Market entry effects of large format retailers: a stakeholder analysis

Identifies the effects associated with the entry of a large format (“big box”) retailer into a new market, especially a smaller one. A large format retailer can be a discount department store, category specialist, warehouse club, superstore, supercenter or hypermarket. In order to identify these effects, a review was made of published and unpublished studies. In addition, interviews were conducted among key informants including developers, urban planners and professionals, economic development officers, retail executives and store managers. The result of this research includes a documentation, analysis and discussion of numerous effects, including benefits to the consumer, differences in the demographics of large format store shoppers, rapid growth in the sales and market share of the new entrant, growth in the community economy, growth and decline in various commercial sectors, decline in the economy of nearby markets, creation and losses of jobs, and increases and decreases in market efficiency. Given these effects, suggests implications for each community stakeholder. Listed are a large number of questions for future research.