This thesis examines the nature of labour usage within a market-leading Australian food retail firm and the employment relations consequences of the labour usage strategies employed by the firm. Retail employment is well established as a research subject in the UK, but has received comparatively little research attention in Australia. Given that retail industry employment accounts for 15 per cent of the Australian workforce, this represents a significant oversight. Within the retail industry, the supermarket and grocery sector employs 6 per cent of the Australian workforce. The sector is dominated by two major chains and is highly competitive, with a reputation for low profit margins, mundane jobs and low pay. The sector is recognised for an employment structure that is segmented with one segment holding full-time jobs with core employment conditions and the other segment, part-time jobs with poor working conditions. The dominant theory used by scholars to explain this employment structure is the dual labour market model and later iterations such as Atkinson's flexible firm model. This research assesses the value of these models, in particular Atkinson's flexible firm model, as a representation of the labour usage strategies of a market-leading Australian food retail firm. This analysis demonstrates that, in a general sense, Atkinson's model has applicability to the labour usage strategies exhibited in food retailing. The research found that, contrary to the theories of dual labour markets, a strong internal labour market operated within the firm with short hours casual employment as the port of entry. The benefits of this practice for the organisation were flexibility in labour usage and substantial wage savings, while the negative consequences were recruitment difficulties, exacerbated by high levels of staff turnover. For the employees, the consequences depended on their position in the organisational hierarchy and their individual circumstances, but involved initially accepting limited working hours and low pay in order to gain entry into the organisation. The research undertaken for this thesis leads to the development of a revised model, the casual internal labour market model, which more accurately depicts the labour usage strategies within the case study organisation. Retail researchers argue that it is necessary to understand the dynamics of the industry in order to understand the structure of labour usage. Additionally, employment relations and retail researchers both stress the need to contextualise labour usage patterns within broader environmental constraints and supply side factors. In seeking to achieve this, this research examines business strategies, retail specific employment relations literature and the Australian employment relations context. Furthermore, this study addresses the issue of retail employment strategies at several levels within one of Australia's market-leading food retailers: corporate level, store level and at the level of individual departments within the store. In doing so, this thesis highlights the differences in labour usage between stores and between departments within the stores and thereby provides a more detailed picture of the labour use practices within food retailers.

Bakgrund: Konkurrensen inom livsmedelsbranschen har de senaste åren ökat genom exempelvis större utbud av matvaror och fler varumärken av samma produkter. I livsmedelsbranschen finns både stora och små livsmedelsbutiker där stora butiker kan anses ha fördelar över små butiker, genom större sortiment och lägre priser, vilket kan locka fler kunder. Därför behöver små livsmedelsbutiker differentiera sig för att bättre skapa konkurrensfördelar och fånga kundernas uppmärksamhet. Butiker kan differentiera sig på olika sätt, till exempel genom att använda sina produkter och försöka utmärka butiken med dessa, eller genom att marknadsföra sina produkter genom produktexponeringar. Syfte: Syftet med studien är att undersöka och beskriva hur butikschefer och medarbetare i små livsmedelsbutiker använder produkter och produktexponering för att differentiera sig från konkurrenter. Vidare undersöker studien varför små livsmedelsbutiker använder produkter och produktexponeringar på det sättet dem gör. Detta för att få ökad förståelse över hur små livsmedelsbutiker kan nyttja dessa faktorer för att bland annat bättre fånga kundernas uppmärksamhet och behålla en stark position på marknaden. Metod: I studien tillämpades en kvalitativ metod bestående av intervjuer med sju respondenter fördelat på fyra livsmedelsbutiker samt observationer i form av ”site vists” fördelat på fem livsmedelsbutiker. Semistrukturerade intervjuer genomfördes för att erhålla djupare förståelse angående butikschefernas och medarbetarnas tankar, uppfattningar och erfarenheter om studiens forskningsproblem.   