The thesis deals with mystery shopping and its use in practice. The goal of thesis is to identify and analyze the possibilities to use this method as a tool for the effective control of sales staff. The thesis is divided into three chapters. The first chapter contains information about retailing and its division. The second chapter deals with mystery shopping including: introduction of the method and its history, MS technics, internationally valid standards for MS and characteristic of the mystery shopper. The last chapter focuses on practical research which was carried out in cooperation with O'Neill company.

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Some U.S. e-commerce retail organizations use inadequate visual product presentation strategies that are limited to static product images and uninspiring textual descriptions. E-store customers have a stake because they are the beneficiary of the higher quality online shopping experience produced when rich media is used. Viewed through richness media theory, the purpose of this summative program evaluation was to evaluate the effectiveness of using rich media in e-store product listings. The evaluation was performed for a partner organization 1 year after the organization implemented a rich media implementation program in its e-store product listings. The results of the first repeated measures t tests indicated using rich media in e-store product listings increased annual sales revenue by 14.2% and total profit dollars by 8.8%; however, the results of a weekly profit comparison between 2016 and 2017 were not statistically significant, t(52) = .768, p = .446. The results of the second repeated measures t test indicated customer retention increased by 7.4% annually after implementing the rich media implementation program; however, the results of a weekly customer retention comparison between 2016 and 2017 were not statistically significant, t(52) = 2.002, p =.051. The results of the thematic analysis revealed one theme: maintaining rich media must be cost effective. The implications for positive social change include the potential for increasing consumer trust in convenient, e-retail shopping practices and reducing consumer dependency on inefficient shopping practices at traditional brick-and-mortar stores. Consumers with more detailed product information can make more informed purchase decisions, resulting in a reduced number of product returns and a higher quality online shopping experience.

Modern SSDs are getting faster and smarter with near-data computing capabilities. Due to their design choices, traditional key-value stores do not fully leverage these new storage devices. These key-value stores become CPU-bound even before fully utilizing the IO bandwidth. LSM or B+ tree-based key-value stores involve complex garbage collection and store sorted keys and complicated synchronization mechanisms. In this work, we propose a cross-layered key-value store named Retina that decouples the design to delegate control path manipulations to host CPU and data path manipulations to computational SSD to maximize performance and reduce compute bottlenecks. We employ many design choices not explored in other persistent key-value stores to achieve this goal. In addition to the cross-layered design paradigm, Retina introduces a new caching mechanism called Mirror cache, support for variable key-value pairs, and a novel version-based crash consistency model. By enabling all the design features, we equip Retina to reduce compute hotspots on the host CPU, take advantage of the on-storage accelerators to leverage the data locality on the computational storage, improve overall bandwidth and reduce the bandwidth net- work latencies. Thus when evaluated using YCSB, we observe the CPU utilization reduced by 4x and throughput performance improvement of 20.5% against the state-of-the-art for read-intensive workloads. / Master of Science / Modern secondary storage systems are providing an exponential increase in memory access speeds. In addition, new generation storage systems attach compute resources near data to offload computation to storage. Traditional datastore systems are lacking in performance when used with the new generation SSDs (Solid State Drive). The key reason is the SSDs are underutilized due to CPU bottlenecks. Due to design choices, conventional datastores incur expensive CPU tasks that cause the CPU to bottleneck even before the storage speeds are fully utilized. Thus, when attached to a modern SSD, conventional datastores will underutilize the storage resources. In this work, we propose a cross-layered key-value store named Retina that decouples the design to delegate control path manipulations to host CPU and data path manipulations to computational SSD to maximize performance and reduce compute bottlenecks. In addition to the cross-layered design paradigm, Retina introduces a new caching mechanism called Mirror cache and a novel version-based crash consistency model. By enabling all the design features, we equip Retina to reduce compute hotspots on the host CPU, take advantage of the on-storage accelerators to leverage the data locality on the computational storage and improve overall access speed. To evaluate Retina, we use throughput and CPU utilization as the comparison metric. We test our implementation with Yahoo Cloud Serving Benchmark, a popular datastore benchmark. We evaluate against RocksDB(the most widely adopted datastore) to enable fair performance comparison. In conclusion, we show that Retina key-value store improves the throughput performance by offloading logic to computational storage to reduce the CPU bottlenecks.

