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Fuji X Pro 1 | Steve Coleman
So what camera should I use for street photography? Well… thats like asking what car should I use to go shopping in! The easy answer of course is any camera, though there is no doubt in mind that different cameras give different experiences, which in turn can be the difference between enjoying the experience or feeling like your trying to take pictures wearing boxing gloves. At this point I should say I'm attaching some pictures with this post, not to demonstrate anything I'm about to say, you can see the technical quality of my pictures as they're all taken with the Pro 1, this post is about the camera as more than positive EV or how fast it can auto focus. This post has nothing to do with the cameras technicalities. It has taken me 3 attempts to find what I consider to be the perfect camera for my needs, though I am still searching and looking for different ways to indulge in street photography. So where an I at the moment? Well I'm currently shacked up with the Fuji X Pro1. In my humble opinion the closest thing you'll get to the classic rangefinder style that seems so engrained and used by photographers worldwide when shooting street style……..
Source: www.streetframe.co.uk
Paris in Schwarz-Weiss mit der Fuji X-T1 und 3 Primes |
Detlef Hollenbeck
Ende Mai ging es für 4 Tage nach Paris. In unserer kleinen Fotogruppe sparen wir monatlich 20,- € an, um gelegentlich davon Fototouren zu planen. So kam es dazu, das wir dieses Jahr mit unseren Lebenspartnern über das lange Christi Himmelfahrt Wochenende in die Stadt der Liebe fuhren. Morgens erst mit dem Auto bis nach Leverkusen, dort sicher geparkt ging es dann per Regionalexpress bis zum Kölner Hauptbahnhof, von dem wir mit dem Thalys direkt zum Pariser Bahnhof "Gar du Nord"starteten. Ich hatte lange überlegt, welche Objektive ich zu meiner X-T1 mitnehmen soll. Die Zooms 18-55 und 55-200 zusammen mit dem 14er, oder nur Festbrennweiten? Letztendlich habe ich mich dann für die 3 Festbrennweiten 14-2.8, 35-1.4 und dem 56-1.2 entschieden. Allerdings hatte ich Angst, das mir die 85mm des 56 Objektivs am langen Ende nicht reichen würden, und so nahm ich vorsichtshalber noch das 55-200 mit. Nach kurzer Zeit (vielleicht 2 Stunden), wurden mir alle Objektive dann doch zu schwer, so das ich mich dazu entschloss, das Zoom mit den knapp 640 Gramm im Hotel zu lassen. So sind nur 2 Bilder in den 4 Tagen mit dem 55-200 gemacht worden. Ob ihr sie wohl findet !?
On a street photography mission armed with my Fuji X-Pro 1 |
Keith Moss
Budapest is hot and humid this morning, the temperature is eventually going to rise to 32c.. pretty hot for this Englishman on a street photography mission armed with my Fuji X-Pro 1. I head for the popular Vaci Utca which starts at the Great Central Market and stretches along to Voromarty Ter square and leads you to the famous spectacular Chain Bridge. The street is filled with restaurants and posh shops, high prices and high pressure selling. The prices in the restaurants and cafes are more than double sometimes triple of what I am paying near my apartment. For me its a place that offers the street photographer not a lot, so this area won't be included in my course, but well worth a visit just to have a stroll around and enjoy the atmosphere.. Across the Chain Bridge into Buda the oldest and more historical part of the city, the best of which is situated well above the river Danube so you have to climb.. There are only two ways up, one is the hard way shanks pony the other can only be described as a near vertical funicular which will carry you from the foot of the bridge up to the Royal Palace and the Castle with grace and ease, you can guess which one I took. Once at the top it offers spectacular panoramic views of Pest across the river. You can also see the Hungarian Parliament building which was based on Westminster in London…….
Source: streetphotographycourses.co.uk
Fuji XF35 f/1.4 and XF60 f/2.4 – A Street Photography Review . . . |
Kevin Shelley
. . . In my previous post I wrote that I'd purchased the XF35 & XF60 Fuji lenses as replacements for the XF18-55mm Zoom. I couldn't wait to put them through their paces and discover if this was indeed the right choice . . . . . . Living as I do in the UK's equivalent of the Australian Outback (the Western Lake District), Street Photography would appear to be an odd choice of hobby. My predicament was recently made all the more unbearable with these two new lenses that desperately needed trying out. Fortunately, a 30 mile trip to Barrow-In-Furness appeared unexpectedly, so I jumped at the chance to spend a couple of hours taking photo's with the new 'tools of the trade'…….
Don't Overlook the Nuances in Street Photography | Joe Newmann
One of the most important things about street photography is to have a keen eye for your surroundings. Sometimes, it's the subtle relationships that make for a great image. Take a quick look at this photo by Flickr user Sabrina M., and you'll notice it has nice framing, strong lines and a pleasing composition. But it's the subtext of the photo — the emotional distance of the two women — that makes it great. The women are standing just a few feet apart, each smoking a cigarette and each seemingly oblivious to the other. It's almost as if they're taking great pains to avoid making eye contact. Are the women using their cell phones because they need to send important texts or is it because it gives them a reason for not making small talk? These are things that Sabrina says went through her mind when she came upon this scene in her hometown of Antwerp, Belgium. This photo was taken near Antwerp's city hall in an area where many of the homes have survived from the 16th Century……..
See on www.huffingtonpost.com
Streets of May | Jonas Rask
May 2014. Again I have strayed into other areas of photography for a little while. I still shoot street. Below are 14 shots from Århus, Denmark. Captured using the X-Pro1 and the XF 56mm f/1.2 R. This lens is fantastic. Bokeh is so amazing. Focus is fast. And it works so damn well for Narrow DOF street photography. Enjoy…….
See on jonasraskphotography.com
Fujifilm Fujinon XF 56mm F1.2
Do you love my work and want to support me? If you're planning on buying camera gear, you can check out above-noted links. Prices remain the same for you, but a small percentage of your purchase value is valued back to me. Thank you!
Back to the streets with the X-Pro1 | Gabor Nagy
The last couple of months my go to camera for street photography and actually for everything else was the Fuji X100s. As I was getting ready for my next photo walk in the city I checked my equipment and realized that some of the batteries needed to be charged, but the charger just gave up, it didn't work anymore. What to do now, I had a few photo shoot coming up where I was going to use the X100s, but I had only 3 fully charged batteries left, so there goes my little friend back to the bag and I grabbed my old friend, the Fuji X-Pro1 with the 35mm lens. Uh, I missed this beast. And shame on me because of thinking of selling it and get a new X-T1 instead. I'm sure the X-T1 is great and I was really looking forward to try it out but after holding it in my hand for a minute in a camera shop, I still don't know. So we will see if the final nail in the coffin of my Canon kit will be the X-T1 or some other future Fuji camera. (If somebody from Fuji reads this and want to make my decision easier by lending me an X-T1, I wouldn't say no.)…….
See on gaborimages.blogspot.de
More Streets of Dublin | Gabor Nagy
So, back to the streets of Dublin with my little friend the Fuji X100s. Dublin is an amazing city, there is always something happening and it's full with interesting places and people. There is no bad time to go for a photo walk, you just have to grab a camera and do it. The more I do street photography the more I love it. And I hope you will enjoy the following images that I took around Dublin city centre in the last couple of weeks……
See on gaborimages.blogspot.de
Vivid Sydney 2013 – Street Fashion Reportage-Style with the
Fuji X-Pro1 | Kent Johnson
What a difference a year makes! Last year when shooting the Vivid Light Festival I went all Old Skool with tripod and filters and tricky exposures but this year, shooting with the Fuji X-Pro1 I decided to go all reportage-style and put my focus, and the fabulous Fuji's 35mm lens on the people attending vivid and their interactions with the Vivid event itself. All the pictures were made with Fujifilm X-Pro1, XF35mmF1.4 R iso at 3200 and givien a little extra pop using the EF20 Flash set at-1. Camera in aperture priority mode, most shots at F2. With the camera set all I had to do was find my subjects and photograph them; which was not that tricky once I got going. Yes one certainly needs some confidence but I do think the Fuji X-Pro1 looks so different that the very camera itself 'cuts you some extra slack in a crowd' and I didn't get too many strange or agro looks. Nice! Hope you like my take on Vivid Sydney 2013…..


