Corner Store and Competitiveness Opportunities

Corner Store and Competitiveness Opportunities

Omar Alonso Patiño, Laura Marcela Patiño Gutierrez
Copyright: © 2020 |Pages: 24
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-5225-9425-3.ch013
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Abstract

Since the decade of the 1960s, the retail trade has evolved in a dizzying way. This has put at risk the permanence in the market of the traditional distribution and final sale models in which the local store is established, and whose existence has favored the development of the urban settlements in Latin America and, particularly, in Colombia. However, at present these may not be sufficient in the face of the development of new business models and technological platforms that have facilitated the acquisition process of products of primary necessity in a market composed of consumers with less availability for purchasing. In this sense, the local store assumes risks that can be addressed through the implementation of strategies that not only depend on the competitiveness conditions provided by the national government, but also on the decisions that autonomously take as a business model, whether as sector or as individual level. The chapter recommends actions to be implemented by the shopkeepers in the search for their permanence in the market.
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Evolution Of The Local Store

The local store in Colombia is a concept that evolves through history partly because it has played a fundamental role in the supply of elements of first necessity for families, especially in urban sectors. The corner shop as a place of commerce has existed since the colonial era when products had to be collected and distributed in such a way that they could reach the population that congregated in the urban centers of a country that was barely under construction (Triana, 1989, as cited by Páramo).

At that time, in addition to the needs of the population, the intentions of some for economic independence arose beyond the existing job options which led to the emergence of a type of merchants who saw in the shop as a means to generate income and employment opportunity for one or more members of a family (Tirado, 1998).

The store evolves, it does not remain static, it grows and acquires greater social relevance for the community in which it is located. Londoño and Navas (2014) describe the evolution of the concept from the moment in which it serves as a place of barter, business and exchange of goods and services by indigenous people, going through the “striped shop” in which the credit is added as a natural and fundamental function of the store, to finally reach what is currently known as the marketplace. All of this without neglecting the formats described above, which still exist and are the fundamental basis of the national economy and place of acquisition of products for a high percentage of the Colombian families.

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