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The paper investigates the synchronization of price changes in the context of retail tire dealers in Sao Paulo-Brazil and selected items in supermarkets for cleaning supplies and food in Rio de Janeiro-Brazil. Results indicate similar and non-negligible synchronization for different brands, although magnitudes are distant from a perfect synchronization pattern. We find imeresting patterns in inter-firm competition, with similar magnitudes across different tire types. Intra-chain synchronization is substantial, indicating that a common price adjustment policy tends to he sustained for each chain across different products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Retailers face a complex task in formulating prices strategies. While the goal of pricing is to lay down a general course of action, pricing methods are procedures which enable organizations to make their pricing decisions. The scope of this paper is to explore retail pricing goals along with the methods that are employed for pricing, and to investigate whether the methods employed succeed in achieving the objectives. It was found that the companies used in the sample are basically pursuing quantitative rather than qualitative objectives and that they lay emphasis on achieving sales and making profits by following market developments. Another significant factor was that, the firms in the sample seemed to attach less importance to customer-oriented methods and employ the traditional methods of costing, probably due to their simplicity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]