Project Materials

PROBLEMS AND PROSPECTS OF RETAIL STORES

ABSTRACT

This research project was concerned with the difficulties and opportunities of retail shops (supermarkets) in Imo State’s urban areas, with a focus on Owerri. This project begins with an introduction, describing the study’s history, the manner of operation, and how consumers embrace supermarkets. The statement of the problem’s scope and limits follows this. Chapter two is a survey of relevant and unconnected literature that aided in the research. Chapter 3 describes the researcher’s technique for conducting the study. The results of the research are given and analysed in Chapter 4 under the major findings. In Chapter 5, the researcher summarised this work, offered some recommendations, and concluded based on the findings, including a bibliography and an appendix to fill up the study.

Chapter one

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the Study

A supermarket is a large store specialising in foodstuffs with self-service and a diverse range. According to Kotler (1995), this is a rather big, low profit, high volume, self-sufficient company aimed to provide clients’ overall demands for food, laundry, and household maintenance items.

According to Jerome (1988), it is a huge retailing firm that primarily offers food and grocery items on the basis of low prices, a wide variety of assortments, self-service, and a strong emphasis on merchandise displays.

According to F.E Okorie’s lecture notes, a supermarket is a departmentalised food shop with a minimum sales volume of one million or more per year in a range of merchandise and in which food sales, much of which is self-service, play a key role.

They carry over 12,000 product items. According to the Food Marketing Institute, a store must have a minimum annual sales volume of 2 million to be considered a supermarket.

It earns an operating profit of about 1% on sales and 10% on 30,000 supermarkets, which accounts for roughly 20% of total food store sales.

Supermarkets also improve their facilities by investing in more expensive locations, larger parking lots, carefully planned architecture and décor, expanded store customer services such as check casting, and rest rooms, as well as greater promotional spending.

Supermarkets are also designed to make it easy to find products on the shelves. The store design make it easier for customers to shop.

This helps sell more products faster, reduces inventory investment, makes stocking easier, and lowers the cost of product handling. This efficiency is critical because competition is fierce, and net profit (after taxes) in grocery supermarkets is typically measured in percent (1%) of sales or loss.

1.2 Statement of the Problem

Despite the obvious benefits of owning and shopping in a supermarket. The store is dealing with numerous issues as a result of the significant expansion in population, trade, income, and education among residents. Other constraints impeding supermarket operations include government policies and local government byelaws.

Also, the residents buy primarily in local markets (open marketplaces such as Eke Ukwu owerri, owerri main market, Eke Amakohia, and Nkwo orji), as well as some other markets, since they believe that their hard-earned naira can be justified by significant haggling or negotiation prior to payment.

Furthermore, consumer mentality is one of the issues. The current issue with this research is a challenge that is impeding greater patronage and supermarket operations.

1.3 THE GOAL OF THE STUDY

Supermarkets play a vital role in any nation’s economy, particularly for residents of Owerri. In an abundant economy, the difficulty is not what to produce, but how to promote the products so that they reach final consumers. Supermarkets were formed in Owerri as a result of underutilised marketing prospects.

There is a need to investigate the prospects and identify the major issue related with supermarket operations in Imo-state’s metropolitan areas. A case study of Owerri Urban cannot be overemphasised. Therefore, the study objectives might be described as follows:

i. Identify the difficulties and prospects of retail outlets (supermarkets) in Owerri, Imo State, analyse them, and discover the essential elements influencing their continued success or failure.

ii. Accessing the technical, economic, and financial elements that influence supermarket operations in Owerri.

iii. Gain insight into the merchandise assortments, width, depth, pricing, and promotional techniques of supermarkets in Owerri, Imo state.

iv. To understand food customers’ attitudes towards supermarkets.

v. Determine the socioeconomic reason for starting on such initiatives in Owerri urban.

vi. Finally, the study’s objectives will look into the availability of labour in the market and the overall organisational liability of the supermarket.

1.4 The Scope of the Study

The study will look at the problems and potential of supermarket operations, with a focus on supermarkets in the Owerri urban region of Imo state.

1.5 RESEARCH QUESTIONS.

The following research questions will be used for the project.

1. Does shopping at supermarkets minimise the danger of purchasing contaminated products?

2. Does the supermarket offer more options than general stores?

1.6 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

1. This effort will help operators operate more effectively by introducing new ideas.

2. This work will help me better grasp the usefulness of supermarkets as market sources.

3. It will also boost related studies on supermarket operations conducted by purchasing and supply scholars.

1.7 Limitations of the Study

The research would be pleased to survey the supermarket, but owing to time constraints, money constraints, academic loads, and distance from the project, I am limited.

TIME FACTORS: Semesters are sometimes so short that they cause software crashes, compromising project time allocation.

SOCIAL FACTORS. This also caused some issues with project writing due to the abundance of social activities surrounding the semester. Last but not least, financial constraints impede the project’s success.

Second, the location must be cost-effective in terms of sales volume. That the place would not incur such high costs. The position should be motorable, visible, and not in an obscure area that requires more effort to identify.

Customers should be able to enjoy convenience in addition to purchasing things. Customers would not want to put in a lot of effort to purchase things from the supermarket. As a result, the store’s location has to be easily accessible to customers.