Vesna Brčić-Stipčević

Grocery store attributes in recovering economies: an empirical investigation of their importance, using three-component contour plotting.

The authors share results of a study conducted to measure the attributes of grocery stores that are the most important for consumers in a market recovering from war and transitioning to a market economy. Applying a trilinear coordinate plot, the authors develop a model that consists of those attributes. The findings led to conclusions that services and location, rather than the historically favored attribute of price, increasingly are key factors affecting store choice. Managerial implications are discussed and future research directions are suggested.

Towards a framework for identifying „food desserts“ in Croatia

According to Laurence (1998, in Guy, Clarke, Eyre, 2004), ‘food deserts’ are ‘areas of inner cities, where cheap, nutritious food is virtually unobtainable. Car-less residents, unable to reach out-of-town supermarkets, depend on the corner shop where prices are high, products are processed and fresh fruit and vegetable are poor or non-existent’. In literature exist as many different definitions of ‘food deserts’ as there are authors who researched them. Nevertheless, the issue of unavailability of well stocked supermarkets and local stores, primarily in fresh products, such as fresh fruit and vegetable, results in an uneven access to healthy balanced diet for some inhabitants, an extremely poor diet, that leads to a whole range of health issues. An unhealthy population is inefficient in their private and professional activities, they are unproductive and in the end, the community bears the costs of their treatments, absence from work and various forms of social support. ‘Food deserts’ have been identified in cities of UK, USA, Canada and Australia. In Croatia, there has been no similar research, which is important in order to identify the potential problem at an early stage and implement timely interventions. Various authors have used many different tools and methods investigating potential ‘food deserts’. Some analysed the spatial distribution of stores in an area, others studied availability of a list of healthy foods and their prices in a store sample, distance of stores from consumers, differentiating the levels of neighbourhood affluence and store types, while the third group researched consumers and their behaviour regarding shopping and consuming products that make up a healthy diet. Often, researches combined several methods. As official statistics and data bases in Croatia are less developed than in UK or USA, in this paper authors aim to investigate which ‘food desert’ evaluation methods are applicable, use and test them analysing whether ‘food deserts’ exist in Zagreb and to create a framework applicable for researches of ‘food deserts’ in other Croatian cities. The proposition that there is a ‘food desert’ in Zagreb will be tested using the mapping technique, identifying a neighbourhood with potential ‘food desert’ characteristics and conducting a primary research of stores selling food products in the neighbourhood. Stores will be analysed regarding availability of selected fresh products, primarily fresh fruit and vegetable, and regarding prices of those products. Findings of proposed research are expected to set ground for further research of consumers, as well as guidelines for developing urban planning and retail operations policies and standards.

NEW STRATEGIES IN RETAIL THROUGH ADDITIONAL DISTRIBUTION CHANNEL

Retail companies on the Croatian market are confronted with fierce competition, forcing them to find new forms of distribution channels. The development of information technology and broadly available access to Internet has created preconditions for new distribution channels. Multichannel marketing offers customers more than one option for buying something - for example, they can buy the same product on a Web site as well as in retail stores. The fact that more than 38% Croatian citizens are using Internet has set up conditions for creating a new retail distribution channel on Croatian market too. According to these presumptions, the level of presence of Internet retailing on Croatian Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) market in total sales was explored, using examples of market leaders in Croatian market. Observed and analysed were Konzum and Tisak Internet shops. Konzum is a national groceries chain retailer and Tisak is a national kiosk chain retailer, active in newspapers market. They both hold over 30 percent of their respective markets, which enables them to influence the total markets. The presumption states that the new distribution channel increases the overall sales revenues and it does not avert the demand away from existing distribution channels. After a brief description of main retail strategies, Internet penetration and using habits, as well as Croatian FMCG market overview, several demographic elements and Konzum web shop consumer preferences were described. It was found that 45 percent of items sold in web-shop are from middle segment, 34 percent from higher middle segment and 11 percent are premium items. This composition showed that online customers come from higher buying power segments, usually have little time for FMCG shopping, appreciate the Internet channel and at the same time prefer higher middle and premium items and are willing to pay more fore top quality merchandise. Descriptive statistics analysis was used to examine Internet and total sales in Konzum and Tisak, for the 2005 – 2007 period, at a quarter level. Absolute values of Internet sales were found to be very low, barely 0, 09 percent of total sales in 2007 quarter 4. Due to that fact, planned formal statistical tests were not conducted. Introduction of Internet channel did not contribute to total sales by sales realized online. Its main contribution is in enhanced promotion of the extensive store network, Konzum private label (K plus) and in attracting customers from other retailers. Also, Internet is used to support Konzum and Tisak expansion into Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Monte Negro markets, as there is minimum language barrier. In primarily graphic data analysis, several interested trends were noticed. The most interesting one was increase in Internet sales chain index for each observed period in which total sales decreased. In time, Internet channels in Konzum and Tisak will become more important, but more likely in support activities than in online sales realization.