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Introduction New York (NY) implemented a statewide restriction on the retail sale of flavored vaping products to reduce availability of vaping products having youth-appealing flavors in 2020. We assessed the intended effects of the NY law on sales of flavored vaping products and explored whether policy implementation had unintended effects on consumer behavior by evaluating policy-associated changes in sales of combusted cigarettes, which could serve as more harmful substitute products for NY consumers of flavored vaping products. Aims and Methods We analyzed custom product-level weekly retail tobacco sales scanner data for NY and a comparison state (California [CA]) for convenience stores and other outlets from June 2018 through June 2021. We categorized flavor descriptors for vaping products as flavored or as tobacco or unflavored and categorized cigarettes as menthol or non-menthol. We used a difference-in-difference model to assess the effect of the sales restriction on unit sales of flavored and unflavored vaping products and menthol and non-menthol cigarettes in NY compared with CA. Results Following NY policy implementation, flavored and total vaping product sales decreased in NY relative to CA. Unflavored vaping product sales increased in NY, while menthol cigarette sales did not change significantly relative to CA sales. Conclusions The NY flavored vaping product policy was associated with fewer sales of flavored and total vaping products. The increase in sales of unflavored vaping products did not suggest complete substitution, and sales data suggest that consumers did not turn to cigarettes after flavored vaping products became unavailable. Implications This study provides evidence that NY's flavored vaping product policy is associated with reduced flavored vaping product access and sales. Our analyses of potential unintended consequences indicate that some consumers switched from flavored to unflavored vaping products, but that cigarette sales did not change concurrent with the policy which means that decreased availability of flavored vaping products did not result in vapers switching to cigarettes. NY's policy had its intended effect with limited unintended consequences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To examine public commitments for encouraging United States consumers to make healthy dietary purchases with their Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits among of prevalent SNAP-authorised retailers.Setting: National SNAP-authorised retail landscape in addition to stores located in California and Virginia, two states targetted for a Partnership for a Healthier America pilot social marketing campaign.Participants: SNAP-authorised retailers with the most store locations in selected settings.Design: A review of retailers' publicly available business information was conducted (November 2016-February 2017). Webpages and grey literature sources were accessed to identify corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports and commitments describing strategies to encourage healthy consumer purchases aligned with the 2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans. Evidence was organised using a marketing-mix and choice-architecture (MMCA) framework to characterise strategies used among eight possible types (i.e. place, profile, portion, pricing, promotion, priming, prompting and proximity).Results: Of the SNAP-authorised retailers (n 38) reviewed, more than half (n 20; 52·6 %) provided no information in the public domain relevant to the research objective. Few retailers (n 8; 21·1 %) had relevant CSR information; grey literature sources (n 52 articles across seventeen retailers) were more commonly identified. SNAP-authorised retailers in majority committed to increasing the number of healthy products available for purchase (profile).Conclusions: Substantial improvements are needed to enhance the capacity and commitments of SNAP-authorised retailers to use diverse strategies to promote healthy purchases among SNAP recipients. Future research could explore feasible approaches to improve dietary behaviours through sector changes via public-private partnerships, policy changes, or a combination of government regulatory and voluntary business actions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the price ceilings on 206 commodities as imposed by the general maximum price regulation in seven Los Angeles stores. Most of the commodities compared were branded items, while others were either homogenous items or the cheapest item in their respective category. Comparisons in ceiling prices were made in two ways: by counting the number of deviations above and below a modal price and by ascertaining the net value excess or deficit. On comparisons in a single day it was found that four out of the seven stores had shelf prices higher than the imposed ceiling prices on a variety of merchandise. The author points out the deviations from the ceiling prices and explains why there are differences.

The article discusses the process by which prices are set for the egg market in Los Angeles, California at the time of publication. The author notes the role of the Produce Exchange of Los Angeles in determining egg prices. A chart depicting exchange quotations of prices is presented. Elements of pricing determined by egg size and grade are also discussed. According to the author, the United States Department of Agriculture plays a role in the price of eggs by quoting prices of case lots delivered to retail stores and restaurants.

The article reports on retail sales and store analysis in Los Angeles, Beverly Hills and Hollywood, California. Censuses from the years 1929, 1933 and 1935 included information from all three geographic regions, despite different populations and business prosperity. A chart is presented which tracks the total market share of sixteen regions within the entire Los Angeles market. Relative gains and losses in sales volume changes are presented. Additional analysis and charts seek to evaluate the changing patterns between downtown Los Angeles and the county as a whole, potentially suggesting a decentralized retail trade industry.

The article compares chain and independent grocery stores in numerous cities surrounding San Francisco, California. Employees of the stores were interviewed to gather information regarding the stores' contributions to their communities. The comparison made is based on several criteria, including the age, residence and stability of store employees, their years employed in the same store, and the real and personal property of the employers of chain and independent store employees. The findings of the study are summarized.

The article presents a response to comments made by Hector Lazo on the author's article "The Integrated Marketing Institution and Public Welfare," in the January 1942 issue. The author points out that there were many confusions in the criticism made by Lazo that need to be made clear before the author can admit wrong or argue effectiveness. Some of the specific points covered in the response include the use of Goodyear-Sears price data, the use of U.S. Federal Trade Commission information as being a representative sample, and the amount of grocery business done in California.