Resultat: Resultatet visar att butikschefer och medarbetare i små livsmedelsbutiker använder sina färskvaror och mer unika, lokala och självtillverkade produkter för att bättre differentiera sig. Detta används för att kunna tillfredsställa de lokala kundernas behov och förväntningar. Resultatet visar även att butikschefer och medarbetare i små livsmedelsbutiker främst använder skyltar till kampanj- och veckovaror för att presentera sina produkter, och i de butikerna som är lite större till ytan finns möjligheten att ge olika produktkategorier större utrymme. Små livsmedelsbutiker som är mindre till ytan kan således inte ge större utrymme till vissa produktkategorier och inte heller använda skyltar i lika stor utsträckning för att presentera produkterna. Varför produktexponeringar används som de gör menar butikscheferna är för att öka försäljningen, medan medarbetarna menar att det är för att underlätta för kunderna. Slutsats: Denna studie visar att butikschefer och medarbetare i små livsmedelsbutiker använder produkter mer medvetet för differentiering än vad de använder produktexponeringar, vilket innebär att det finns förbättringsmöjligheter inom detta område. Dock är butiksytan avgörande för små livsmedelsbutikers möjlighet att använda produktexponeringar. / Background: The competition in the food industry has grown over the past few years, for example through a larger range of food products and more brands of the same products. In the food industry there are both large and small grocery stores where large stores can be considered to have advantages over small stores, through larger assortments and lower prices, which can attract more customers. Therefore, small grocery stores need to differentiate in order to better create competitive advantages and capture customer attention. Stores can differentiate themselves in different ways, for example by using their products and trying to distinguish the store with them, or by marketing their products through product exposures. Purpose: The purpose of the study is to investigate and describe how store managers and employees in small grocery stores use products and product exposure to differentiate themselves from competitors. Furthermore, the study investigates why small grocery stores use products and product exposures in the way they do. This is to gain more insight into how small grocery stores can use these factors to better capture customers' attention and maintain a strong position in the market. Method: The study applied a qualitative method consisting of interviews with seven respondents, divided into four grocery stores, and five site visits observations in five grocery stores. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to gain deeper insight into the thoughts, perceptions and experiences of store managers and employees regarding the research problems of the study. Results: The result shows that store managers and employees in small grocery stores use their fresh products and more unique, local and self-manufactured products to better differentiate themselves. This is used to satisfy the local customers' needs and expectations. The result also shows that store managers and employees in small grocery stores mainly use signs for campaigns and products of the day to present their products. In those stores that has a slightly larger surface there is the possibility of giving more product categories more space. Small grocery stores that has a smaller surface can thus not give more space to certain product categories, nor use signs to the same extent to present the products. Why product exposures are used as they are used is according to store managers to increase sales, while according to employees it is to facilitate for the customers. Conclusion: This study shows that store managers and employees in small grocery stores use products more consciously for differentiation than using product exposures, which means there are improvement opportunities in this area. However, the store area is crucial for small grocery stores possibility to use product exposures.

Idag finns det en stor konkurrens mellan butiker inom dagligvaruhandel, varav ledningen är i ett stort behov av sin arbetskraft. Medarbetarskap är ett begrepp som belyser medarbetarnas engagemang och ansvarstagande på arbetsplatsen. I dagsläget finns det en medvetenhet om att cheferna bör kunna påverka medarbetarskapet, däremot finns det inte några konkreta metoder eller verktyg för hur medarbetarskapet kan bli inverkat på. I samband med att det finns en vetskap om att icke-finansiella belöningar kan påverka anställdas beteende på arbetsplatsen, väcks intresset för om de här även kan ha en inverkan på medarbetarskapet. Studiens syfte är att redogöra kring förutsättningar som behövs för att uppnå ett gott medarbetarskap och att ta reda på ifall icke-finansiella belöningar kan inverka på medarbetarskapet. I den teoretiska referensramen beskrivs teorier om medarbetarskap och belöningar, däribland förklaras medarbetarskapshjulet och icke-finansiella belöningar. Datainsamlingen baseras på en kvalitativ metod, där sju butiksmedarbetare har intervjuats. Av studien framgick öppenhet och förtroende mellan medarbetarna vara faktorer som bidrog till ett gott medarbetarskap. Det framkom att ansvarsfördelning var en viktig aspekt för medarbetarna, både för skapandet av engagemang men också för att få medarbetarna att stanna kvar på arbetsplatsen. Därav kunde det konstateras att icke-finansiella