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Inger, R.F. 1966. The systematics and zoogeography of the Amphibia of Borneo. Fieldiana: Zoology: 1-402.
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20th July 2009, 18:39 #1
can i play gba roms on dstt card?
hi guys can i play gba roms on my dstt card? without buying an outher card for it.?
can i just install something onto the sd card for it to load the roms?
i found this but i am not sure if you need to buy an outer catt for it or what. ?
thanks graeme
Last edited by gsim; 20th July 2009 at 18:52.
31st August 2009, 13:03 #2
Re: can i play gba roms on dstt card?
my m8 wants to play gba on his dstt card . dose he need to buy new card for it. or is he better buying an m3 card or something?
thanks gsim
31st August 2009, 13:22 #3
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Re: can i play gba roms on dstt card?
Copied and pasted from here
Q: How do I play GBA games with my DSTT?
To play GBA games, you must have a slot 2 cart, such as a GBA expansion cart. The most popular one is the EZFlash 3-in-1 (it's a 3-in-1 because it has rumble, it acts as extra memory required by the Opera browser, and most importantly it lets you play GBA games). The one that used to come bundled with the DSTT is the eWin 2-in-1 (no rumble). The eWin 2-in-1 is no longer manufactured and is difficult to find.
A GBA expansion cart doesn't have its own microSD card slot. Instead, it has enough internal memory to store one GBA game at a time. The game (a .gba file) is loaded from your DSTT's microSD card to the internal memory of the GBA expansion cart in order to play the game. This process normally only takes a few seconds. As you play the game, the game save data is stored to internal memory of the GBA expansion cart, and is later saved to your slot 1 microSD card after you reboot your NDS the next time.
In order to load GBA games stored on your DSTT's microSD card to your slot 2 GBA expansion cart, you'll either need to run a loader program such as GBA ExpLoader, or install YSMenu (which can load GBA games directly to a slot 2 without the need for a separate loader). Get GBA ExpLoader here: GBAtemp.net :: Downloads :: NDS - Applications :: GBA ExpLoader 0.58b
If you're using the official menu, you may also be able to use GBAldr to load GBA games to the EZFlash 3-in-1 and 3-in-1+: GBAtemp.net :: Downloads :: Other EZ-Flash files :: GBAldr 3in1+ 4/4/09
I hope this is some help to you, I only use NDS roms.
31st August 2009, 13:58 #4
Re: can i play gba roms on dstt card?
ok m8 thanks for that. can he just buy a cheap m3 card of dealextrem or something and it will run the gba roms of the m3 card. or dose he need to buy a slot 2 or what ? thanks gsim
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Many websites, and even database servers such as Couch DB & Neo4j provide their data over HTTP. Should people implementing client libraries for those APIs use persistent HTTP connections?
Take the 2-minute tour ×
Stack Overflow is a question and answer site for professional and enthusiast programmers. It's 100% free, no registration required.
Yes. "A significant difference between HTTP/1.1 and earlier versions of HTTP is that persistent connections are the default behavior of any HTTP connection. That is, unless otherwise indicated, the client SHOULD assume that the server will maintain a persistent connection, even after error responses from the server." See http://www.w3.org/Protocols/rfc2616/rfc2616-sec8.html for more info.


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Manko & The Invitation [#3]
Last month we discussed how the vacuum played a big role in Manko's life since he lost his right leg. Soon he developed this idea further, beyond the mere notion of extensions into more abstract notions of what a vacuum is, as we saw in the earlier discussed works 'Zebra2′ and his later work 'KM3′. The copyright issues made Manko feel betrayed by the old art regime that did not seem to know how to deal with virtual artworks. There would not be a lot of time to make art while dealing with the various pending court cases.
Then, one rainy day in November, Manko received an invitation at his Paris apartment from a mysterious person simply called 'O'. The invitation was printed on an ultra-thin sheet of paper that felt like it would crumble in his hands yet proved rather strong. At the top of it was an embossed red geometrical 'O' and it had a watermark on it of something that looked like a molecular structure. The invitation read as follows: "Dear Mr. Manko, Your artistic work has come to our attention and we would like you to consider joining our laboratory to work on an innovative project with us. We think you have the relevant mindset we need to complete our team. If you accept this invitation, please flush it down your toilet and we'll be in touch with you soon. Yours sincerely, 'O'."


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Terry Brown 12 Mar 11
I asume you are using Freeview, try re-booting your box.
Switch off and then do a full install,as there has been some software updates recently and they may have been moved to a different channel.
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Should I upgrade to Windows 10? 8 reasons why you should upgrade to Windows 10... and 2 why you…
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Avg Rating: 4.4
Thanks in part to artists like Frank Ocean and The Weeknd, modern day R&B has a brand new sound and style. Just ask singer/songwriter/producer Johnny Rain, whose brand new work is described by the artist himself as "Avant-Electro." As a pre-Valentine's Day treat, the 6J Recordings recording artist has released his debut offering, L.O.M. (Lullaby Of Machine).
The 13-track free album includes previously-featured selections "LLWH" and "Mulholland Drive, My Abyss," both of which received rave reviews by DJBooth readers.
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Written by DJ Z
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Artist: Johnny Rain
Album: Lullaby of Machine
I've yet to visit Los Angeles but, based on the work of David Lynch, I have an image of Mulholland Drive as a street where eerie, unsettling sh*t happens to beautiful people. Tricky Stewart... More
Posted 2 years ago
Artist: Johnny Rain
Song: LLWH
Album: Lullaby of Machine
However adept the individuals involved may be at keeping up appearances, breakups have a tendency to leave behind ugly psychological scars. Booth newcomer Johnny Rain, for one, isn't about to... More
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follow Dictionary.com
The issue pretty much boils down to that useful phrase: too soon.
The 60 placemats given as the queen attended a cabinet meeting today will probably be just as useful.
What adaptive technology has been the most useful or important for you?
1590s, from use (n.) + -full. Related: Usefully; usefulness.


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Email AddressVerified
Phone Number▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒ 86
Reviewed42 Reviews
Hey, I'm Elaine!
young 58 year old! married,2 grown up children.Early retired teacher. Loves cooking,wild life ,gardening and holidays aboard.
I always respond to guest within a few hours of receiving a request but because of the time difference for overseas guests it makes my percentage response rate look very low so please do not be put off!
Elaine has completed online and offline ID verification.
Wish Lists (1)
Reviews (42)
Reviews From Guests
Thank you both for making us so welcome! You were both extremely accommodating and were very happy to go that extra mile to make our stay as pleasant as possible! Although our visit was brief we loved every minute of our stay. The accommodation was perfect; spotless and tastefully decorated. Breakfast was a real treat - we were spoilt for choice! Your home is set in a beautiful location and has stunning views. Would highly recommend a visit!
The host was very welcoming and concerned for our needs. The room was clean, modern, and well-appointed. The gardens were large and attractive and we were free to walk in them. It is in an out-of-the way place, but that also made it quiet.
Guests please note that although we have panoramic countryside views we are in fact only 15 mins from Derby city and 20 mins from Nottingham City.
Elaine and John are amazing, kind and friendly hosts! Their well appointed B&B is beautiful and spotless, and extra special touches abound. Their dog and two cats are so cute and charming, and very well mannered! We had everything we needed and more, and we felt at home immediately. We'd recommend Rookery Nook to all.
Thank you for your lovely review. We are so pleased you enjoyed staying at Rookery Nook and that you saw the gold finches in the Garden.
Elaine and John are exceptional hosts and makes you feel at home the minute you arrive. Elaine not only catered for our specialist dietary needs but pushed her own culinary capacity to provide gluten free food for us. He cheese scones were beautiful. Fantastic property and location. We will be returning as well as sending friends the way of Rookery Nook
We (my parents, husband and I) stayed for two nights and Elaine and John (and the cats) were perfect hosts. The accommodation was perfect for what we needed - a real home from home, and it was great having the dining room as an extra place to sit and chat in the evening. The garden is beautiful, and I imagine when it's a bit warmer a lovely pace to sit in the evening. The breakfast was lovely and there was ample choice and provisions. The homemade treats in the afternoon were also a delight!
