3.1. Case study—three grocery stores in The Netherlands
For convenience reasons we tested our propositions in the grocery industry in The Netherlands. Store brand penetration is around 20% in this market (Wileman and Jary, 1997) while the three largest grocery chains account for more than 60% of total retail sales (Steenkamp and Dekimpe, 1997). For the present study three major and well-known grocery chains, Albert Heijn (AH), Edah, and Aldi were selected. The three selected chains vary substantially in areas such as the physical design of the stores, the quality and assortment of their merchandise, pricing and promotion strategies.