belöningar i form av arbetsberikning och utveckling i form av varierade arbetsuppgifter kunde vara avgörande för medarbetarskapet. Olika former av erkännande och positiv återkoppling kunde användas för att skapa öppenhet och engagemang hos medarbetarna. Sociala aktiviteter kunde användas för att belöna medarbetarna och kunde konstateras inverka på medarbetarskapet i form av gemenskap. På grund av studiens begränsningar kan inga säkra slutsatser dras. Förslag till fortsatt forskning är exempelvis att studera medarbetarskapet utifrån butikernas storlek, studera medarbetarskapet utifrån chefernas perspektiv och studera medarbetarskapet i förhållande till lönsamheten. / Today, there is a great deal of competition between stores in the grocery trade, of which the management is in great need of its labor. Empowerment/employeeship is a concept that highlights employees' commitment and responsibility in the workplace. At present, there is an awareness that managers should be able to influence employeeship, however, there are no concrete methods or tools for how employeeships can be affected. In connection with the knowledge that non-financial rewards can affect employees' behavior in the workplace, it arouses interest in whether they can have an impact on employeeship. The purpose of the study is to report on the conditions needed to achieve good employeeship and to find out if non-financial rewards can affect employeeship. The theoretical frame of reference describes theories about employeeship and rewards, including explaining the ‘’employeeship wheel’’ and non-financial rewards. Data collection is based on a qualitative method, where seven store employees have been interviewed. The study showed that openness and trust between employees were factors that contributed to good employeeship. It emerged that responsibility was an important aspect for the employees, both for the creation of commitment but also for getting the employees to stay in the workplace. From this, it could be stated that non-financial rewards in the form of work enrichment and development in the form of varied tasks could be decisive for the employees. Various forms of recognition and positive feedback could be used to create openness and commitment among employees. Social activities could be used to reward employees and could be found to affect employeeship in the form of community. Due to the limitations of the study, no definite conclusions can be drawn. Suggestions for further research are, for example, to study the employeeship based on the size of the stores, study the employeeship from the managers' perspective and study the employeeship in relation to profitability.

There has been a significant increase in e-commerce over the past years and to which extent consumers use it. During the past year, when the Covid-19 pandemic has ravaged among us, food consumption has also become a fact. Grocery stores have had the opportunity to develop their e-commerce and offer their customers a chance to purchase products at any time suitable. As the market is evolving, the concept of consumer behavior and impulse buying behavior has become more relevant and exciting in research. Still, little research has been done regarding how grocery stores influence consumers’ impulse buying behavior when shopping for groceries online.  The purpose of this research, from a business perspective, is to investigate how grocery companies influence consumers' impulse buying behavior online and to identify if there are any contributing factors to influencing this behavior. The aim is to develop a more profound knowledge within this topic due to the lack of previous research on impulse buying behavior when shopping for groceries online.  The conclusion of this thesis shows that impulse purchases increase the additional sales to the store and that there are clear strategies for how the grocery stores do to influence the impulse buying behavior in the physical store. However, the study showed that grocery stores do not actively work to influence consumers' impulse buying behavior when shopping for groceries online as they do not have the power to implement them. This is because the head offices control their e-commerce.

The purpose of this study was basically fivefold: 1) to examine the historical development and significance of the retail mix as a retail management concept; 2) to identify the nature and structure of the independent variables which make up a retail management mix; 3) to distinguish the nature and significance of each variable within the structure of the retail management mix; 4) to propose and develop an interrelated set of propositions in the form of a retail management mix for retail grocery establishments belonging to a retailer-cooperative in the state of Texas; and 5) to relate the retail management mix theory to dependent variables gross profit margin, net profit margin, gross profit return on inventory, and net profit return on inventory. The major thrust of this study was to propose and research a retail management mix theory for retail grocery establishments belonging to a retailer-cooperative in the state of Texas.

