IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/inm/ormksc/v29y2010i5p858-879.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

An Empirical Analysis of Assortment Similarities Across U.S. Supermarkets

Author

Listed:
  • Minha Hwang

    (UCLA Anderson School of Management, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California 90095)

  • Bart J. Bronnenberg

    (CentER, Tilburg School of Economics and Management, Tilburg University, 5000 LE Tilburg, The Netherlands)

  • Raphael Thomadsen

    (UCLA Anderson School of Management, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California 90095)

Abstract

This paper examines pairwise assortment similarities at U.S. supermarkets to understand how assortment composition and size are related to underlying factors that describe local store clientele, local competitive structure, and the retail outlets' characteristics. The top-selling items, which cumulatively make up 50% of sales, are sold at nearly every store, but other items are viewed as optional. We find that, within states, supermarkets owned by the same chain carry similar assortments and that the composition of their clientele and the presence of competing stores have effects on assortment similarity that are an order of magnitude smaller than ownership structure. In contrast, we find that, across states, supermarkets owned by the same chain do version their assortment. We explain this difference using extant work on the minimal efficient scale of supermarkets and on local demand effects. Furthermore, we investigate the distribution and role of regional brands. We find that regional brands are primarily distributed by small regional chains or independent stores. "Value" regional brands are primarily distributed by supermarket firms without store brands, whereas the distribution of "premium" regional brands is unrelated to the presence of store brands. We discuss our findings in the context of modeling assortment decisions and manufacturers designing distribution policies.