This study examines the relationships which exist between measures of store image and store loyalty. Encouraged by the relationships found, store loyalty is predicted from store image information. The examination of the loyalty measure provides interesting observations concerning the nature of loyalty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1951, the San Francisco Bay Area suburb of Walnut Creek welcomed the construction of a major shopping center adjacent to their downtown area—a configuration that would lead municipal planners to prioritize retail development for their city. Walnut Creek’s nonlinear path to retail dominance over the next several decades exemplifies not only the increasingly multivariate climate surrounding suburban retail development in the latter half of the twentieth century but also the increasingly autonomous role of municipal planners who have used retail as a versatile component of suburban spatial development in an age of metropolitan flux. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the franchise case Patterson v. Domino's and its impact on the process of drafting franchise agreements and vicarious liability issues in California. Topics covered include how the California Supreme Court presented an analysis of franchising as a unique method of product and service distribution in ruling that Domino's was not liable for the sexual harassment of a franchisee's employee by its manager.

Over the past 20 years, California has made substantial investments in intra-metropolitan passenger rail infrastructure, expanding existing systems and building new ones. According to advocates of New Urbanism, such investment should encourage the growth of mixed-use transit-oriented development, defined as a high-density mix of residential and commercial uses within walking distance of rail stations. Little research to date has examined whether rail investment stimulates retail activity, which is a key component of mixed-use development. In this paper, I test whether the opening of new rail stations across California’s four largest metropolitan areas is associated with changes in retail employment near the stations. Results indicate that new rail stations were located in areas with previously high employment density, somewhat outside the city centres. New station openings are not significantly associated with differences in retail employment in three of the four MSAs, and negatively associated with retail in the Sacramento MSA. There is weak evidence that areas around new suburban stations serving commuter rail lines are more likely to gain retail employment, while centrally located, intra-city rail stations see decreases in retail activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) Program is a key part of America's safety net, but its structure fails to incentivize participants to be cost-conscious in their purchases and may cause retailers to attach excessive markups to WIC products. We investigate cost containment in the WIC Program, with a focus on California. Results show that smaller vendors often charge considerably higher prices for WIC foods than their larger counterparts. However, larger vendors do not mark up WIC foods more or promote them less than comparable control products. Cost containment can be improved by targeting WIC Program sales to larger vendors when it is possible to do so without compromising participant access, and using large-vendor prices as a benchmark to limit prices set by smaller vendors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Products in commerce in California are targeted, but the program has national and international implications [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Tobacco retailers are key players in the ongoing tobacco epidemic. Tobacco outlet density is linked to a greater likelihood of youth and adult smoking and greater difficulty quitting. While public policy efforts to address the tobacco problem at the retail level have been limited, some retailers have voluntarily ended tobacco sales. A previous pilot study examined this phenomenon in California, a state with a strong tobacco program focused on denormalizing smoking and the tobacco industry. We sought to learn what motivated retailers in other states to end tobacco sales and how the public and media responded. Methods: We conducted interviews with owners, managers, or representatives of six grocery stores in New York and Ohio that had voluntarily ended tobacco sales since 2007. We also conducted unobtrusive observations at stores and analyzed media coverage of each retailer’s decision. Results: Grocery store owners ended tobacco sales for two reasons, alone or in combination: health or ethics-related, including a desire to send a consistent health message to employees and customers, and business-related, including declining tobacco sales or poor fit with the store’s image. The decision to end sales often appeared to resolve troubling contradictions between retailers’ values and selling deadly products. New York retailers attributed declining sales to high state tobacco taxes. All reported largely positive customer reactions and most received media coverage. Forty-one percent of news items were letters to the editor or editorials; most (69%) supported the decision. Conclusion: Voluntary decisions by retailers to abandon tobacco sales may lay the groundwork for mandatory policies and further denormalize tobacco. Our study also suggests that high tobacco taxes may have both direct and indirect effects on tobacco use. Highlighting the contradictions between being a responsible business and selling deadly products may support voluntary decisions by retailers to end tobacco sales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Regulators have proposed various institutional alternatives to secure network resource adequacy and reasonably priced electric power for consumers. These alternatives prompt many difficult questions: Does the development of Demand Response reduce the need for new capacity? How effectively can a government-mandated Capacity Market foster efficient investment? How does centralized generator commitment (with revenue guarantees) compare to a system in which Generators voluntarily commit themselves with no revenue guarantees? If exclusive distribution contracts were replaced by unregulated retail competition, what would be the effects on investment and market prices? We use laboratory experiments to address these questions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Firearm-related violence is a significant public health and public safety problem for cities in the USA, and licensed firearm retailers are an important source of the guns used in that violence. Using a scripted telephone interview, we screened a sample of licensed retailers in California to assess their willingness to participate in the surrogate or “straw” purchase of a handgun; such purchases are illegal under federal law. Of 149 retailers who provided a response, 30 (20.1%) agreed to participate. In multivariate analysis, pawnbrokers were more likely to agree than were gun dealers (odds ratio 6.58, 95% confidence interval 1.99–21.71). Sales of handguns that were later subjected to ownership tracing (a proxy measure for a gun’s use in crime) were not more frequent among retailers who agreed to participate than among others, and other findings were unexpected as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]