Personaliserad marknadsföring är betydelsefullt för e-handeln och dess framgång. “Personaliserad marknadsföring definieras som att designa och leverera skräddarsydda produkter och tjänster till enskilda kunder, personaliserad marknadsföring innebär med andra ord differentierade erbjudanden för enskilda kunder” (Chandra, Verma, Marc Lim, Kumar & Donthu 2022, s. 1534).  Denna marknadsföringsstrategi får en ökad betydelse på nätet inom detaljhandel. Det finns bristfällig forskning gällande konsumenternas uppfattning om personaliserad marknadsföring samt bristande forskning kring kulturella aspekter inom personaliserad marknadsföring. Det finns en oro bland konsumenter för hur företag behandlar personliga uppgifter samt säkerheten kring dessa. Samtidigt har hantering av personliga uppgifter blivit ett diskuterat ämne inom EU där lagen om GDPR har tillfört att denna hantering skapat en större kontroll över personliga uppgifter. Denna studie syftar till att öka förståelsen kring personaliserad marknadsföring inom EU utifrån konsumenternas uppfattning samt att undersöka vilka faktorer som påverkar denna uppfattning. Studien avgränsas till EU då länder inom EU regleras av lagen om GDPR. För att undersöka detta har en kvalitativ forskningsstrategi tillämpats, där semistrukturerade intervjuer har genomförts med konsumenter i Sverige och Tyskland.  De teorier som tillämpats behandlar delning av personlig information, konsumentbeteende, integritet, köpintention vid personaliserad marknadsföring och individualism/kollektivism. Empirin har tillsammans med teorierna analyserats och visat på att det finns skillnader i hur svenska och tyska konsumenter uppfattar personaliserad marknadsföring.  Studiens slutsats fastställer en positiv uppfattning om personaliserad marknadsföring bland de svenska konsumenterna i större omfattning i jämförelse med de tyska konsumenterna. Studien påvisar att de svenska konsumenterna inte uppvisar en oro för integritet, en upplevd påträngning av personliga annonser samt en motvilja till att dela personlig information i lika stor utsträckning som de tyska konsumenterna. Studien kan urskilja att de tyska konsumenterna påverkas i större grad av lagen om GDPR och ytterligare en tysk lag som reglerar hantering av personliga uppgifter. Studien påvisar även att konsumenterna påverkas av två faktorer, personliga och sociala, vid val av livsmedelsvaror. Studien kan även konstatera att konsumenterna påvisar ett individualistiskt beteende vid val av livsmedelsvaror. / Personalized marketing is important to e-commerce and its success. “Personalized marketing is defined as designing and delivering tailor-made products and services to individual customers. In other words, personalized marketing involves differentiated offerings for individual customers” (Chandra, Verma, Marc Lim, Kumar & Donthu 2022, s. 1534).  This marketing strategy is gaining increased importance online in retail. There is inadequate research regarding consumers’ perceptions of personalized marketing. In addition, there is inadequate research regarding cultural aspects of personalized marketing. There is a concern among consumers about how companies process personal data and the security regarding this. At the same time, processing of personal data has become a discussed topic within the EU, where GDPR has contributed to a greater control over the processing of personal data. This study aims to increase the understanding of personalized marketing within the EU based on consumers’ perception and to study which factors influence this perception. The study is limited to the EU as countries within the EU are regulated by the law of GDPR. To investigate this, a qualitative research strategy has been applied, where semi-structured interviews have been conducted with consumers in Sweden and Germany.   The theories that are applied to this study deal with the sharing of personal information, consumer behavior, privacy, purchase intention in personalized marketing and individualism/collectivism. The collected data have been analyzed together with the theories and shown that there are differences in how Swedish consumers and German consumers perceive personalized marketing.  The conclusion of this study establishes a positive perspective of personalized marketing among the Swedish consumers to a greater extent in comparison with the German consumers. The study can prove that Swedish consumers do not show a concern for privacy, a perceived intrusion of personal advertisements and an aversion of sharing personal information to the same extent as the German consumers. The study can distinguish that German consumers are affected to a greater extent by the law on GDPR and another German law that regulates the handling of personal data. This study also shows that consumers are influenced by two factors, personal and social, when choosing food products. The study can also establish that consumers demonstrate an individualistic behavior when choosing food products.

