Choice of a Retail Store and Retail Store Format: A Hierarchical Logit Model

The literature on store choice has mainly studied the store attributes, and ignored the consumer attributes in store choice. Even when, the consumer attributes have been incorporated the strength of relationship has been weak. Also, the literature on store choice has completely ignored format choice, when studying store choice. The paper argues for incorporating both the shopper attributes in store choice, and the store formats. Shopper attributes can be captured through the demographic variables, as they can be objectively measured, and these also capture a considerable amount of attitudinal and behavioural variables. The paper proposes to link store choice, format choice and consumer demographic variables, through a hierarchical logistic choice model in which the consumers first choose a store format and then a particular store within that format. A nested logit model is developed, and the variables predicting the choice probabilities are identified. The requirement of data for the empirical analysis is specified, the model has not been verified in the absence of empirical data but the operationalization of variables is done.