Supermarket Human Resource Practices and Competition from Mass Merchandisers

Matthew Freedman, Cornell University
Elizabeth Davis, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities
Brian McCall, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
Timothy Park, University of Georgia
Nicole Nestoriak, Bureau of Economic Analysis
Julia Lane, National Science Foundation

Abstract

The rise of super-centers and the entry of Wal-Mart into food retailing have dramatically altered the competitive environment in the industry. This paper explores the impact of such changes on the labor market practices of traditional food retailers. We use longitudinal data on workers and firms to construct new measures of compensation and employment, and examine how these measures evolve within and across firms in response to changes in product market structure. An additional feature of the analysis is to combine rich case study knowledge about the retail food industry with the new matched employer-employee data from the Census Bureau.