Food Retail Sales (Pricing): Theory and Empirical Evidence for German Grocery Stores (original) (raw)

Empirical Analysis of Price Setting and Quantity Surcharges in the German Food Sector

2006

This study examined the incidence and determinants of quantity price discounts and quantity price surcharges in the German food sector through a bivariate probit, using recent consumer scanner survey data. Selectivity bias was corrected for in estimating the degree of quantity price surcharge and quantity price discount, using Heckman�'s procedure. The findings reveal that almost 10% of the investigated products attract higher unit prices for larger package sizes, although the extent of price surcharges varied among product categories. The number of package sizes, the average package size, packaging form, storage form, as well as the price image of a product, were found to be significantly related to the probability and degree of quantity price surcharges and quantity price discounts.

Menu Costs, Posted Prices, and Multiproduct Retailers

Journal of Money, Credit, and Banking, 1999

We use a unique store-level data set to directly measure menu costs and to study the price change process at a large U.S. drugstore chain. We compare and contrast the magnitude of these measures with similar measures from four large U.S. supermarket chains. We find that (1) the actual magnitude of menu costs as a share of revenues, (2) menu costs per price change, (3) the frequent use of promotional pricing, and (4) the use of weekly pricing rules are similar across both retail formats. Given that the main common features of these two types of retail formats are that (i) they both use posted prices, and (ii) both are multiproduct retailers selling a large number of products, our findings suggest that the magnitude of the menu cost components we measure, and the price change practices we document, may be generalizable across retail formats with these two features.