Reference no: EM132241219

1. Regarding the major types of retailers:

- Department stores are facing increased competition from several other types of retailers.

- Catalog showrooms are among the most profitable forms of retailing because they have the lowest available prices.

- Discounters have continued to maintain images quite distinct from department stores.

- Off-price retailing matured in the early 1950s and its growth has been quite stable since.

2. Which is wrong regarding various types of retailing:

- Chain stores, though they centralize many functions, allow local units to meet unique demand patterns.

- Consumers usually pay more for goods via automatic vending as compared with other retail forms.

- Direct selling is a relatively new retailing form in the U.S., dating back to the 1940s.

- Retailer cooperatives provide economies of scale in purchasing because of their volume buying.

3. John had worked for a well-known and very large retail company. He left to join a smaller company, and in doing so, he discovered that the channel functions were handled very differently in the smaller firm. Looking back at his experience, he noticed larger firms:

- were not very efficient.

- wasted a lot of money.

- have fewer competitors at the retail level.

- perform many different channel functions themselves.

4. Which is wrong with regard to wholesalers:

- agents do not take title to goods but help their customers to sell their .

- facilitating agents generally perform specific distribution tasks, such as storage.

- merchants often negotiate price and set terms of sale.

- brokers generally handle a broad range of unrelated products.

5. Risk costs that are part of inventory costs are:

- opportunity costs resulting from tying up funds in inventory instead of using them in other more profitable investments.

- costs such as insurance and taxes that are present in many states.

- warehousing space and materials handling costs.

- costs due to possible loss, damage, pilferage, or obsolescence.

6. Many retailer start out as inexpensive operations and offer basic products/services to customers. Then what happens:

- basic protective packaging will evolve into gaudy, eye-catching packaging.

- mobility is the key to retailing success—mail order sales will increase.

- stores with low margins and a volume orientation will evolve into higher price-markup stores.

- supermarkets will evolve into corner grocery stores.