Past and Current Retail Management - Essay Example

ed in my locality in the sense that there used to be a small market consisting of butcher shops and general stores in the past but now, with the passage of time there have emerged a whole new way of looking at things. There is the superstore, the shopping center, the mini mart, the convenience store and the discount shop all in close proximity of each other. What used to be the case, say 25 years down the road is no more. Times have changed and the same has surely changed for the better, all said and done.

The country’s transport infrastructure has developed as a result of the same. There is more accessibility for the channel members that include the retailers, distributors, wholesalers and even the third parties. The relationships have changed between the channel members and are quite apparent by the fact that at many places within the distribution chain we find that there is horizontal and vertical integration taking place. What this means is the fact that at some levels, more than one activity is performed by a single channel member.

The retailer can take the responsibilities of a wholesaler and thus reduce the time span which takes him to get the goods from the wholesaler down to his convenience store. Similarly, the distributors and wholesalers have become an interchangeable proposition since their works have more or less been bracketed along in the same vein. Apart from this, for specialized activities, there is the presence of the third party vendors who give in their best work for a cost effective rate, which suggests that the whole channel regime has turned into an interesting concept nonetheless.

The transport structure has also changed as there are less shifts of picking and delivering goods on the part of these channel members which means time is saved and then cost is also a pertinent issue that needs to be understood in the relevant contexts here. Technological innovations and advancements have surely played a huge role in the whole game since now