Hello everybody I am zoë and I am 11 years old I was on a bed and breakfast with dad, mum and my two brothers. The b & b was in the house of John and Elain. They had 2 bedrooms with 2-person beds. Sven and I had a room, and mum, dad and sion had a room. We had a diningroom also, but elain had 2 new knees so she couldn't walk very good. That's why we didn't get breakfast on bed, but she bought some nice breakfast for us. On de bedrooms we had a TV (it's handy when you can't sleep) and the beds were good. It was nice and warm in the B&B and of course we had a bath and a shower, and they had good showerstuff, really nice. They've got one dog and 2 cats, and a vary large garden. John and Elaine are one of the friendliest people we've met. My father took the wallet with all our bankcards and money with him. Elaine borrowed us some money, so that we could still have a wonderfull day in Nottingham. I would give them 4,5 stars. I'm very happy with the B&B of them. We will definitely go again and next time we will ask for an english breakfast and I will give 5 stars…. -------------- As the father of Zoë, I can definitely recommend Rookery Nook. Elaine and John are very hospitable and friendly people. They thought of all details and that is wonderful. I normally don't sleep well, but in their bed, we have slept wonderfully. We had all the space and everyday clean towels, nice breakfast and clean rooms. Price vs Quality is really good.... Thanks Elaine and John for giving us a wonderful time. We wish you many wonderful guests.... Mark, Debora, Sven, Zoë & Sion
The couple, Ms. Elaine and Mr. John are very very nice people. We felt home far away from Home. The best hospitality one can expect... They gave us maps, directions, recommendations for all we needed and for every idea we had they looked into it. The location is described exactly as it is and the reality is even better then advertised. A very nice and tidy place. Very welcomed... B&B at its best. Thank u
Elaine was very welcoming and helpful. The room was comfortable and quiet, with a great shower. The fruit at breakfast was delicious with raspberries from the garden, fresh fruit salad and mango. It was nice to have the breakfast room to make a cup of tea etc. and you could warm up an instant meal, though we ate at the local pub both nights where the food was excellent.
Elaine and her husband were very welcoming and attentive throughout our stay, suggesting places to visit and helping with travel plans. The 'kitchen' area was well stocked with a variety of breakfast items and beverages. It was lovely having the option to sit and chat in the kitchen, conservatory and garden, instead of simply staying in the bedrooms. Our room was very large and homely, with plenty of space for a travel cot (which was kindly provided). The bathroom had a good, powerful shower. Basically Rookery Nook was everything we could have asked for and more. We definitely recommend, especially if you like the option to cuddle a cat during your break.
Thank you for the lovely review it was lovely meeting you all. Readers please note the cats are not allowed in the guest accomodation but you are likely to meet them in the garden.
John and Elaine were fine, welcoming hosts, even with my rather late arrival. The room was good , garden lovely and the mischievous puss! I wouls stay here again, thankyou for your kindness.
Reviews From Hosts
Elaine and her husband John spent 2 nights with us. A relaxed and pleasant couple, very tidy. They were lovely guests whose communication was excellent and I would recommend them to other hosts.
Elaine and John were a pleasure to host, such kind and generous people. You will not meet a more genuine couple! Enjoyed our chats with them and our pets loved the attention! We hope to stay at their Bnb if ever in Derbyshire, it looks fabulous! Highly recommended guests!
Elaine and her hubby were terrific guests. Very communicative, friendly and a joy to have around. We love having people arrive as strangers and leave as friends. Would have them back anytime and are looking forward to visiting their Airbnb place in the UK -- can only imagine it is every bit as nice as they are.
Elaine and her husband are polite, tidy, and being fellow Airbnb hosts they were very easy to host. They were not having the best luck traveling this time around but certainly we're trying to make the best of it. Hosts should feel completely comfortable opening their home to Elaine in the future. Cheers!
Elaine and her husband were a pleasure to host; we'd welcome them back next time they're in SF. BTW...the room/house they rent out in the UK looks amazing...
Elaine, John and Maggie were great guests and just fitted in. Highly recommended.
It was so nice to have a couple who treated the house as their own it was like having family to stay they were a really nice couple. They made the whole experience very easy. They would be welcome to stay here anytime.
Etant en vacances ce sont mes parents et mon fils qui ont accueillis Elaine et son mari. mes parents ont apprécié leur venu ainsi que les échanges avec eux. Tout c'est bien passé.
Elaine and John were very nice guests- so relaxed and friendly. They were considerate and appreciative and a pleasure to host. We had some good chats too and they shared a few funny stories about guests at their own B&B in Derbyshire. John has a lovely Yorkshire accent too!


text:
LinuxTag 2009: Talend Does Real-Time Data Integration
Just in time for LinuxTag 2009 Berlin, California firm Talend promises real-time data integration software.
Talend Integration Suite RTx should significantly accelerate data transfers over IT systems and thereby ensure that coworkers have real-time access to current data. Talend cofounder Fabrice Bonen sees increasing demand for it because of the current velocity of processing needs: "IT organizations need to provide efficient and reliable technology to ensure the consistency of data across the information system, and its immediate availability for efficient decision-making." He gives an example of Webshops for the software's application: when they're aware of the real-time needs of its customers, they can more quickly respond with the appropriate offerings and promotions. Other users would be service and support providers that could provide better customer support by profiting from real-time data from various sources.
The foundation of the integration software is the metadata manager, a building block for graphic description of processes, and the job designer, which transforms data into desired formats. The new Integration Suite RTx is, according to its designers, especially applicable for service-oriented architectures in that SOAP bindings and UDDI entries are automated. The integration software handles the instantiation and resource management. Another feature is that execution is event-based. Results are read over the enterprise service bus (ESB), remote connections, HTTP, socket calls and JMS-based message-oriented middleware. A Change Data Capture feature allows proactive, real-time detection of changes in data sources.
Talend Integration Suite RTx is available immediately under commercial licensing starting at around $11,000 per developer per year. Developer software Talend Open Studio 3.1.2, under GPLv2 licensing, is the basis for the commercial product and can be downloaded for free. Talend will be demonstrating its Integration Suite at LinuxTag on June 24 in Berlin.
Issue 177/2015
Buy this issue as a PDF
NoScript Flaw
Mozilla's script blocker add-on could be putting malware sites on the whitelist.
RIP SSLv3
The Internet community officially banishes the notoriously unsafe Secure Sockets Layer protocol.
Mate 1.1 Arrives
Popular desktop environment continues the Gnome 2 legacy – with new support for the Gnome 3 toolkit.
US Government Requires HTTPS
The Obama White House has issued a memorandum telling all US government agencies they must use HTTPS for all websites and web communication.
Mozilla Signs Firefox Add-Ons
New program will dial up security for the Firefox browser.
Fedora 22 Arrives
Red Hat's community distro embraces the cloud.
Code.org and College Board Team Reach Out for Talented High School Coders
New partnership will bring more and better CS training to US schools
A Peek Inside TeslaCrypt Ransomware
Criminals offer online help over Tor network
Mumblehard Still Spams
Sophisticated malware is still present on Joomla and WordPress sites around the world.
Launchpad Gets Git
Future versions of Ubuntu's code service will support the popular Git version control system used with Linux and other open source projects.


text:
AKOO Clothing Signs 12-Year Lease at 231 West 39th Street
AKOO Clothing signed a 12-year lease at 231 West 39th Street for 9,355 square feet previously occupied by Genevieve Anderson, according to The New York Post which first reported the story.
AKOO (which stands for A King of Oneself) is a menswear brand founded by Grammy-winning artist T.I. The firm will be joined by its owner RP55 Group, a manufacturing and distribution company, in the space. Read More


text:
Upper East Side
416 E 76th St
4th Floor
New York, NY 10021 Phone number & directions
416 E 76th St
4th Floor
New York, NY 10021 Phone number & directions
License & Identifications
A medical license is required for a doctor to practice medicine in a particular state. Requirements vary by state but most require, at a minimum, post-graduate training in the doctor's specific specialty. An NPI number is a national identifier unique to an individual health care provider and is managed by the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).
