The Effect of Wal-Mart Supercenters on Grocery Prices in New England
نویسندگان
چکیده
This study analyzes the effect of the presence of Wal-Mart Supercenters on the prices at conventional supermarkets in Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island. Using price indexes constructed from primary price data on a basket of 54 goods and holding several demographics and market conditions constant, we determine that Supercenters result in a 7.79% average price reduction in national brand goods and a 6.38% average price reduction in private label goods. Wal-Mart Supercenters also price their groceries on average 15.65% lower than supermarkets competing with Supercenters and 22.28% lower than supermarkets geographically distant from Supercenters. Copyright 2005 by Richard J. Volpe and Nathalie Lavoie. All rights reserved. Readers may make verbatim copies of this document for non-commercial purposes by any means, provided that this copyright notice appears on all such copies. 1 Authors are research assistant and assistant professor, respectively, Department of Resource Economics, University of Massachusetts, 80 Campus Center Way, Amherst, MA 01003, [email protected], [email protected].
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