Price as a differentiation factor: an analysis of the supermarket industry

Abstract

The growth of the services sector in Brazil is a well-known fact - with prominence for the retail trade - particularly the supermarket sector. In the same proportion, the competitiveness among companies is aggravated, once they look for to assist to the consumers' needs at any price. In that high competition context, which will be the role of price? Which is it importance as a consumers' decision criterion, and as a differentiation factor among supermarkets? Given the unequal distribution of income verified in the Brazilian economy, the present research sought to evaluate the - existence, or not - of statically significant differences among prices of supermarkets that assist portions of the high, average and low income population. After gathering prices of food, personal hygiene and cleaning products in 60 establishments - 20 in each area - the collected data was analyzed using the Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA). The research results demonstrated the inexistence of significant price differences among the 3 types of establishments concerning personal hygiene and cleaning products. However, there were differences among high income establishments in relation to average and low income establishments concerning food and all products.