Learn more about Dr. Lawrence Miller:
View the full profile to get information on:
- Qualifications
- What's important to you
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Patient Reviews
Have you visited Dr. Miller? Share your experience.
Write a Review
Write a Review
Specialties & Research
- He has special expertise in 7 areas:
- Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) / Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
- Bipolar Disorder / Manic Depressive Disorder
- Depression
- Depressive Disorder
- Insomnia
- Schizophrenia
- Sleep Disorders
Education & Awards
Dr. Miller graduated from Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine.
- Russian
- Spanish
Home > Find a Psychiatrist > NY > New York Psychiatrists > Dr. Lawrence Miller, DO
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- Additional Information
- Dr. Lawrence Edward Miller DO is a male Psychiatrist and practices in Psychiatry.
- Where does Dr. Lawrence E. Miller practice?
- Dr. Lawrence Miller has 1 office location.
Dr. Lawrence Miller practices Psychiatry near New York, NY.
See New York Psychiatrists.


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To specify that the commission of certain heinous criminal acts by one spouse against the other, or against a minor child, shall result in the spouse who committed such acts losing his or her rights to participate in decision making related to the funeral arrangements for a decedent spouse.
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New Pokemon and Type Combinations Speculation
View Single Post
March 17th, 2013 (08:46 PM).
Xander Olivieri
Team Kalos
Join Date: Jun 2010
Gender: Other
Nature: Hasty
Posts: 5,386
Quote originally posted by
Neither has! I'd love to see the former especially, since we have all these Fire types learning things like Smog. A Fire/Poison dual type would definitely be something I'd want to see. Ice/Poison sounds interesting too, especially since it takes away that pesky Fighting weakness away that plagues Ice types.
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Ice/Poison sounds like it would be cool, though its a type combination that just doesn't meld well....It loses Fighting only. It keeps everything else. Resistance wise its very meh. Grass, Poison, Ice, and Bug. Not that great. Not to mention both types get a huge shaft stat wise. Together it would have pretty mediocre stats and Move pool.
Fire/Poison is so interesting...x4 weakness to ground is just so unsexy.
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Last November, for example, I managed to track down a celebrated tantric at a cremation ground near Birbhum in West Bengal.
Cammue, whose agency has now performed a thorough assessment of the current cremation process at Boystown, is extremely concerned.
Then Heal STL was burned down Monday like a moribund body for cremation.
1620s, from Latin cremationem (nominative crematio), noun of action from past participle stem of cremare "to burn, consume by fire" (also used of the dead), from PIE *krem-, extended form of root *ker- "heat, fire" (see carbon).
1874, a back-formation from cremation. Related: Cremated; cremating.


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So I saw that @Alen Type08 Pavlovic started a new playoff with rebranding big and famous global companies and I thought it was a good opportunity to show the world that I don't like the Wacom logo =)) That's right, I literally hate it when I see that logo on my intuos4, I don't know if that thingy is something very significant for Wacom, but I saw that on the most of their products they only use the typo. The symbol just doesn't fit the brand's big name and the greatness and quality of the product, so I tried to redesign it. I've chosen to go with an ambigram because the logo is also printed upside down on the tablet...so...why not?
Also, don't forget to check out the attachment if you want to see a slightly second different version of this! Cheerio!
More Marcus Țiplea
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Clinton & Money
Daniel Schorr proposes a somewhat unorthodox way that President Clinton might raise money for his legal defense fund.
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Book your room at Hotel la Plaça
Please enter your travel dates.
Get an overview of this hotel3-star hotel with full-service spa and free breakfast
Situated in a rural location, this spa hotel is within 9 mi (15 km) of La Vinyeta, Dali Museum, and Roses Beach. Aqua Brava and Santa Maria de Castello D'Empuries are also within 9 mi (15 km).
Hotel Features
Along with a full-service spa, this hotel has a restaurant and a seasonal outdoor pool. Free full breakfast and free WiFi in public areas are also provided. Other amenities include a lobby fireplace.
Room Amenities
All 9 individually decorated rooms feature free WiFi and sofa beds. LCD TVs, room service, and hair dryers are among the other amenities available to guests.Information missing or incorrect? Tell us!
Hotel Amenities
Hotel Amenities
Hotel la Plaça features a full-service spa and a seasonal outdoor pool. The hotel offers a restaurant. Guests can enjoy a complimentary breakfast each morning. Public areas are equipped with complimentary high-speed wireless Internet access.
This Garriguella hotel also offers a fireplace in the lobby and room service (during limited hours).
- Free breakfast
- Full-service spa
- Turkish bath/Hammam
- Total number of rooms - 9
- Number of floors - 2
- Fireplace in lobby
- Free WiFi
- Restaurant
- Year Built 2006
- Number of buildings/towers - 1
- Outdoor seasonal pool
Family Friendly Amenities
- Free Wi-Fi
- Rollaway/extra beds available
- Sofa bed
Available in all rooms: Free WiFi
Available in some public areas: Free WiFi
Room Amenities
- Climate control
- Daily housekeeping
- Turndown service
- Private bathroom
- Hair dryer
- Bathtub or shower
- Room service (limited hours)
- In-room safe
- Desk
- Sofa bed
- Rollaway/extra beds available
- Cribs/infant beds available
- Blackout drapes/curtains
- Free WiFi
- Sofa bed size
- Individually decorated
Where to Eat
A complimentary full breakfast is served each morning between 8:30 AM and 11:00 AM.
Hotel la Plaça has a restaurant serving breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
Room service (during limited hours) is available.
Spa Services
Guests can indulge in a pampering treatment at the hotel's full-service spa. Services include hot stone massages, massages, facials, and body wraps. The spa is equipped with a sauna, a spa tub, and Turkish bath/hammam.
- Hot stone massage
- Manicures and pedicures
- Body wraps
- Body scrubs
- Sauna in spa
- Spa tub in spa
- Massages
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Hotel Policies
Check-in time starts at 3:00 PM
Check-in time ends at 11 PM
Special check-in instructions:
Check-out time is noon
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Children and extra beds
- Children are welcome.
- Rollaway/extra beds are available.
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Pets allowed, Only dogs are allowed, Maximum number of pets per room 2, Pet maximum weight in kg is 15
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Extra-person charges may apply and vary depending on hotel policy.
Government-issued photo identification and a credit card or cash deposit are required at check-in for incidental charges.
Special requests are subject to availability upon check-in and may incur additional charges. Special requests cannot be guaranteed.
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No rollaway/extra beds available
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We should mention
Cash transactions at this property cannot exceed EUR 2500, due to national regulations. For further details, please contact the property using information in the booking confirmation. This property's policy is to refuse certain bookings for the purpose of group events or parties, including pre-wedding stag/bachelor and hen/bachelorette parties. This property allows pets in specific rooms only (surcharges apply and can be found in the Fees section). Guests can request one of these rooms by contacting the property directly, using the contact information on the booking confirmation.


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Laurane Tanner Bullock Boreman
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
|Laurane Tanner Bullock Boreman
November 24, 1830
Wheeling, West Virginia
|April 14, 1908
(aged 77)
Parkersburg, West Virginia
|Known for
|First lady of West Virginia, 1869
Laurane Tanner Bullock Boreman (November 24, 1830 – April 14, 1904) was the wife of former Governor of West Virginia Arthur I. Boreman and served as that state's First Lady, 1869. She was born on May 1, 1830, at Wheeling, West Virginia. Her first husband, John Oldham Bullock, was a Union soldier killed early in the Civil War. On November 30, 1864, she married Arthur I. Boreman. She helped define the role of the first lady, hosting formal gatherings at the Boreman's home in Wheeling. After leaving office, the Boremans moved to Washington, D.C. where Gov. Boremen served one term in the United States Senate and then to Parkersburg, West Virginia, where she died on April 14, 1908.[1]
- ^ "West Virginia's First Ladies," West Virginia Division of Culture and History, June 2007.