Title: Customer satisfaction with the service of the store Sportex.cz Leader: Mgr. Jan Šíma Objectives: The aim of this work is to use the survey to find out the customer satisfaction with the service of the sports store Sportex.cz. Furthermore, based on the results of questionnaires, to propose new solutions and the arrangement for the existing sports shop Sportex.cz. If the customers are satisfied with the purchase, they will visit this store for further purchases in the future again. Methods: Quantitative research using electronic and written questioning Results: Customers are most satisfied with the service and retail facilities. Assortment is considered to be above average. The weakest aspect appears to be the availability and location of the store. Based on the results, as the main pillar of changes, it was recommended extending the range of the new products, introduce light banner in front of the store, extend the opening hours, buy of the receipt printer and rethink the pricing policy. Keywords: Sports store, staff, store equipment, merchandising

Healthy food store availability is by no means equitable, that is supermarkets and supercenters are not located nearby for certain populations. Shopping at healthy food stores is important, as dietary intake is associated with adverse health outcomes, which disproportionally affects racial and ethnic minorities. Yet rural areas and disadvantaged neighborhoods—low income or predominantly racial/ethnic minority compositions—have few healthy food store options available near home. Thus residents must use more resources to access them or make do with what is available close by. However, little is known about the characteristics associated with shopping at healthy food stores or shopping near home. Thus the purpose of this study was to examine predictors of shopping at healthy food stores and shopping within increasing distances from home. This study used data from the USDA’s National Household Food Acquisition and Purchase Survey (FoodAPS) which asked about household food purchasing behaviors. The FoodAPS data set was used to conduct a secondary data analysis of US households (N = 4,826) that was a nationally representative sample. A series of multilevel logistic regression models were conducted to examine the four research questions guiding this study. The four questions examined predictors of: (1) shopping at a healthy food store, (2) shopping at a healthy food store among rural and suburban respondents, (3) shopping within increasing distances from home, and (4) shopping within increasing distances from home among healthy food store shoppers. Results indicated that Hispanic/Latino and other racial/ethnic minority, the distance of travel to the store, and the number of food stores available within 5.0 miles were negatively associated with shopping at a healthy food store. In addition, among rural and urban/suburban respondents had differing predictors of shopping at a healthy food store. Predictors of shopping within increasing distances from home included car to store and living in rural areas. Respondents who used a car as the transportation to the store were less likely to shop within 2.0 miles of home or less. Not surprisingly, rural respondents were also less likely to shop within 5.0 miles of home or less. Several control variables were significant predictors of shopping within increasing distances from home which were unexpected. Results in some instances were surprising and contradictory to findings from past studies. Thus these results are discussed and are compared and contrasted with past studies. The results of this study have practice implications for social workers. Social work practitioners working with individuals can advocate for improving client access in their communities by improving and introducing programming whose goal is to connect people to food resources. Social workers engaged in policy efforts can work at the local, state, and national levels by working in multidisciplinary groups to improve existing programs and prioritize funding that improves issues of equality. While this study examined predictors among a nationally representative sample, it is important for future research to look at differences specifically among age groups, racial and ethnic minorities, and rural residents.

