The structure and performance of grocery distribution in Sweden has changed profoundly since the second world war. Increasing access and usage of the private car, in combination with an accommodating town planning has enhanced the exploitation of scale economies within distribution firms. There is, however, some ambiguity concerning the overall efficiency of the distribution system when the costs associated with travelling and purchasing performed by households are treated as an integrated part of the total distribution cost function. The purpose of this master thesis is to develop the foundation of a spatial optimisation model, which defines the most efficient distribution system. The underlying idea is that the optimal localisation and size of grocery Stores is a function of economies of scale within the firms weighed against distributions costs within the households, such as transportation costs.

Konsumenterna i studien visar på en mångfald av beteenden när det kommer till hur de påverkas av butikskonceptet. Upplevelserna i butikerna är många och varierar mellan konsumenterna. Olika typer av konsumtion skildras, bland annat genomförs nöjesshopping och målorienterad shopping av konsumenterna i studien. Syftet med uppsatsen är att skapa en förståelse och ge insikt i hur konsumenters beteende kan påverkas av butikskoncept. Butikskoncept är ett bredare perspektiv av butiksmiljön som dessutom innefattar sociala faktorer.

Shoplifting is a serious problem due to the fact that about 2 % of a retail Store's turnaround dis-appears annually. This paper discusses the problem with shoplifting where a closed retail display of glass can prevent this kind of misbehavior. Hitherto the scientific research regarding how consumers react to a closed retail display is non-existing. With this in mind we want to investigate and enlighten the phenomenon regarding consumer behavior and product appreciation. The study is carried out at a retailer in the beauty industry in Sweden both in Stores where the selection of perfumes have been displayed behind glass and in Stores in which they have been displayed with open access.

When a combined heat and power plant produces heat and power it often faces a deficit of heat load during the summer or other periods of time. This heat is often unnecessarily cooled away or the power production has to be reduced or shut off. If it is possible to Store heat from periods with low heat demand to periods with high heat demand one can get many benefits. Among these benefits are: increased power production, decreased operation with partial load, uniformly distributed load.To be able to Store heat in situations like this long-term thermal heat storages are needed. In this thesis five different types of Stores are presented: rock cavern storage, tank storage, pit water storage, borehole storage and aquifer storage.

The aim of this thesis is to examine how salesperson control can be exercised in a retail Store environment. A case study has been performed on a Swedish fashion company emphasizing the relationship between the company?s upper level management and their retail Store operations in order to describe, analyze and classify the prevailing management control mechanisms. The paper presents an agency theoretical approach to the relationship applying behavior- and outcome based control theory, performance measurement theory and incentives theory in order to give a comprehensive image of the control system. The main finding is that the company?s management control system as applied to the sales force in its retail Stores can be categorized as mainly behavior-based despite several explicit outcome-based features..

Until the sixties potatoes have had a unthreatened position at the Swedish dining tables, but then different alternatives such as rice and pasta have become popular. In 2005 the Swedish potato-consumption have more than hafted compared with the sixties, we have gone from circa 90 to 40 kilograms per person and year. This paper aims to provide those who are involved within the potatoe business with an overview of the attitude and behaviour towards potatoes that are being held by Swedish consumers. In order to reach to the conclusion, in- Store interviews had been held with customers in the cities of Stockholm and Malmö. The interviews showed that the typical potato-consumer prefers to choose and in pick their own potatoes to a bag in the Store in favour of the pre-packed alternatives. Based on the outcome of the interviews a number of conclusions could be drawn. The consumers were of the perception that the pre-packed alternatives were too big for their households.

To curb greenhouse gases and mitigate climate change is one of the biggest challenges human society face today. Carbon dioxide (CO2) has accumulated rapidly in the atmosphere as a consequence of burning of fossil fuels and deforestation. The aim of this study is to explore two methods to Store carbon dioxide in geological formations and biological sinks. The aim is also to discuss the two mitigation options from a sustainable perspective and whether it can lead to a better environment and benefits for local and global societies. The research questions are: Which method to Store carbon dioxide, geological or biological, is the most effective? Which method to Store carbon dioxide, geological or biological, has the greatest potential to promote sustainable development for local communities?The method used is a comparative case study and presents four case studies that explore the potential for CO2 storage offshore in Norway and Brazil; and in tropical forests in Mexico and Brazil.