An extensive number of previous studies have examined the consumption of organic foods from a consumer perspective, and previous studies that have examined Visual Merchandising have primarily focused on the fashion industry. The purpose of this study is to investigate how three physical grocery stores work with Visual Merchandising when displaying organic foods. Furthermore, the marketing strategies Visual Merchandising and the Marketing Mix were combined through a model illustrated in Figure 1. It was considered useful to combine these two marketing strategies as they complement and reinforce each other. The two theories have common characteristics and they therefore contribute to a comprehensive strategy that was considered valuable for the development of how organic foods are displayed in grocery stores. This multiple case study adopts a qualitative design to contribute to an in-depth understanding of the subject and the collected data. The data collection took place through semi-structured interviews with representatives from three different grocery stores in Sweden, who worked as sustainability managers or supermarket managers. The interviews were supplemented with structured observations in each store, where the departments investigated were fruit and vegetables, dairy, and colonial. The results showed that the stores studied have a beneficial display of organic food on regular shelf space, but rarely display organic food on special surfaces. Conclusions that can be drawn from the study are that the stores that were investigated worked with Visual Merchandising of organic foods to a certain extent, but that the conventional products were prioritized. The results of the study provide practical implications for grocery stores by reporting and clarifying how they work with display of organic foods, as well as how they can develop their work with Visual Merchandising desirably. The study's theoretical implications contribute to the revised theories in Figure 1. There a combination of Visual Merchandising and the Marketing Mix is proposed to examine the phenomenon from a new perspective. The study is written in Swedish. / En stor och omfattande andel tidigare studier har undersökt konsumtionen av ekologiska livsmedel ur ett konsumentperspektiv, och många av de tidigare studierna som har undersökt Visual Merchandising har främst fokuserat på modeindustrin. Denna studiens syfte är att undersöka hur tre fysiska Stora Coop-butiker arbetar med Visual Merchandising vid exponering av ekologiska livsmedel. Vidare kombinerades marknadsföringsstrategierna Visual Merchandising och Marknadsmixen tillsammans genom en modell som illustreras i Figur 1. Det sågs användbart att slå ihop dessa två marknadsföringsstrategier till en kombination då de förstärker varandra. De två teorierna ansågs besitta gemensamma egenskaper och bidrar därför till en heltäckande strategi för utvecklingen av exponering av ekologiska produkter i livsmedelsbutiker. Denna flerfallsstudie erhåller en kvalitativ design för att bidra till en djupgående förståelse av ämnet och den insamlande datan. Datainsamlingen skedde genom semistrukturerade intervjuer med representanter från tre olika Coop-butiker i Sverige, de arbetade som hållbarhetsansvarig eller stormarknadschef. Intervjuerna kompletterades med strukturerade observationer i respektive butik, där avdelningarna som undersöktes var frukt och grönt, mejeri och kolonial. Resultaten visar att de undersökta butikerna har en fördelaktig exponering av ekologiska livsmedel på ordinarie hyllplats, men exponerar sällan ekologiska livsmedel på specialytor. Slutsatser som kan dras av studien är att de butikerna som undersöktes arbetade med Visual Merchandising av ekologiska livsmedel i viss omfattning, men att de konventionella produkterna prioriterades. Studiens resultat ger praktiska implikationer för livsmedelsbutikerna genom att redovisa och tydliggöra hur de arbetar med exponering av ekologiska livsmedel, samt hur de kan utveckla sitt arbete med Visual Merchandising på ett önskvärt sätt. Studiens teoretiska implikationer bidrar med de omarbetade teorierna i Figur 1. Där föreslås en kombination av Visual Merchandising och Marknadsmixen för att undersöka fenomenet ur ett nytt perspektiv.