|Honorary titles
|Preceded by
|First Lady of West Virginia
1864 – 1869
|Succeeded by
Mary Ireland Farnsworth


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in town for free camps
- Member for
- 5 years 49 weeks
- Blog
- View recent blog entries
Recent Comments
|3 weeks 6 days ago
|Cancer sucks
Working with various types of insurance, I see this more frequently than I'd like to admit. Please make sure that your family is taken care of if the worst were to happen.
|11 weeks 3 days ago
|Not the internet,
But I used Encarta '95 for a lot of school projects in high school. It was sweet back then.
|12 weeks 2 days ago
|In 90% of cases you're correct
However, they both have their niches and of used correctly are great tools. Whole life shouldn't be considered an investment, but rather a savings tool for access to tax free, accessible, guaranteed-to-never-go-backwards money. Through the right company and structured correctly it can be an awesome financial tool. The money in the policy won't break records but it can be used to finance other opportunities that come up in life. Corporations and banks understand this and have billions of dollars in these policies (Chase has $20B and Bank of America has $18B). What do they know that the average person doesn't? Walt Disney, Ford and other companies wouldn't exist if their founders didn't have life insurance policies to use to keep them appear in tough times.
|12 weeks 2 days ago
|Universal life
Can be dangerous. If you take advantage of the flexibility it provides(Which many people do) it collapse on itself after so many years. I can't tell you how many clients I've had in my office frustrated over it because that wasn't explained very well and they basically wasted their money.
|12 weeks 2 days ago
|Universal life is not whole life
Common misconception
|12 weeks 2 days ago
|Don't do brokerage
By doing a tax deferred account you'll have 30% more money after 20 years because you weren't taxed every year.
|12 weeks 2 days ago
|How are your
Capital gains taxes?
|12 weeks 5 days ago
As someone who has officiated for 8 years at the high school and college level along with having an older brother officiating D1, watching the tournament this year was rough. So many calls made by officials that were not in their primary coverage area as well as making calls when they are not in a good position to see what actually happened. Not to mention how inconsistent they are.
|15 weeks 6 days ago
|I thought it was
Bush's fault?
|17 weeks 5 days ago
|I would absolutely do it.
I was good at those in Jr High.
|18 weeks 17 hours ago
|Let me be clear
Universal life is stupid and Variable is only for a certain type of goal. The kind I'm referring to is the "conservative"kind the poster above mentioned. Your risk is in the company itself and not directly tied to the market. It's designed to be the part of your portfolio that hits a lot of singles (Ichiro Suzuki made a killing in the MLB doing that). Whoever sold it to the poster above that didn't like it didn't educate him on why he should have it or what purpose it serves in a financial plan. I recommend reading "Financial Independence in the 21st Century." I have a lot of smart clients that put a lot off money every year into these as well as other investments. They were really thanking me in 2009.
|18 weeks 21 hours ago
|I forgot to mention
You can access it tax free. You would have to work hard top get taxed on it.
|18 weeks 21 hours ago
|Permanent life insurance through Northwestern Mutual
It's where the banks park your money anyhow and keep the interest rate they make. Pros are accessibility (Within 48 hours), guaranteed to not go backwards and still has a medium long term rate of return. A lot of people don't like it, but it's because they don't know it very well. Corporations and banks stash billions of dollars in these places.
|26 weeks 5 days ago
It's like a 401(k) plan, but for high income earners.
|26 weeks 5 days ago
|I'm wondering if this scenario has been in the works
since the late summer. As the season started I think that some people realized how bad our department had gotten and the product on the field sped up the process of needing to get a new athletic director to make a good run at Harbaugh. My question would be how much the big donors were in Schlissel's ear to find a new athletic director to go hard after Harbaugh?
To Schlissel's credit, he listened well when he did not understand our infatuation with athletics
|28 weeks 6 days ago
|I'd rather
Blame the idiot that put it there.
|32 weeks 5 days ago
THE Jon Horford?
|33 weeks 6 days ago
|I don't get it.
Can someone please explain?
|34 weeks 18 hours ago
|Here's my question
It doesn't look like our offense has really changed much from last year, so
|35 weeks 6 days ago
|I share your optimistic potential
But have come to realize that no matter how much talent this team has, Hoke's staff does not have the ability to develop them or get them motivated to play consistently. I keep expecting them to step up every week, but they just don't. I was Hoke's biggest supporter for the longest time, but even he knows he's done. Watch the interaction with Dantonio at the end... He knows
|35 weeks 6 days ago
|I don't think the team
Likes Hoke as much as you think. See the letter to players a few weeks back and there was no mention of Hoke or any coach. I've heard rumors (granted, just that) that some of their guys are tired off getting hurt and losing so much. At some point even a player realizes something is wrong. I think the evidence for that is in their lackluster attitude.
|36 weeks 2 hours ago
|Well said
Well said
|36 weeks 3 hours ago
|Remember that like it was
Remember that like it was yesterday. I miss those days of hope.
|36 weeks 5 hours ago
|Thought the same thing myself
Thought the same thing myself
|36 weeks 8 hours ago
|Great points
This is very true about Michigan. My question is whether the powers that be understand this situation and also get that the "Michigan Man" meme hasn't worked. I get the feeling they still have their heads up their...
|36 weeks 18 hours ago
|Yeah I saw that interaction
And wondered what that was about. Maybe Hoke telling him it wasn't nice?
|36 weeks 21 hours ago
|With these kinds of performance as the norm
Why wouldn't we want to fire Hoke now? Got to be better than carrying him through the season.
|36 weeks 1 day ago
|This wins the day
This wins the day
|36 weeks 2 days ago
|We also saw how offenses
We also saw how offenses suck. One is less painful than the other.
|37 weeks 2 days ago
|I played basketball in
I played basketball in college(small school no one has ever heard of) and I played much betterin games than practice. I practiced hard every day, but there was just something about hanged that brought my emotion out. My coaches thought I was crazed lunatic during games. My percentages were definitely higher than practice, so I understand that some people play better in games than they do in practice.


text:
- Angliss Hospital
- Box Hill Hospital
- Maroondah Hospital
- Healesville & District Hospital
- Peter James Centre
- Spectrum
- Turning Point
- Wantirna Health
- Yarra Ranges Health
- Yarra Valley Community Health
24 HR Emergency Department available at this site
Latest News
Eastern Health has announced the next phase of the Healesville & District Hospital and Yarra Valley Community Health redevelopment project. "Today we welcomed the Victorian...
Box Hill Hospital's brand new kiosk is now open, marking a significant milestone in its 45 year history. First opening in September 1969, the kiosk is run by auxiliary...


