Warehouse club (WC) retailers have typically expanded to new markets using stand-alone stores, rather than pursuing dense store networks as other (non-WC) retailers have in the past. While this strategy generates operating efficiencies, it also imposes high travel costs on households to shop,...

This paper presents an empirical study of the impact of Wal-Mart supercenter conversion (i.e., expansion of traditional discount-format stores by adding new departments) on consumer shopping behaviors. By using a difference-in-difference estimator and a joint model of store visits and...

In many categories consumers display cyclical buying: they repeatedly purchase in the category for several periods, followed by several periods of not buying. We believe that the cyclicality is a manifestation of cross-category substitution by the consumer, caused by “variety seeking”...

Avenues for the delivery of loyalty programs have rapidly shifted from plastic card schemes to mobile-app-based initiatives; yet, our understanding of the economic value presented by the latter (i.e., loyalty apps) has not kept pace with this development. We examine the effects of loyalty app...