The informal retailing sector will have a role to play once markets are opened and formal retailing expands. FDI facilitates the switch from informal to formal retailing.

In developed countries, food retailing practices require a rethink.

Quite clearly, the established framework of retailing is being fundamentally overhauled.

Consumer demand has been the main factor responsible for lower prices in retailing.

In spite of recent developments, retailing continues to be one of the least developed industries in India, and the growth of organized retailing has been much slower than in the rest of the world.

The US productivity miracle and the emergence of Wal Mart style retailing are virtually synonymous.

Retailing is the largest private industry in India and the second largest employer after agriculture.

Mr. Paul Dobson, Professor, Competition Economics, Marketing and Retailing Research Group, Loughborough University, United Kingdom

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

South African retailing companies have expanded to other African countries in search of opportunities not available domestically.

Distribution services in Colombia contribute 4.5 per cent of GDP, of which retailing accounts for 1.5 per cent.

Regulation and regulatory issues emerge as the next frontier or opportunity for ensuring sustained growth in the retailing sector.

An estimated additional 101 million in regional personal income from value added processing, distribution, wholesaling and retailing likely was generated.

However, the market structures remain quite diverse across countries for example, modern retailing accounts for 85 per cent in the United States but is only nascent in India (where it accounts for 1 to 2 per cent) and accounts for 20 per cent of overall retailing in China.

The increasing concentration has generated strong competition among retail establishments, which has translated into lower retailing margins and benefits to consumers.

The transaction was considered to be largely a horizontal merger with some vertical elements between the merging parties' furniture manufacturing and retailing operations.

The process of opening the retail sector in China began in 1992 when foreign investment was allowed in retailing on a trial basis.

A typical Corporatist economy might contain thirty or so corporations foods, heavy industry, textiles, chemicals, etc. each encompassing raw materials, production, distribution, and retailing firms.

The regulatory environment has been highly liberal and regulations have been by and large limited to codes related to the construction of retailing real estate.

In the large scale retailing segment, domestic companies still dominate the market the three largest retailers are national firms controlling almost 60 per cent of the market.

The real question is how India s creaking supply chains will respond when consumers leapfrog hypermarkets and go online. No other country has created a logistical network directly for online retailing.

Insofar as there is growing overall demand and segmentation of demand, the existence of unorganized retailing would not be expected to be put at risk as a result of reform.

After China's accession to the WTO, 28 new foreign invested retail chain stores have been established. Though customers may enjoy better services and cheaper merchandise, many small local retailing stores collapsed.

Likewise, India s government, having embraced economic liberalization, has essentially pulled back from it in recent years. Plans to allow foreign investment in retailing and other key economic sectors have been put on hold.

Most manufacturers distribute their own products, using their own facilities and in house resources, instead of the proper distribution and retailing channels, with a resulting low level of efficiency and a low level of specialization.

In both Korea and Japan, large firms entry into the service sector is impeded by restrictive regulation, for which small producers are an influential lobby. Regulation prevents wholesalers from branching downstream into retailing, and vice versa.

The retailing sector has been witnessing increasing competition and concentration, mainly through the establishment and expansion of chain stores emphasis on large stores the increasing use of technology and growing internationalization of the whole supply chain.

While countries commit themselves to encouraging modern retailing to benefit consumers, farmers, manufacturers and other services providers, there is no one size fits all solution for implementing reform in the distribution sector and for maximizing development benefits.

In today's global markets, distribution and retailing service companies face a series of choices decisions, including about which markets to tap (e.g. where to invest) and how to disaggregate their supply chain (e.g. where to source from).

The German construction industry and retailing are still stable, as the latest survey of the Ifo Institute shows, and the whole world is profiting from this stability, as Germany is the second largest importer of goods and services after the US.

The growth in concentration in retailing has also given rise to a number of concerns about anti competitive behaviour of major retailers vis à vis other competitors, and abuses of buyers' power with respect to suppliers of products and consumers.

The existing restrictions on FDI in retailing can actually be circumvented by using alternative forms of entry, and consequently, the main impact of the restrictions has been to render the entry process of foreign firms less transparent and more complicated.

Foreign direct investment (FDI) and modernization in retailing bring benefits to consumers, who can have access to a larger variety of quality products within the same store, and to Governments, which can control quality, and measure and tax what is being sold.

OECD countries still use diverging approaches to regulate the retailing sector, with countries such as Belgium and Spain imposing a large number of regulatory restrictions, and countries such as France, Japan, the United Kingdom and Turkey having relaxed a number of them.

Without them, it would have been possible to buy 90,000 condenser units for locations retailing milk and meat, solving their refrigeration problems. In addition, 500,000 compressors could have been purchased to repair domestic refrigerators and thus respond to the public's needs in that area.

The Zimbabwe Competition and Tariff Commission in July 2004 received notification of the proposed joint venture business operations between Tedco Industries Limited, a company involved in the manufacturing and retailing of furniture products, appliances and clothing, and Steinhoff Africa Limited of South Africa, a company involved in furniture manufacturing and distribution.

Rausing, who had studied in New York at the beginning of the 1920s, had seen self service grocery stores in the United States, which was unheard of in Europe at the time, and realised that pre packaging was part of the future in food retailing as a more hygienic and practical way of distributing staple groceries.