Re. Stassen et al., Assortment overlap: Its effect on shopping patterns in a retail market when the distributions of prices and goods are known, J RETAILING, 75(3), 1999, pp. 371-386
The majority of households divide their grocery shopping between two or mor
e stores each week. This paper examines the merchandising factors affecting
the sharing of customers between stores through a pairwise analysis of the
ir assortment overlap, price differentiation, and interstore distance. Resu
lts front a study of a market of 27 stores show that assortment overlap and
interstore distance are determinants of shared patronage. Results also sup
port hypothesized relationships concerning the differentiation of assortmen
ts and price in a spatial market.