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Sales and Firm Entry: The Case of Wal-Mart

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Abstract

Temporary price reductions or "sales" have become increasingly important in the evolution of the price level. We present a model of repeated price competition to illustrate how entry causes incumbents to alternate between high and low prices. Using a six year panel of weekly observations from a grocery chain, we find that individual stores employ more sales as the distance to Wal-Mart falls. Moreover, the increase in the frequency of sales was concentrated on the most popular products, suggesting the use of a loss-leader strategy.

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  • Glandon, PJ & Jaremski, Matthew, 2012. "Sales and Firm Entry: The Case of Wal-Mart," Working Papers 2012-03, Department of Economics, Colgate University.
    • Handle: RePEc:cgt:wpaper:2012-03
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    Cited by:

    1. Bauner, Christoph & Wang, Emily, 2019. "The effect of competition on pricing and product positioning: Evidence from wholesale club entry," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Wal-Mart; Retail Prices; Price Competition; Temporary Sales Prices;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E30 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - General (includes Measurement and Data)
    • L11 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Production, Pricing, and Market Structure; Size Distribution of Firms
    • L13 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Oligopoly and Other Imperfect Markets

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