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VIEWS: 13 PAGES: 28 CATEGORY: Politics & History POSTED ON: 9/25/2010 Public Domain
Supersize It: The Growth of Retail Chains and the Rise of the "Big Box" Retail Format* Emek Basker University of Missouri Shawn D. Klimek U.S. Bureau of the Census Pham Hoang Van Baylor University Census Advisory Committee of Professional Associations Meetings April 19-20, 2007 Abstract Retail chains have grown and retail stores have expanded their selection of products over the last several decades. We use micro data from the Census of Retail Trade to document these facts and show that these trends are related: retail chains with more stores tend to carry more distinct product lines, and as retail chains grow, they add both stores and product lines. To explain this fact, we present a model of a retail firm in which fixed costs are associated with both types of expansion – into new geographic and product markets – resulting in a complementarity between the two types of expansion. JEL Codes: L11, L25, L81 Keywords: Retail Chains, Big Box, Economics of Scale, General Merchandise, One Stop Shopping Discussion Questions: 1. Are the assumptions of the model feasible? 2. What is the appropriate definition of a market? 3. Is the detailed product data in Retail Census detailed enough to study the "Big Box" phenomenon? _______________________ *Very preliminary; please do not cite or distribute without permission from the authors. This work is unofficial and thus has not undergone the review accorded to official Census Bureau publications. The views expressed in this paper are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the U.S. Census Bureau. Comments welcome to: firstname.lastname@example.com, email@example.com, or firstname.lastname@example.com. We thank Roger Betancourt, Jonathan Beck, Tom Davidoff, Lucia Foster, Ron Jarmin, and seminar participants at Berkeley (Haas), Missouri, and the "Advances in the Empirical Analysis of Retailing" workshop at WZ-Berlin for comments. Basker also thanks the Economic and Policy Analysis Research Center (EPARC) at the University of Missouri for research support. 1 Introduction The growth of "big box" retail chains — large, box-shaped general-merchandisers selling ev- erything from toothpaste to baby strollers to vacuum cleaners and televisions — has received attention from both the popular press and academic economists. Chains like Wal-Mart, Target, and Kmart account for an ever-increasing share of Americans' purchases; in 2004, Wal-Mart alone handled 6.5% of all U.S. retail sales (Basker, 2006). These chain retailers are also expanding in product space. Most recently, all three chains have added a full line of groceries to selected stores, which had already sold apparel, housewares, prescription drugs, toys, books, and electronics. Wal-Mart, for example, introduced its "Supercenter" store for- mat, which includes a full line of groceries, in 1988, and by 2002 was the largest grocer in the U.S. (Basker, 2006). Target, too, operates superstores, called SuperTarget R stores, and Kmart operates both Big Kmart stores with an expanded food area (but not a full grocery store) and Kmart Super Centers, which contain a full grocery store. In this paper, we document a strong and persistent relationship between the size, or scale, of a retail chain, as measured by the number of stores the chain operates, and its scope, as measured by the number and variety of products it sells. We use newly-developed micro data from the Census of Retail Trade to show that the number of products a store sells is increasing in the size of the retail chain to which it belongs, and that as retail chains grow in scale — adding geographic markets — they also grow in scope — adding product lines. We propose a model to account for this relationship, in which there are fixed costs associated with adding both geographic markets and product markets. Because larger retailers can spread these fixed costs more thinly, we observe a complementarity between chain scale and scope. We focus on the general merchandise subsector, in which stores sell a wide variety of products. In this subsector the rise of retail chains has been most spectacular; single-store ("mom and pop") retailers now account for under 2% of retail dollars in this subsector, as compared with over 37% in the retail sector overall. Our paper is related to an established, largely theoretical, literature on the role of retail- ers, and to a more recent empirical literature on the "big box" phenomenon. The theoretical literature has focused on competition and retailer behavior within a single market — Bliss (1988), for example, discusses competition between "specialist" shops and a "general" shop, and Bagwell, Ramey, and Spulber (1997) discuss the rise of a dominant, low-cost, low-price retail firm — but neither paper discusses the special role of the retail chain. Holmes (2001) models an increase in size of a retail store caused by improvements in inventory-management technology, for example the introduction of bar codes or radio frequency identification tech- niques. We argue that, by increasing the optimal scope of stores, these innovations indirectly lead the chain to expand its scale, as well.1 The related empirical literature concerns the growth of retail chains, and their impact on local markets. Foster, Haltiwanger, and Krizan (2006) use data from the Census of Retail Trade to study productivity dynamics in the retail sector, and find that large (and expanding) retail chains are much more efficient than "mom and pop" stores. Jarmin, Klimek, and Miranda (2005) use data from the Census Bureau's Longitudinal Business Database (LBD) to study the growth of retail chains using employment per store as a measure of store size. The average number of workers per store has more than doubled in the last 40 years (going from approximate6ly 6 to approximately 14), at the same time that the share of stores operated by chains has grown dramatically — from 20% to 35% (Jarmin, Klimek, and Miranda, 2005). This trend has been even more dramatic in the general-merchandise subsector, on which we focus in this paper. The number of county markets served by at least one single-unit general merchandise retailer declined by 28% (from 2835 to 2138) between 1977 and 2002, while the number of county markets served by a local or regional general- merchandisers declined by 86% and 80% respectively. At the same time, the number of 1 Competition between "local" and "global" players has been discussed in other contexts, most notably media markets where competition between different types of players can change their choices of product char- acteristics, and, in particular, lead to homogenization of products (see, e.g., Loertscher and Muehlheusser, 2006; George and Waldfogel, 2003). 2 county markets served by at least one general merchandiser with a national chain increased by 25% (from 2087 to 2673). Unlike Jarmin, Klimek, and Miranda, we use the number of stores operated by a retailer, rather than the number of geographic markets served, as our measure of retailer scale. When we talk about a retailer's "geographic expansion," then, we are implicitly assuming that each store is in a unique geographic market.2 There is also a growing literature on the effects of big box stores on local economies, to which this paper contributes indirectly. Basker (2006) reviews the literature on the local effects of big box stores with a special focus on Wal-Mart, the largest and most visible of the large retail chains. We argue in this paper that the competitive effect of a large retail store may well depend on the size of the chain it belongs to, and that as the chain grows, its competitive impact in each local market is likely to increase. The rest of the paper is organized as follows. Section 2 provides an overview of the general-merchandise subsector and the changes it has undergone in the last few decades, as it compares to the retail sector as a whole. Section 3 describes the Census data we use. Section 4 presents our empirical findings. Section 5 presents a model to explain these results, in which a retailer's store size (scope) and chain size (scale) are complements. Section 6 concludes. 2 Background on General Merchandise Stores We use the following terminology in this paper. A retailer is a firm which may operate one or more retail establishments, or stores. A retailer operating a single store is a single-store retailer (or "mom and pop" retailer). A retailer operating multiple stores is a retail chain. The North American Industrial Classification System (NAICS), currently used by the Census, defines "General Merchandise Stores" as stores that sell "new general merchandise 2 In other words, we are assuming that a single retailer's stores do not "self-cannibalize." This seems like a reasonable first approximation, although Holmes (2005) argues that cost-savings associated with "economies of density" can be sufficiently large to compensate for such cannibalization in practice. 3 [to retail consumers] from fixed point-of-sale locations. Establishments in this subsector are unique in that they have the equipment and staff capable of retailing a large variety of goods from a single location."3 Before the classification change that took place in 1997, the Census used the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) system, which defined the subsector as consisting of "stores which sell a number of lines of merchandise, such as dry goods, apparel and accessories, furniture and home furnishings, small wares, hardware, and food."4 The subsector includes department stores, discount department stores, dollar stores, general stores, variety stores and trading posts. The sales share of chain retailers has been increasing in recent years; and it is increasing even faster for large retail chains than for small ones. The first column of Table 1 documents the rising share of retail sales accounted for by retail chains. Until the late 1970s, more than half of all consumer dollars were spent at single-store ("mom and pop") retailers; today, more than 60% of consumer dollars are spend at chain stores, double the share of 1954. The third column shows the revenue share of large chains, defined as chains with 100 or more stores, which has grown even faster than the chains' share as a whole; large chains' share of retail sales has more than tripled since the 1950s. Chains are dramatically more important in the general merchandise retail subsector, where they have essentially taken over the entire sector. The second and fourth columns in Table 1 show that in the General Merchandise (GM) subsector, where retailers carry many varieties of goods, chains have been dominant for many decades, but single-store retailers are now virtually extinct: almost 99% of all general merchandise dollars are spent in chains, and 96% in chains with 100 or more stores (up from 34% fifty years ago).5 Table 2 provides some statistics on the differences between the retail sector as a whole and the general merchandise subsector from the 2002 Census of Retail Trade (CRT). General 3 http://www.census.gov/epcd/naics02/def/NDEF452.HTM 4 http://www.census.gov/epcd/ec97sic/def/G53.TxT 5 Prior to 1900, chains' share of sales was below 10% even the grocery subsector, where chains grew very early (Barger, 1955). 