Most research on place in retailing and marketing examines retail atmospherics, spectacular consumption, third spaces and logistics. This study lies at the confluence of retailing, marketing, and geography, and focuses on the city as the product consumed by its residents. The study seeks to examine the degree to which the retail landscape of a city affects the residents' perceived value of the city, their urban identity, and ultimately, their willingness-to-pay to live there. In order to answer this question, this study utilized mixed research methods consisting of a survey, based on several adapted existing perceived value scales; an urban identity scale; a willingness-to-pay scale; as well as archival geodata used to map the existing and perceived retail landscapes of Tucson and San Francisco–the two cities of interest in this study. These two cities were chosen because they are on opposite ends of a spectrum of US cities that includes cost of living and median income, among other variables. Results show that perceived value of the city and urban identity are very highly correlated and suggest the existence of a new construct. While the retail landscape in Tucson tends to have a positive effect on residents' affective responses to living there, there results are not statistically significant. The relatively low cost of living may play a role in these expectations. Residents accept the existing retail landscape and tend to make do with the options available. In San Francisco, because residents already pay a premium to live there, the retail landscape plays a more statistically significant role in residents' affective responses to living there. These results are important to retailers and marketers because retail expenditures form a large part of the tax revenue a city earns each year. If residents are unhappy with their retail patronage options, they may spend money elsewhere resulting in a decreased tax base from which to run the city.

Abstract Background The food retail business is characterized by fierce competition between a few large actors and low switching costs for consumers due to the similar offerings of the stores. In an oligopolistic market struc- ture like this it is critical for stores to create a loyal customer base in order to gain a competitive advantage. This is achieved through gen- erating customer satisfaction, which is an outcome of a positive evaluation of the store image. In the market of Jönköping there is one hypermarket, Ica Maxi, which enjoys a dominating market position over its two closest competitors, Coop Forum and City Gross, which must mean that more consumers chose to make their grocery shopping at this particular store. Therefore it is interesting to investigate the store image perceptions that the consumers of Jönköping hold of these three hypermarkets, and whether there is large difference be- tween them.  Purpose The main purpose of this thesis is to find out and measure how consumers in Jönköping perceive the store images of the three hyper- markets operating in the city, and what importance the different parts of the retail mix weighs on the consumers choice in what store to frequent. Further it aims to analyze the findings from the study in order to investigate if there are any differences in the store image perceptions, and if they might help explain a part of the dominating position Ica Maxi holds on the market.  Method Since store image is already a well defined concept within the marketing literature, it was most suitable to conduct a quantitative rather than a qualitative study. This was implemented through a questionnaire that was distributed to three separate samples, one per investigated hypermarket. The data collected was then processed mainly through One-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), which allowed for comparisons between the three samples.  Conclusion The consumers of Jönköping ranked the influence of the store image dimensions on their choice of hypermarket as following; (1) mer- chandise, (2) customer service, (3) reputation, (4) location, (5) price, (6) store layout and design, and (7) advertising and promotion. The perceptions held of the stores images were different between the stores. Ica Maxi was shown to have the most positive store image, closely followed by City Gross, and Coop Forum had a significantly less favorable image than both its competitors. The difference between Ica Maxi and Coop Forum does explain why the stores have such different market shares. However, there was not a large enough difference in Ica Maxi’s and City Gross’ scores to justify the market share gap between them solely based on store image.

The thesis is dealing with retail which goes through the continually changes. I focus on improvement of competitive postition store COOP in Planá u Mariánských Lázní. Several recommendation which arise during this thesis could improve the market position.

E-handeln växer mer och mer för varje år och det har aldrig någonsin varit lättare att köpa produkterän vad det är idag. För fysiska butiker är det därför viktigt att använda sina konkurrensmedel,marknadsföringsstrategier och handelsmiljö på rätt sätt för att överleva på marknaden och för attöverleva konkurrensen från den växande e-handeln. De fysiska butikerna behöver fokusera på hur dekan vara konkurrenskraftiga på marknaden för att inte bli utkonkurrerade av e-handeln. Syftet medstudien är att undersöka hur lokala klädbutiker utan e-handel överlever och bemöter konkurrensen fråne-handeln.Vi har använt oss utav en kvalitativ metod för att kunna besvara vår frågeställning och vårt syfte. Vigenomförde kvalitativa intervjuer med fyra butiksägare av fyra små butiker som inte har någon ehandel,och vi analyserade sedan deras svar genom att jämföra svaren som vi fick med det valdateoretiska ramverk som vi använt oss av i studien och även med tidigare forskning inom ämnet. Vigjorde även observationer hos dessa fyra butiker.Slutsatsen som dragits av undersökningen är att mindre butiker överlever på marknaden genom att haen god service och lojala kunder. Det är dessutom inte lönt för mindre butiker att starta en e-handel dådet resulterar i mer jobb och kostnader. / The e-commerce is growing every year and the opportunities to purchase products such as clotheshave never been easier than it is today. For the physical stores it is now important to use theircompetitive tools, marketing strategies, trading environment in the right way to survive the expand ofe-commerce. Their focus needs to be on how to conquer their market as a store and to not get outconquered by the e-commerce. The purpose of this study is while the e-commerce is expanding andtaking over more market shares how does the physical stores react and what kind of competitive toolscan they use to keep the sales up and going without an online store.We used a qualitative research method to answer that question. We conducted interviews with fourowners of shops that does not have an online store, and analyzed the answers by comparing them toour chosen theoretical framework and previous studies. We also made observations at these fourstores.The conclusion drawn from the survey is that smaller stores survive in the market by having goodservice and loyal customers. Furthermore, it is not worthwhile for smaller stores to start an ecommerceas this results in more jobs and costs.