Purpose/Aim: The purpose of this thesis is to study the interaction between seller and buyer in a mobile phone Store. The specific research questions under investigation are:Are there any underlying factors behind mobile purchase, and if so, what are they? Are mobile purchases driven by lifestyle factors and do customers try and create identities when purchasing new mobile phones?Material/Method: The study employs an ethnographic method when trying to answer the posed research questions. I have under a period of two weeks studied the seller-buyer interaction in a mobile phone Store. In order to further increase the accuracy of my findings, I have complemented my observations with a sample of buyer and seller interviews.Main results: The observations and interviews were initially studied in isolation, resulting in different themes.

The Swedish consumer electronic industry has recently experienced an increasingly intensive price war. The price war has forced some operators in the business to declare bankruptcy, as the only way to compete has been by driving down prices. A challenge that retail chains in the consumer electronics industry is facing is to increase their margins. If Store personnel can success with upselling, the companies will increase their profits. The purpose of this paper is to examine if the sales people in the consumer electronic industry can influence the customer to buy a more expensive product and what the effects the upselling has on the customers' attitudes.

This thesis project has been written and accomplished in cooperation with HABO AB. The objective of the project was to develop a standard stated packaging system. The background to this is that HABO is not pleased with the system currently in use. The system which HABO is currently using consists of to many sizes. The largest benefit of a standard stated system is that it becomes much easier to organize the packaging with the aid of a computer program.

The purpose of the study is to examine how retailing trough brand owned outlet Stores effectsthe fashion brand. The problem that the essay is aimed to solve is how the fashion brand isinfluenced by selling through outlets and what opportunities and risks it has on the brand. Thestudy has been carried out by qualitative methods using interviews to answer the questionformulation. Three empirical perspectives have been chosen; an expert-, business- andconsumer perspective which have been linked up with three applicable theories. The fashionbrand Acne and its two Stores; the flagship Store and the outlet Store have been chosen as acase study.

IKEA HaparandaTornio employ some two-hundred people in its furniture retail Store.Keeping track of staff statistics and employee information has previously been achievedthrough the use of a basic Microsoft Office Excel spreadsheet. The Store?s human resourcesdepartment requested an upgrade to this system with the hope of speeding up andsimplifying the administrative process, as well as to make it easier to monitor HR-relatedtarget statistics. The following report documents the development process of that upgrade ascarried out by the author. The project draws on research in usability design and cognitivepsychology to develop a user-friendly interface.

This paper focuses on traditional clothing enterprise IT strategies. The purpose was to investigate the correlation between traditional clothing companies IT strategies and their brand. In a market where the competition is high it has become more important that the company targets a customer segment. To reach their targeted customers the company builds their brand with different corporate strategies. This segmentation is necessary because of the high exposure to competition, and a well-established brand could be a prerequisite for profitability.  In today?s market, IT has a major impact on the clothing business.

IKEA HaparandaTornio employ some two-hundred people in its furniture retail Store.Keeping track of staff statistics and employee information has previously been achievedthrough the use of a basic Microsoft Office Excel spreadsheet. The Store?s human resourcesdepartment requested an upgrade to this system with the hope of speeding up andsimplifying the administrative process, as well as to make it easier to monitor HR-relatedtarget statistics. The following report documents the development process of that upgrade ascarried out by the author. The project draws on research in usability design and cognitivepsychology to develop a user-friendly interface.

The aim of this study is to evaluate whether the value of occupant load is over or under estimated when the Swedish general value for department Stores, 0,5 person/m2, is used for dimensioning shopping centers. The data that was analyzed derives from seven shopping centers and one department Store. A conservative method was used to calculate the occupant load factor. The analysis shows that two groups can be discerned: one group that is characterized by a lower occupant load factor that does not exceed 0,3 person/m2, and one group with a higher occupant load factor. Shopping centers with a higher occupant load factor are located centrally in large urban areas.