AGEC 4603 Lecture : Local Foods Go Mainstream Article- Lecture Notes
Document Summary
Robert p. king, miguel i. g mez, and gigi digiacomo. The supermarket is one of the 20th century"s most important marketing innovations. The concept of the supermarket emerged in the 1930s, and supermarkets came to dominate food retailing in the two decades immediately after world war ii. Made possible by rapid suburbanization of american cities and expansion of ownership of automobiles and refrigerators, supermarkets transformed business processes and competition for customers at the retail level. They also fostered expansion and new efficiencies for wholesalers and created new opportunities for food manufacturers to develop products for mass audiences. The basic hub and spoke distribution system that has evolved for supermarkets is built around large distribution centers located near interstate highways. These distribution centers receive full semi-trailer loads of product from suppliers and then send full semi-trailers out to individual stores daily or several times per week.
