World Retailing Essay

Evolution of World Retailing

Times have changed radically since the housewife slipped her shopping bag over her arm and set out for her daily food supply. Today the general store, stacked with barrel, bins and sacks filled with everything from soaps to pickles, has all but disappeared almost throughout the world. And in its place we find the more refined self-service “cash-and-carry” organised retail stores in the form of supermarkets, departmental stores, shopping malls and the like. These stores signified the beginning of ‘organised retailing’ and its evolution across the world. This new breed of organised retailers have their shelves neatly stacked with a huge variety of products which include anything from cans, packed food, bread, dairy products, fresh meat and fish, apparel shoes, furniture or any conceivable item one can think of. This phenomenon of new found modern supermarkets, department stores is in sharp contrast to the old and orthodox grocery stores that had hitherto existed.

Thus, this is the story of a revolution- a revolution in the shopping habits of the people across the entire world, which has virtually brought the supermarket to the main street. This revolution is unparalleled in human history as it has

However it has not only continuously changes in the international retailing industry, especially in the latter half of the twentieth century, but also promise to unleash more excitement in this new millennium. Many of the old and informal store formats have been completely transformed into the scientifically designed new formats. In fact, it has been observed over the decades that only those retailers who kept changing with the times have been successful, while the others could not keep pace with change have had to face the consequences of their