Opponents point to how big retailers decimated the traditional retail segment in the West.

Economic Census figures for 2002 show that 48.5 of merchandise sales are made by just 688 businesses ( Big Box retailers).

The challenge is that the rise of online shopping will increase competitive pressure, regardless of whether big foreign retailers enter the market.

In other words, small shops may be more than capable of holding their own against big retailers if they adapt to the new environment.

Consumers worldwide are finding that they can access virtually unlimited choice on the Internet including customized goods and services that big retailers simply cannot deliver.

Informal retailers could become the suppliers or the customers of formal retailers, or their franchises.

Eventually, they themselves become formal retailers.

Those who would aim to emulate US productivity trends must come to grips with how they feel about big box stores sprouting across their countryside s, driving down wages and plowing under smaller scale retailers.

That s exciting news to retailers looking for new markets.

Retailers could exercise their power in setting prices at the local level.

Further, the Commission's investigation established that Panamco Tica was lending refrigerators to retailers and attaching exclusivity clauses to the contracts, which required retailers to use the refrigerator for Coca Cola products exclusively.

The distribution sector includes commission agents, wholesalers and retailers who act as enablers of trade.

Small retailers can, however, find niche markets, such as serving convenience needs and local tastes.

The Euro Retailer Produce Working Group (EUREP) is a European based trade organization for retailers.

Its membership consists of growers, product marketing organizations and growers' cooperatives, food manufacturers and retailers.

Big companies. Big companies.

It employs more than 90 of the workforce and is home to 75 of the retailers.

In the case of Greece and Portugal, for example, the tourism industry might absorb some unemployed retailers.

Growing use by retailers of own brands and discount retailing have also been driving prices down significantly.

Retailers are able to access and tap different cost structures in different countries and are becoming global.

In India, for example, there is fear that small mom and pop retailers will be crushed when Wal Mart enters the market in the next few months. But policymakers must recognize that there are ways to protect small retailers without stifling competition.

Big Money Merges with Big Brother

These goods are sold to local consumers via car dealers and a whole chain of traders and retailers.

This affected all the producers, distributors, and retailers whose plans and contracts were based on now obsolete expectations.

Other experts stressed that modern retailers usually integrated backwards and could then help improve manufacturing processes and packaging.

So India s political debate over the entry of foreign retailers into the market, while heated, is probably already outdated.

In the Colombian market large scale retailers coexist with SMEs, each one serving a different segment of the market.

The Government has implemented a special programme (PYMECO) to support small retailers through training in management and distribution processes.

At present most Vietnamese retailers are small, family run outlets, offering a limited choice of products to their customers.

Criminal groups attack the websites of web retailers and Internet payment systems, extorting payment to make the attacks cease.

One hears this argument for many modern industries, from big food to big pharma to big finance.

It is primarily a company that manufactures, bottles and resells the finished product to wholesalers and retailers in Costa Rica.

Being too big to fail simply means being too big.

Since stakeholders are concerned about the rapidly increasing presence of foreign retailers, there is a need to bridge the fear factor .

While completely legal, studies suggest that Wal Mart s labor policies exploit regulatory loopholes that, for example, allow it to sidestep the burden of healthcare costs for many workers (Wal Mart provides healthcare coverage to less than half its workers). And the entry of big box stores into a community crushes long established retailers, often traumatically transforming their character.

Big mistake.

Big Pearls

So we've started roundtables where we bring together the entire value chain, from producers all the way to the retailers and brands.

Right now, US inventories held by manufacturers, wholesalers, and retailers are valued at around 1.7 trillion or about 10 of annual GDP.

Instead of suing foreign retailers like Wal Mart, India should be finding ways to emulate and benefit from their hyper efficient methods.

On these platforms which resemble eBay and Amazon Marketplace manufacturers, retailers, and individuals offer products and services to consumers through online storefronts.

With regard to food distribution more specifically, the industry is composed of many agents, including supermarkets, quick service restaurants and specialty retailers.

We make a decision it's that big, even though it's not that big.

Deah Barakat was a tall guy with a big smile and big ideas.

The government can, say, impose zoning regulations, help small retailers find specialized niches in the market, or provide skills training to displaced workers.