Suggested Citation

  • Minha Hwang & Bart J. Bronnenberg & Raphael Thomadsen, 2010. "An Empirical Analysis of Assortment Similarities Across U.S. Supermarkets," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 29(5), pages 858-879, 09-10.
    • Handle: RePEc:inm:ormksc:v:29:y:2010:i:5:p:858-879
    DOI: 10.1287/mksc.1100.0564
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/mksc.1100.0564
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1287/mksc.1100.0564?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Paul B. Ellickson, 2007. "Does Sutton apply to supermarkets?," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 38(1), pages 43-59, March.
    2. Ron Borzekowski & Raphael Thomadsen & Charles Taragin, 2009. "Competition and price discrimination in the market for mailing lists," Quantitative Marketing and Economics (QME), Springer, vol. 7(2), pages 147-179, June.
    3. Jaffe, Adam B, 1986. "Technological Opportunity and Spillovers of R&D: Evidence from Firms' Patents, Profits, and Market Value," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 76(5), pages 984-1001, December.
    4. Jeffrey H. Fischer & Joseph E. Harrington Jr., 1996. "Product Variety and Firm Agglomeration," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 27(2), pages 281-309, Summer.
    5. Justin P. Johnson & David P. Myatt, 2003. "Multiproduct Quality Competition: Fighting Brands and Product Line Pruning," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 93(3), pages 748-774, June.
    6. Darlene Chisholm & Margaret McMillan & George Norman, 2010. "Product differentiation and film-programming choice: do first-run movie theatres show the same films?," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 34(2), pages 131-145, May.
    7. A. Gürhan Kök & Marshall L. Fisher, 2007. "Demand Estimation and Assortment Optimization Under Substitution: Methodology and Application," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 55(6), pages 1001-1021, December.
    8. Tarun Khanna & Joe Kogan & Krishna Palepu, 2006. "Globalization and Similarities in Corporate Governance: A Cross-Country Analysis," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 88(1), pages 69-90, February.
    9. Nevo, Aviv, 2001. "Measuring Market Power in the Ready-to-Eat Cereal Industry," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 69(2), pages 307-342, March.
    10. Michaela Draganska & Michael Mazzeo & Katja Seim, 2009. "Beyond plain vanilla: Modeling joint product assortment and pricing decisions," Quantitative Marketing and Economics (QME), Springer, vol. 7(2), pages 105-146, June.
    11. Peter Boatwright & Sanjay Dhar & Peter Rossi, 2004. "The Role of Retail Competition, Demographics and Account Retail Strategy as Drivers of Promotional Sensitivity," Quantitative Marketing and Economics (QME), Springer, vol. 2(2), pages 169-190, June.
    12. William Simpson, 2001. "The Quadratic Assignment Procedure (QAP)," North American Stata Users' Group Meetings 2001 1.2, Stata Users Group.
    13. Barry L. Bayus & William P. Putsis, Jr., 1999. "Product Proliferation: An Empirical Analysis of Product Line Determinants and Market Outcomes," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 18(2), pages 137-153.
    14. Jeffrey M. Wooldridge, 2003. "Cluster-Sample Methods in Applied Econometrics," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 93(2), pages 133-138, May.
    15. David Besanko & Jean-Pierre Dubé & Sachin Gupta, 2005. "Own-Brand and Cross-Brand Retail Pass-Through," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 24(1), pages 123-137, July.
    16. Kenneth S. Corts, 2001. "The Strategic Effects of Vertical Market Structure: Common Agency and Divisionalization in the US Motion Picture Industry," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 10(4), pages 509-528, December.
    17. Ganesh Iyer & P. Seetharaman, 2008. "Too close to be similar: Product and price competition in retail gasoline markets," Quantitative Marketing and Economics (QME), Springer, vol. 6(3), pages 205-234, September.
    18. Timothy J. Richards & Stephen F. Hamilton, 2006. "Rivalry in Price and Variety among Supermarket Retailers," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 88(3), pages 710-726.
    19. Sanjay K. Dhar & Stephen J. Hoch, 1997. "Why Store Brand Penetration Varies by Retailer," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 16(3), pages 208-227.
    20. Stephen J. Hoch & Eric T. Bradlow & Brian Wansink, 1999. "The Variety of an Assortment," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 18(4), pages 527-546.
    21. Kaufmann, Patrick J. & Eroglu, Sevgin, 1999. "Standardization and adaptation in business format franchising," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 14(1), pages 69-85, January.
    22. Andrew Sweeting, 2010. "The effects of mergers on product positioning: evidence from the music radio industry," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 41(2), pages 372-397, June.
    23. Gil, Ricard, 2007. ""Make-or-buy" in movies: Integration and ex-post renegotiation," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 25(4), pages 643-655, August.
    24. Randal Watson, 2009. "Product Variety And Competition In The Retail Market For Eyeglasses," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 57(2), pages 217-251, June.
    25. Mantrala, Murali K. & Levy, Michael & Kahn, Barbara E. & Fox, Edward J. & Gaidarev, Peter & Dankworth, Bill & Shah, Denish, 2009. "Why is Assortment Planning so Difficult for Retailers? A Framework and Research Agenda," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 85(1), pages 71-83.
    26. Michaela Draganska & Dipak C. Jain, 2005. "Product‐Line Length as a Competitive Tool," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 14(1), pages 1-28, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Hwang, M. & Bronnenberg, B.J. & Thomadsen, R., 2010. "An empirical analysis of assortment similarities across U.S. supermarkets," Other publications TiSEM adc990b3-1d5b-4fab-8679-a, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    2. A. Yeşim Orhun & Sriram Venkataraman & Pradeep K. Chintagunta, 2016. "Impact of Competition on Product Decisions: Movie Choices of Exhibitors," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 35(1), pages 73-92, January.
    3. Meilin Ma & Ralph Siebert, 2021. "The Impact of Private Label Introduction on Assortment, Prices, and Profits of Retailers," CESifo Working Paper Series 9380, CESifo.
    4. Qin, Fei & Ma, Meilin, 2022. "Unit Pricing Regulation and Non-Price Responses of Retailers: Evidence from the U.S. Yogurt Market," 2022 Annual Meeting, July 31-August 2, Anaheim, California 322243, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    5. Argentesi, Elena & Buccirossi, Paolo & Cervone, Roberto & Duso, Tomaso & Marrazzo, Alessia, 2021. "The effect of mergers on variety in grocery retailing," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    6. Cosman, Jacob & Schiff, Nathan, 2019. "Delivery in the city: evidence on monopolistic competition from New York restaurants," MPRA Paper 96617, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Elena Argentesi & Paolo Buccirossi & Roberto Cervone & Tomaso Duso & Alessia Marrazzo, 2018. "Price or Variety? An Evaluation of Mergers Effects in Grocery Retailing," CESifo Working Paper Series 7035, CESifo.
    8. Anocha Aribarg & Neeraj Arora, 2008. "—Interbrand Variant Overlap: Impact on Brand Preference and Portfolio Profit," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 27(3), pages 474-491, 05-06.
    9. Yonezawa, Koichi & Richards, Timothy J., 2016. "Competitive Package Size Decisions," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 92(4), pages 445-469.
    10. Schiff, Nathan & Cosman, Jacob & Dai, Tianran, 2023. "Delivery in the city: Differentiated products competition among New York restaurants," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).
    11. Barbara Kahn & Alexander Chernev & Ulf Böckenholt & Kate Bundorf & Michaela Draganska & Ryan Hamilton & Robert Meyer & Klaus Wertenbroch, 2014. "Consumer and managerial goals in assortment choice and design," Marketing Letters, Springer, vol. 25(3), pages 293-303, September.
    12. Tang, Christopher S., 2010. "A review of marketing-operations interface models: From co-existence to coordination and collaboration," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 125(1), pages 22-40, May.
    13. Park, Jisoo & Dayarian, Iman & Montreuil, Benoit, 2021. "Showcasing optimization in omnichannel retailing," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 294(3), pages 895-905.
    14. Liran Einav, 2010. "Not All Rivals Look Alike: Estimating An Equilibrium Model Of The Release Date Timing Game," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 48(2), pages 369-390, April.
    15. Marco A. Marini, 2018. "Collusive agreements in vertically differentiated markets," Chapters, in: Luis C. Corchón & Marco A. Marini (ed.), Handbook of Game Theory and Industrial Organization, Volume II, chapter 3, pages 34-56, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    16. Darlene Chisholm & Margaret McMillan & George Norman, 2010. "Product differentiation and film-programming choice: do first-run movie theatres show the same films?," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 34(2), pages 131-145, May.
    17. S. Sriram & Pradeep K. Chintagunta & Ramya Neelamegham, 2006. "Effects of Brand Preference, Product Attributes, and Marketing Mix Variables in Technology Product Markets," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 25(5), pages 440-456, September.
    18. Sethuraman, Raj & Gázquez-Abad, Juan Carlos & Martínez-López, Francisco J., 2022. "The effect of retail assortment size on perceptions, choice, and sales: Review and research directions," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 98(1), pages 24-45.
    19. Crawford, Gregory & Shcherbakov, Oleksandr & Shum, Matthew, 2015. "The Welfare E ects of Endogenous Quality Choice in Cable Television Markets," CEPR Discussion Papers 10793, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    20. Dekimpe, Marnik G. & Gielens, Katrijn & Raju, Jagmohan & Thomas, Jacquelyn S., 2011. "Strategic Assortment Decisions in Information-Intensive and Turbulent Environments," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 87(S1), pages 17-28.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:inm:ormksc:v:29:y:2010:i:5:p:858-879. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Asher (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/inforea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.