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Food‐Retail Development and the Myth of Everyday Low Prices: The Case of Brazil
Author(s) -
Monteiro Guilherme,
Farina Elizabeth,
Nunes Rubens
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
development policy review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.671
H-Index - 61
eISSN - 1467-7679
pISSN - 0950-6764
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-7679.2012.00559.x
Subject(s) - competition (biology) , cointegration , economics , mythology , retail trade , retail market , retail sales , commerce , business , marketing , econometrics , ecology , philosophy , theology , biology
This article analyses the changes in Brazilian food retailing by investigating the co‐existence of, and the pricing variation across, large supermarket chains and small independent supermarkets. It uses cointegration tests to show that, despite the widespread belief that small supermarkets are inefficient and charge higher prices, they in fact charge lower prices. Accordingly, in contrast to the prevailing literature on food‐retail development, competition in food retail is complex and cannot be described as a simple Darwinian process of market concentration. The article explores the survival of small retail and its consequences for the current discussion on modern food retail in developing countries.