4 merchandise retailers constitute only 1.3% of all retail firms, but account for 3.7% of retail stores and 14.6% of retail sales. In 2002, the average general merchandise retailer had a chain of 3.8 stores, while the average retailer had a chain of 1.3 stores. More strikingly, while 75% of retail firms operated a single store, 72% of general-merchandise stores belonged to chains with 100 or more stores. 3 Data We use micro data from the Census of Retail Trade (CRT) for the years 1982, 1987, 1992, 1997, and 2002. Detailed CRT forms, which include the data we use, are mailed to every chain store, as well as to a sample of single-unit retailers with more than 10 employees.6 The CRT allows us to identify general-merchandise stores, link all stores within a chain, and track them over time. In addition, we have information on the number, and type, of products sold by each store at each point in time, as reported by the store's manager.7 We limit our analysis to stores that received Census forms numbered 5301 or 5302 (in 1982-1997) or 45201 or 45202 (in 2002). These forms are designated for general merchandise stores, although a small fraction of general merchandise stores receive other forms (for exam- ple, forms intended for apparel stores or supermarkets). We also eliminate from the analysis stores that received general merchandise forms but did not have a general merchandise clas- sification. All told, we have approximately 12,000 retailer-year observations (or about 2,400 per year), representing approximately 120,000 store-years (an average of about 10 stores per chain, or 24,000 stores per Census year). Of these, 10,000 store-year observations are single- units, and nearly 2,000 retailer-years are small chains, with 100 or fewer stores (averaging 6 The Census send forms to all firms operating at least two establishments, even if the firm operates only a single retail store (other establishments operated by the firm may include manufacturing plants or wholesale establishments, for example). When we compute the size of the retailer, however, we limit the count to retail store operations. 7 In some cases, part or all of the information may be provided by company headquarters. As noted below, due to non-response or incomplete responses not all stores that receive the forms are included in the data set. 5 Table 1. Chains' and Large Chains' Share of Sales Chains' Share Large Chains' Sharec a b Year Retail GM Retaila GMb 1948 0.296 0.612 0.123 n/ad 1954 0.301 0.680 0.126 0.339 1958 0.337 0.748 0.143 0.360 1963 0.366 0.837 0.158 0.374 1967 0.398 0.867 0.186 0.461 1972 0.452 0.920 0.252 0.576 1977 0.480 0.945 0.268 0.622 1982 0.542 0.962 0.295 0.744 1987 0.546 0.969 0.309 0.757 1992 0.582 0.977 0.342 0.766 1997 0.600 0.981 0.372 0.921 2002 0.628 0.987 0.429 0.959 Source: Census of Business and Census of Retail Trade a SIC 52 (to 1992) or NAICS 44-45 (from 1997) b SIC 531 (to 1992) or NAICS 452 (from 1997) c A large chain is a chain operating 100+ stores d 1948 data on large chains' retail sales suppressed Table 2. Retail Sector vs. General Merchandise Subsector, 2002 Retaila GMb GM/Retail Sales (000,000,000$) 2,975 433 0.146 Retail Firms (000) 727 9 0.013 Stores (000) 962 36 0.037 Sales per Store (000$) 3,092 12,038 3.893 Stores per Retailer 1.32 3.80 2.871 Fraction of Stores in Chains 0.38 0.78 2.061 Fraction of Stores in Large Chainsc 0.23 0.72 3.101 Sales Share of Top Four Retailers 0.11 0.66 5.964 Source: Census of Business and Census of Retail Trade a NAICS 44-45 b NAICS 452 c A large chain is a chain operating 100+ stores 6 8.5 stores per chain). Fewer than 200 chain-year combinations have more than 100 stores, and these average about 500 stores per chain. Because the Census forms change from year to year, we created a concordance of product lines that is as consistent as possible over time. There are two types of product lines: "broad" lines and "detailed" lines, which provide a detailed breakdown of the broad lines. Table 3 lists the broad categories of goods, along with the years they are included on the forms and the number of detailed lines associated with each. The broad line "Groceries," for example, includes up to nine detailed lines: meat, fish, and poultry; fresh and prepackaged produce; frozen foods; dairy products; bakery products; deli items; soft drinks; candy; and all other foods. This level of detail is available only for 2002, however (and only for stores receiving form 45202); all other forms include the broad line "groceries" without the detailed breakdown. The number and level of detail of lines listed on the Census forms has increased over time largely because the array of products carried by general merchandise stores has increased. Time series plots of lines carried can be misleading, however, because a line may have been carried by some, or many, stores for years before it first appeared on a Census form. To be conservative, we include year×form fixed effects in all regressions, and exploit only the variation across retailer sizes to identify the effect of interest. We think of a product line encompassing many substitutes, with minimal substitution across product lines. For example, there are many possible substitute outfits within the broad line Women's Apparel, but little substitution between Women's Apparel and Men's Apparel. Substitution across detailed lines within a broad line, such as Women's Suits and Women's Slacks, is more likely, but even here the definitions are, in general, broad enough so that a product's most common substitutes will lie within the same detailed product line. With the concordance in place, counting the number of lines carried by any given store is straightforward, assuming that it reports lines data, although it is subject to reporting error. Stores vary in whether they submit a form at all (though it is required by law), whether they 7 Table 3. Broad Lines Broad Line Description Years Detailsa Groceries All 9 Meals, Snacks, and Nonalcoholic Beverages for Immediate Consumption All 1 Packaged Liquor, Wine, and Beer All 3 Tobacco Products and Accessories All 1 Drugs, Health and Beauty Aids All 6 Soaps, Detergents, and Household Cleaners 1992-2002 1 Paper and Related Products 1992-2002 1 Men's Apparel All 12 Women's Apparel All 14 Children's Apparel 1992-2002 3 Footwear All 5 Curtains, Draperies, and Domestics All 2 Major Household Appliances All 3 Small Electrical Appliances All 1 Televisions, VCRs, and Videotapes All 2 Audio Equipment and Music All 3 Furniture All 4 Floor Coverings All 3 Computer Hardware and Software All 2 Kitchenware and Home Furnishings All 4 Jewelry All 2 Optical Goods (INcluding Eyeglasses, Telescopes, etc) All 1 Sporting Goods (Including Bicycles and Guns) All 7 Hardware, Tools, Plumbing, and Electrical Equipment and Accessories All 1 Lawn and Garden Equipment and Supplies All 4 Building Materials and Home Improvement Equipment and Supplies All 3 Paint and Related Preservatives and Supplies All 1 Automotive Supplies All 3 Automotive Fuels All 1 Household Fuels All 1 Pets, Pet Foods, and Pet Supplies 1997-2002 1 Photographic Equipment and Supplies All 1 Toys (Including Games and Crafts) All 2 Sewing, Knitting, and Needlework Goods All 1 Stationary, School, and Office Supplies All 2 Luggage and Leather Goods All 1 Office Equipment 1987-2002 2 Souvenirs and Novelty Items, Including Seasonal Decorations 1997-2002 2 Books, Magazines, and Newspapers All 2 Miscellaneous Merchandise, Not Elsewhere Classified All 3 Nonmerchanise Receipts All 8 a Maximum number of detailed lines associated with each broad line. Not all detailed lines are listed on each form each year, and some stores report only the broad line. 8 fill in any lines data (it is not uncommon to submit a form without that information), and the level of care and detail taken in filling out this information. Reporting error is therefore very likely, both in the count and identity of lines carried by each store, and in their revenue shares. Reporting error may be of two sorts: a store may report lines that it does not carry, or it may fail to report lines that it does carry. If the two types of error are equally likely, we have a noisy, but unbiased, measure of the number of product lines carried by each store. Stores that do not report any lines are not used in this part of the analysis. When a retail store reports selling a broad line but does not indicate how many detailed line(s) within the broad line it sells, we assign it 1 detailed line. (When we compute the number of stores in a chain, we use all stores, whether or not they have reported lines data.) Counting the number of lines carried by each retail chain is trickier in the presence of reporting errors. When we compute the number of lines a chain carries, we use information only from the subset of stores in the chain for which the lines data are reported. Even so, it is common for some stores in a chain to report carrying a given product line — for example, exercise equipment — while others do not report it. The two leading explanations for this phenomenon are heterogeneity of product lines across stores, and reporting error. Because of the possibility of reporting error, the way we treat these partially-carried lines affects small and large chains differently. For example, counting only lines that are reported sold by 100% of stores in a chain would systematically undercount lines sold by large chains more than small chains or single-store retailers, because it only takes one store manager not filling out the form correctly to exclude the line from