Grocery retail dynamics and store choice

In response to maturing markets and declining growth, retailers in Europe and the United States alike have been forced to rethink their business. In this dissertation, two recent phenomena are studied that are increasingly being used by retailers in response to this trend: store acquisitions and channel blurring. The first essay posits that, when patronizing stores, consumers may not only exhibit loyalty to a retail chain, but also to a specific outlet. It derives the extent to which consumers exhibit such outlet loyalty, and tests how the positioning of the acquiring chain alters consumers’ adherence to the acquired outlet. The second essay goes one step further and studies how the geo-temporal pattern of store conversion after a large-scale acquisition, affects consumers’ store choice process and, hence, the performance of the acquiring fi rm. In the third essay, the focus lies on across- rather than within-channel competition. It explores promotion-based competition between supermarkets and drug chains, for categories where their assortments overlap, and compares the effect of price promotions on category sales, both within and across channels. Overall, this dissertation sheds light on the dynamics in the retail marketplace and their impact on store choice – insights that retail managers can put to proper use.