender is a key factor that affects both shopping time and the goods purchased in Taiwanese hypermarkets. The empirical findings also indicated that customers favor certain goods categories.

The results of this study provide details of the differences between male and female hypermarket customers, with which managers can use to develop better marketing strategies.

The purpose of this study is to show hypermarket retailers how gender differences affect customer behavior in this context. It also presents a consumer product categories list for hypermarkets, and this can be used as a reference for follow-up studies.

Seeks to effect a comparison of the pricing strategies followed by hypermarkets, compared with those that discount stores carry out.

Data were collected from the direct observation of the supermarket shelves of nine frequent purchase product categories in several hypermarkets and discount stores. Diverse statistical analyses were applied to these picked up data, such as mean comparisons, ANOVA and correspondence analysis.

The article concludes that the hypermarkets tend to have higher mean prices, and use promotional tools more profusely than the discount stores.

For future research, it would be very important to examine consumer price evaluations based on a theoretical approach in the same formats, and in this way consumer reactions to price changes could be understood. Also, examining the cross‐country differences in retail stores may be quite interesting.

Relationships between hypermarkets and hi‐lo pricing, plus discount stores and EDLP pricing, have been found. Therefore, retail managers of both formats have to know all about these pricing strategies. In this way, the managers of these firms would know the kind of customers that can be attracted and the signals and image that can be projected in the market.

This paper directly compares the pricing and promotional activities of hypermarkets versus discount stores. Researching into whether price and promotional differences exist between the two format retailers will help consumers and managers to know the true price level of each format.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the cultural influences that country image has on consumers' hypermarket patronage intention in China and Spain.

Structural equation modelling is utilised to examine the competency of the model in explaining both Spanish and Chinese consumers' intention to patronize major hypermarket brands in their own countries.

This study has tested the applicability of TRA model in both the China case and the Spain case and confirmed the role of national culture in influencing retail patronage behaviour. In Spain, country image has a direct effect on consumers' hypermarket patronage intention while in China this effect is indirect. In deciding on their patronage behaviours, Spanish consumers tend to rely more on the experience attributes of a hypermarket store and are less likely to be affected by subjective norms. In contrast, Chinese consumers have stronger ethnocentric tendencies in hypermarket shopping behaviour than do Spanish consumers.

The coverage and components of the sample are limited. The convergent validity and discriminant validity of country image scale has not been tested thoroughly.

Foreign hypermarket managers in China should attach special importance to enhancing the experience attributes of their stores and realize the important role of subjective norm in affecting consumers' retail patronage behaviour in collectivist cultures. In addition, multinational retailers in China need to forge a sound image of “corporate citizen” in order to diminish the negative impact of consumer ethnocentrism on their operations.

This paper for the first time tests a model developed in western contexts to explain retailer patronage behaviour in an eastern country and examines the cultural differences of country image effects on this behaviour.

Since the mid‐1990s, there has been a rapid expansion of large‐scale foreign retailers in many countries across Southeast Asia, Central Europe and Latin America. This emerging trend has triggered a number of research interests on the issue of retail globalization. The research aims to consider the entry of foreign hypermarkets in Malaysia and their impact on the development and growth of domestic suppliers and manufacturers.

This study uses both primary and secondary data. Secondary data were drawn from industry sources which included government departments, economic reports, retailing magazines and companies, web sites. Meanwhile, primary data are collected using mail survey questionnaire and face‐to‐face interviews.

The findings of this study indicate that foreign hypermarkets play a very important role in the development and growth of the domestic suppliers via backward linkages. The main forms of linkages are product supply, informational linkages, assistance with inventory management, technical support and quality assurance and procurement systems. A majority of the firms indicated that they benefited substantially from the presence of foreign hypermarkets; however, they also face several challenges brought about by imposition of several unfair terms and procurement policy.

The findings are largely derived from the experience encountered by domestic firms who participated in the survey. Thus, it is believed that their views could definitely help all the parties including the policymakers and researchers to better understand the impact of foreign hypermarkets on local businesses and take appropriate policy measures.

Hypermarkets have emerged as an important retail format in many parts of the world. The purpose of this paper is to explore consumer behaviour towards store preferences, particularly hypermarkets, in Oman.

Following a mixed method approach, primary data, collected mainly using questionnaires and focus groups, were analysed to reveal consumer preferences. After pilot testing, 300 structured questionnaires were administered, of which 164 completed questionnaires were accepted for analysis. Data on store choice attributes were collected and analysed to reveal respondents’ preferences. Respondents’ characteristics were also measured using socio-demographic variables and were compared with their purchasing behaviour.

By offsetting traditional markets, hypermarkets have emerged as one of the important retail formats in the urban areas of Oman. Their emergence has impacted trade in the traditional markets, the souqs. A weekly trip to the hypermarket is becoming an established feature of Omani life. Employed, educated or prosperous Omani consumers and expatriates prefer hypermarkets and these preferences surge during hot weather conditions. Consumers visit hypermarkets not only for purchases but also for recreation. Several factors affect consumer choice of hypermarkets in Oman, and these are listed in the outcomes of the study.

This study mainly focusses on consumers from selected hypermarkets in the Muscat and the Batinah regions of Oman. Although these regions are home to more than half of the Omani population, similar studies on other prominent regions will help in generalizing the preferences of consumers.

Beyond an academic investigation to better understand the issue, the findings are important to help policy makers, town planners, and retailers better understand, plan, and evolve a consumer friendly retail sector. The findings will also help in understanding the regional imbalances in retailing activities, locally and globally.

The findings will help in the planning of certain retail policies to assure the notion of accessibility, affordability, and availability of global products and services to Omani consumers and also in striking a balance between traditional and modern retail formats to maintain diversity, growth, and overall consumer satisfaction.

This paper furthers understanding of retailing issues in a conservative Islamic society in general; and in an area, Oman, that has not been covered before, in particular.