This is a bachelor's thesis in the area of electrical engineering as well as automation. This thesis investigates motor choice, sensor choices, and the methodology of automating a grocery store picking system prototype. The general structure of the system is composed out of two shelfs with a plane, between them, that is movable in the vertical direction. On the movable plane a conveyor belt was installed. We evaluated the motor choice for the application and the safety aspects of the system to gather a general understanding of potential risk factors involved in realizing a system that can work autonomously. It includes both electrical safety factors as well as mechanical safety factors. Additionally, we considered safety precautions to prevent malfunctions that can lead to these risks. To realize the prototype, a prestudy to investigate motor alternatives was conducted to determine the best motor choice for the application. The chosen motor was a DC steppermotor with snail gearbox. This will ensure simple regulation of the motor to sufficiently handle the weights the system needs to manage. The snail gearbox can eliminate some mechanical risk factors due to its self-locking mechanism, ensuring that if there is an electrical malfunction, such as a power failure, the system will not collapse on itself and drop the payload flat on the floor. Also, a model of the large prototype was made in a 3D-drawing software, which was then 3D-printed and set up to mimic the large prototype. The goal of the miniature model is to test the functionality and evaluate if the algorithms described in this thesis can be preserved and re-used for the large system and prototype.

This study evaluates the public market system in New Orleans, Louisiana by focusing on the history of New Orleans public markets, the privatization of food, and the "greening" of the city with the creation of the Crescent City Farmers Market and other grass roots food activist efforts. Using qualitative methods, ethnographic fieldwork, participant observation and interviewing, issues of food access, food security, food production, food locality, quality, and affordability in New Orleans are explored. The history of public markets in New Orleans and the patterns of market proliferation, regulation, and privatization are significant in the landscape of cultural self-identification, community cohesion, neighborhood networks and economic and ecological development and sustainability. The city's various food shopping arenas and their locations become markers of history, status, rebellion, and of the "other," and become centers for issues of health, economy, politics, and food.

This bachelor thesis in applied mathematics and industrial engineering aims to determine if and how weather affects the consumption of goods at small grocery stores. To study this, we conducted a regression analysis based on sales data from an ICA Nära. We have collected one year’s weather- and sales data and used mathematical statistics to determine how weather affects the sales for different product groups. Our belief is that weather does affect the consumption. Several large actors in the industry have some sort of consumption of goods forecast. None of these takes weather into account when creating their sale forecast. Hopefully, this thesis will provide information aiding companies in deciding whether or not to use weather forecasts as a prediction parameter.  The results indicate a large effect on sales for some groups of products. The regression reveals how much the sale of a group increase along with an increase of one unit of the different measured weather factors. There is, most likely, not a perfect linear relation between our response variable and the explanatory variables. Therefore, one must interpret the results carefully. In addition, we discuss how a possible implementation affects the supply chain of a large grocery store company and the importance of flexibility in one’s supply chain. / Detta kandidatexamensarbete i tillämpad matematik och industriell ekonomi syftar till att undersöka korrelationen mellan väderlek och försäljning av vissa sorters varor i en mindre matbutik. Genom att genomföra en regressionsanalys baserat på säljdata från en ICA Nära och väderdata från SMHI kan vi undersöka sambandet. Förhoppningsvis ger arbetet ett tydligare beslutsunderlag gällande huruvida företag bör implementera väderleksprognoser i sina varuåtgångsprognoser. Varuåtgångsprognoser är något flera stora aktörer på marknaden använder sig av, ingen av dessa tar väderprognoser i beaktning. Vi har antagit att väderlek påverkar försäljningen av varor. Resultaten påvisar en stark relation mellan väder och försäljning för vissa varugrupper. Emellertid måste resultatet tolkas på rätt sätt, det visar en ökning i försäljning av en grupp varor då väderparametern ökar med en enhet. Detta skulle beskriva verkligheten perfekt förutsatt att det existerar ett linjärt samband mellan vädret och försäljningen, vilket det förmodligen inte gör. Följaktligen ska resultaten tolkas aktsamt.  Utöver genomförda regressionsanalys har ”supply chain” diskuterats. Matvaruföretags ”supply chains” påverkas om de förändrar sin prognostisering av varuåtgång. Den främsta effekten är att det sätter krav på hur nära inpå en butik kan beställa innan de får leveransen. Således blir ”supply chain flexibility” en viktig aspekt för att företaget ska ha möjlighet att implementera förändringar.