Long queues in seasonal sales shopping are seemingly undesirable for shoppers and retailers. Yet, this paper proposes that shoppers' impatience can be a virtue for retailers. It shows that, when shoppers do queue, it is desirable under some conditions for retailers to strategically keep the...

The return of a product is often one of a series of transactions that a consumer undertakes in search of a good. Recognizing this, we analyze returns as part of a product search process: Upon returning a product, consumers may immediately purchase an alternative one, which they may later replace...

Retail formats in the U.S. and other developed countries have increasingly grown to provide one-stop shopping. We develop a model of consumer economizing on shopping time that can explain this, estimate the model using aggregate annual and cross-section supermarket data, and compare the...