This diploma thesis deals with the causes of division of customer preferences towards individual retail units in the town of Blatná in order to recommend proposals for improvement for the consumer cooperative COOP. The theoretical overview provides basic information about food retailers in the Czech Republic, presents the formats of stores, attitudes of shoppers to food stores, individual elements of the retail mix or other factors influencing customer attitudes towards the store which can be influenced by retailers. The practical part relates to the food chains in Blatná and it is focused on identifying the respondents' favourite and main shopping place, the reasons for dividing customer preferences towards retail units, researching attitudes toward retail units and evaluating the retail mix of these stores. The practical part consists of two parts, a questionnaire survey focused on customers of food stores in Blatná, and research from these stores. Subsequently, it is possible to define respondents' attitudes towards food retailers in Blatná and their buying behavior. The survey in retail formats is used to identify and evaluate the core elements of the retail mix of individual stores. Thanks to these procedures it is possible to define improvement suggestions for COOP Tip in Blatná.

Made available in DSpace on 2010-04-20T20:48:45Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 3 61728.pdf.jpg: 13824 bytes, checksum: a8056fefb2442188ad66b376a433a704 (MD5) 61728.pdf: 2328161 bytes, checksum: b6ceb6a8c656bf07632bad6af4918757 (MD5) 61728.pdf.txt: 461355 bytes, checksum: 0d34dfb5490d953ae1de28c154dc8d89 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2006-06-22T00:00:00Z / Upon a decade of business Internet in Brazil is celebrated, specialists are unanimous to state that it did not only come for good but it has chiefly led many businesses to adopt new channels, industries to rethink their focuses, having introduced them to new ways of assisting their customers, besides having prompted changes in management, operations, and development of their strategies. Such a context serves as basis to outline this study’s main purpose, which is to investigate the integration phenomenon in the multichannel retail trade of Brazilian companies focused on the bookstore business. Multichannel retail means the companies’ know-how of making available to their customers more than one channel for them to shop, with physical stores and business sites in Web environment being prominent. This research's particular purpose is to understand the studied companies’ goals when adopting the multichannel retail technique if compared to the expansion strategy, how the already existing competitive advantages were leveraged with the integration of virtual stores, which is the degree of activities integration in both physical and virtual environments as regards management, operations, and measurement, as well as concerning variables of “The Six P’s of the Retail Mix” endeavoring to ascertain how they are found in the different stages of integration. For such purpose, the theoretical reference tried to add to the Multichannel Retail concept the elements of the already established concepts of Growth Strategy, Strategic Business Unit (SBUs), and Synergy. This qualitative research was carried out with three bookstore chains with strong nationwide presence. The results found show that the surveyed companies managed to expand their businesses and leverage their competitive advantages, integrating distinctively the management, operations, and measurement, as well as the variables of their retail-trade compound, placing them in different stages of integration of both their physical and virtual channels. / Quando se comemora uma década da Internet comercial no Brasil, é consenso entre os estudiosos que ela não apenas chegou para ficar, mas principalmente, levou muitos negócios a adotarem novos canais, setores a repensarem seus enfoques e indicou novas formas de atender a seus clientes, além de ter provocado mudanças na gestão, operações e formulação de suas estratégias. Neste contexto delineia-se o principal objetivo deste estudo que é investigar o fenômeno da integração no varejo multicanal em empresas brasileiras do setor varejista direcionadas à comercialização de livros. Entende-se por varejo multicanal a disponibilização por parte das empresas de mais de um canal para que seus clientes possam realizar suas compras, com a predominância de lojas físicas e sites comerciais em ambiente Web. O estudo tem por objetivos específicos entender os propósitos das empresas estudadas na adoção do varejo multicanal em relação à estratégia de expansão, como as vantagens competitivas já existentes foram alavancadas com a integração da loja virtual, qual o grau de integração das atividades nos ambientes físico e virtual em relação à gestão, operações e mensuração e no que se refere às variáveis do composto varejista, procurando levantar como estão situadas nos diferentes estágios de integração. Para tanto o referencial teórico procurou adicionar ao conceito de Varejo Multicanal, os elementos dos conceitos consagrados de Estratégia de Crescimento, Unidade Estratégica de Negócios (UENs) e Sinergia. A pesquisa de caráter exploratório foi conduzida em três redes de livrarias com forte presença nacional. Os resultados encontrados mostram que as empresas estudadas conseguiram expandir seus negócios e alavancar suas vantagens competitivas, integrando de forma distinta a gestão, operações e mensuração, bem como as variáveis de seu composto varejista, situando-as em diferentes estágios de integração de seus canais físico e virtual.