This study focuses on the variability of Canadian's value added meat purchase patterns by animal species, by level of processing, by branding and by grocery store chains. The results highlight that meat price, advertising and household socio-demographic characteristics and regional segments are strongly related to meat demand. The findings also indicate that there is no one correct pattern of meat product development across animal products from different species. In addition grocery store meat purchase exhibits little store loyalty most households purchase meat at more than one store chain regularly. The implications of the study suggest the importance of meat marketing segmentation by socioeconomic and household demographic factors in the development of marketing programs and product promotion for the food industry in general and meat industry to expand sales by targeting marketing strategies. Public health implications include the fact that habit persistence is important and likely an impediment to behaviour changes. / Agricultural and Resource Economics

The study examines the phenomenon of purchasing locally produced foods in retail grocery stores. Theoretical foundations from the theory of planned behavior and from the stimulus-organism-response framework were used to support and test a model that hypothesized relationships between attitude, subjective norms, perceived consumer effectiveness, perceived product availability, intention to purchase, store atmospheric responsiveness, price consciousness, and extent of purchase behavior in a retail grocery setting. An online survey methodology was used to collect 600 responses across the United States. A two-step approach to structural equation modeling was used to test the relationships. Confirmatory factor analysis with measurement model development supported the hypotheses of store atmospheric responsiveness as a multidimensional construct reflected in four specific dimensions (1) product assortment responsiveness, (2) display factors responsiveness, (3) customer service responsiveness, and (4) store promotions responsiveness. The construct of perceived consumer effectiveness (PCE) was found to highly correlate with attitude and PCE was subsequently dropped as an independent latent construct. Results from analysis of the fitted structural model indicated that attitude and perceived product availability were significant positive indicators of intention to purchase, while subjective norms indicated a significant negative relationship to intention to purchase. A significant positive direct effect between intention to purchase and extent of purchase and a significant positive indirect effect through that of store atmospheric responsiveness was found, suggesting that store atmospheric responsiveness partially mediates the relationship. Consumer price consciousness was found to not significantly moderate the relationship between intention to purchase and extent of purchase. From the results, academic and managerial implications were suggested. For future research directions, four distinct categories emerged; they included (1) a focus on store atmospherics, specifically store atmospheric responsiveness when shopping for locally produced foods, (2) analysis of group differences between shoppers of locally produced foods, (3) category analysis of locally produced food items, and (4) research on the pricing of locally produced foods.

The launch of Apple iPhone brings the success of App Store application platform, which turns the structure of mobile software industry as well as creating a brand new application business model. It changes not only environment of mobile industry and supply chains, but also the using behaviors of mobile phone users. This research applies wildscale biobligraphy analysis, case study and Delphi method, trying to analyze the market status, business model of application platform. Using 2-phase interviews with smart phone users, developers, and operator, and SWOT and Porter¡¦s Five Force Analysis model to study the business model and strategies for operator¡¦s application platform. The research discovers that telecommunication operator has serveral advantages, such as holding huge user base and payment safety; however, economic scope and service efficiency is the key to the success. Operator should use its strengths and cope with the changing user behavior to create more added value.

The main purpose of this research is to discuss about the different positioning strategies of shopping centers with a case study of the Core Pacific City Living Mall (¨ÊµØ«°), including its managerial mission and marketing positioning. The structure of the analysis starts with the discussion about the definition of ¡§Living Mall¡¨. Is there any difference between shopping centers and department stores? The article is based on the development trends of the macro economy, consumer purchasing power, and the Core Pacific City Living Mall¡¦s current situation, strength and weakness of the related strategies, market positioning, competitor analysis, and other relative comparisons. It also includes a total strategic planning by evaluating the business strategic goal and managerial mission of the Core Pacific City Living Mall in the Greater Taipei area. First of all, the external and internal environments and the competitors¡¦ positioning strategies are evaluated, in order to find out the opportunity and treat for the Core Pacific City Living Mall. The strength and weakness of the organization in the developing phase can also be found. Secondly, the strategic planning, including strategic thinking and the fundamental competitive strategies are then formed. Finally, the strategy can be executed through the opertions of the business area, the conditions of the stores, consumers and marketing plans. Based on these, the positioning strategy of the shopping center can be seen.