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Retail Price Reporting Effects in Local Food Markets
Author(s) -
Boynton Robert D.,
Blake Brian F.,
Uhl Joe N.
Publication year - 1983
Publication title -
american journal of agricultural economics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.949
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1467-8276
pISSN - 0002-9092
DOI - 10.2307/1240333
Subject(s) - price dispersion , newspaper , publicity , product (mathematics) , value (mathematics) , business , advertising , economics , competition (biology) , relative price , microeconomics , marketing , agricultural economics , statistics , geometry , mathematics , ecology , biology
An experiment involving weekly newspaper publication of comparative food store prices in four U.S. cities stimulated competitive pricing behavior without reinforcement from consumer patronage shifts. Costs of a fixed, 100‐item market basket fell, relative to control markets, an average of two percent during publication and recovered with termination of the reports. Responses varied among cities, stores, and product categories. Price dispersion was not affected. While consumers judged the information to be useful and accurate, it did not induce changes in their perceptions or shopping patterns. Grocer responses were attributed to the publicity value of the price reports.