the data, and the larger the chain, the higher the probability of this sort of mistake. Conversely, counting all lines that are reported by any store within the chain, would lead to systematically over-counting the number of lines sold in large chains relative to small chains. (Consistent with this intuition, we find that the correlation between scale and scope is highest when we set the threshold for inclusion very low, and lowest when we set it high.) In the current analysis, we use three different 9 thresholds — 25%, 50%, and 75% — for counting how many lines a retail chain carries.8 4 Empirical Findings 4.1 Correlations and Regressions We start by documenting the relationship between number of stores in a chain and the number of lines the chain carries. We perform the analysis using store-level as well as chain- level data. Because we do not use sample weights in any of the analysis, the weights of various chain sizes depend on the level of the analysis: in the store-level analysis, all stores are treated equally, so the results are strongly influenced by chain stores, as they account for over 90% of the stores in the data; but in the retailer-level analysis, the relative share of chains shrinks to under 20%. Chain stores, which increasingly dominate the general merchandise subsector (see Tables 1 and 2) tend to carry more distinct product lines than "mom and pop" general merchandise retailers; and the larger the chain, the more products do its individual stores carry. The first row in Table 4 shows raw correlation coefficients between chain size and the number of broad lines the store (in the first column) or the chain (in the next three columns) carries. Table 5 shows the same correlations but uses detailed lines instead of broad lines. Across the full data set, at the store level, the correlation between the number of broad lines carried by the store and the number of stores in the chain to which the store belongs is 0.1524. The equivalent correlation for detailed lines is 0.0576. Counting product lines at the retail-chain level, we apply three different cutoff rules for the inclusion of each line — 25%, 8 Retailer-level numbers also differ slightly due to our treatment of write-in and miscellaneous lines. When a store reports one or more lines that do not appear on the form, either as a "miscellaneous" line or by writing in the specific line's description — e.g., pet food — we count this as both a single broad and a single detailed line at the store level. But because there is no way to compare write-in and miscellaneous lines across stores within a chain, we do not include those in the count of retailer-level lines regardless of the threshold used. 10 50%, and 75%; as expected, the correlation declines as the cutoff rule becomes stricter, but it is positive and statistically significant across the board. Table 4. Broad Lines Results Chain-Level Analysis Store-Level 25% Rule 50% Rule 75% Rule Correlation 0.1524*** 0.1101*** 0.1017*** 0.0889*** Regression 0.0018*** 0.0024*** 0.0021*** 0.0019*** (0.0000) (0.0007) (0.0007) (0.0007) Observations 120,5713 11,985 11,985 11,985 Notes: Each cell represents a different regression. Asymptotic standard errors in parentheses. *** significant at 1%. Table 5. Detailed Lines Results Chain-Level Analysis Store-Level 25% Rule 50% Rule 75% Rule Correlation 0.0576*** 0.1209*** 0.1102*** 0.0993*** Regression 0.0049*** 0.0053*** 0.0045*** 0.0038*** (0.0001) (0.0014) (0.0014) (0.0014) Observations 120,571 11,985 11,985 11,985 Notes: Each cell represents a different regression. Asymptotic standard errors in parentheses Consistent with these correlations, single-store retailers carry, on average, 16.7 detailed lines or 12.0 broad lines. In contrast, stores belonging to chains with 2-99 stores carry, on average, 27.8 detailed lines or 16.7 broad lines, and stores belonging to chains with more than 100 stores carry 35.2 detailed lines or 21.1 broad lines. To test whether chains tend to add product lines as they grow, we use store-level data to estimate nijf t = αi + δt · φif + β · kjt + εijf t (1) i t f where nijf t is the number of (detailed or broad) lines of merchandise carried by store i belong to retailer j and receiving form f in year t, αi is a store fixed effect, δt is a year fixed effect (for 1982, 1987, 1992, 1997, and 2002), φif is a form fixed effect (for forms 5301, 5302, 11 45201, and 45202), and kjt is the number of stores operated by retailer j in year t. The reason for including year×form fixed effects is that, as noted earlier, different forms contain different counts of detailed and broad lines, and these change over time. Estimates from this regression should not be interpreted causally, but instead should be interpreted as controlled correlations, i.e., correlations that allow us to control for the changing (generally, increasing) number of possible product lines a store manager can check off a form. Estimates of the coefficient of interest, β, are shown in the second row of the first column in Tables 4 and 5 for broad and detailed line counts, respectively. Both coefficient estimates are significant at the 1% level. For detailed lines, the coefficient estimate is 0.0049, implying that, on average, whenever a chain adds one detailed line, it also adds 204 stores. The coefficient estimate for broad lines is 0.0018, so a chain that adds one broad line also adds, on average, about 555 stores. We next estimate the effect at the chain level, using njt = γj + δt + β · kjt + εjt (2) j t with γj now a retailer chain fixed effect. The subscript f is removed because stores belonging to a single chain may receive different types of forms.9 instead of a store fixed effects. These results are shown in the next three columns of the second row in both tables. The number of observations drops by an order of magnitude, increasing the standard errors in the regressions, but the coefficients are actually larger. Now, we estimate that (depending on the specification) the addition of 190-260 stores to a chain is associated with an increase of one detailed product line, and the addition of 430-530 stores is associated with an increase 9 Because every year, both forms include all the same broad codes, the count of broad codes by retailer should not be affected by the heterogeneity of forms, but the level of detail does differ by form, making the detail-line analysis potentially sensitive to the distribution of forms a retail chain receives. In practice, however, most stores belonging to a single chain do receive the same form, so we do not think this is empirically important. In the regression equation, we could use the median form type or redefine φjf to be the fraction of stores operated by retailer to receive form f . 12 of one broad product line.10 Alternative specifications we plan to estimate in the future include a log-log specification, in which case we could interpret the coefficient β as the (reduced-form) elasticity of lines with respect to chain size. Again, this coefficient could not be interpreted causally. In the next section, we present a model in which n, the number of lines a store or chain carries, and k, the number of stores in the chain, are complements so that each is increasing in the other. If our model is correct, then the estimates of β obtained so far are an upper bound on the causal effect of an increase in chain size on line counts. 5 A Model of Superstores 5.1 Environment There are L locations, which we think of as distinct, non-overlapping, markets (towns or neighborhoods). These locations are identical ex ante. In each market , N normal goods are each supplied by one or more "mom-and-pop" (single product) retailers.11 In a subset k ∈ [0, L] of locations (with k determined endoge- nously), there is also a chain "superstore" selling 1 < n ≤ N goods, each at price p. The goods are perfectly symmetric with respect to demand and cost parameters, so the superstore sets a single price p for all the goods it sells. We do not explicitly model the consumer's decision problem and the competitive envi- ronment. Instead, we assume that in each location k served by the chain, the inverse demand function p(x, n) facing the chain is increasing in n, the number of products sold, and decreas- ing in x, the quantity sold of each product. The second assumption is standard. The first assumption reflects a "one stop shopping" (OSS) effect: the more goods the superstore sells, 10 We have not completely cleaned up the data, and some issues remain with flagged observations that may need to be dropped. The regression results reported here appear to be robust to the inclusion or exclusion of these flagged observations. 11 The assumption that mom and pop stores sell a single product is a normalization. 13 the more attractive is shopping there, and the higher the price the superstore can charge to sell a fixed amount of each good.12 We also assume that the OSS effect declines as x increases: ∂2p ≥ 0. ∂x∂n Graphically, this assumption implies that the OSS effect not only shifts out the demand curve, but also makes it flatter (more elastic). The chain superstore has three choice variables: the number of stores it operates (scale of the chain), the number of items it sells in every store (scope of the superstore), and the price it charges for each item (which determines the sales volume of the superstore). We assume that the number of stores in the chain, k, has a direct effect on its costs but not on consumer demand; the number of products, n, for sale in each store affects both costs and demand. The chain first determines its scale (k) and scope (n), and then sets its price. φ(k) To operate k stores, the chain incurs a "chaining cost" Φ(k) ≡ δ where φ > 0, φ > 0; δ is a technology parameter. In addition, the chain incurs a "scope cost" Z(n), with Z > 0, Z > 0, to sell n unique goods. The motivation for the chaining cost is that the logistics and managerial problems associated with managing a chain become increasingly complex as the chain grows.13 The scope cost has a similar motivation. We assume that the two costs are additively separable, except for a cost R per product per store, which can be thought of as the rental rate per display aisle. The cost R allows for some interdependence in the costs of k and n, specifically, it allows for the cost of adjusting k (respectively, n) to increase with the value of n (respectively, k). The superstore's profit function is φ(k) π = n · (k · x · p(x, n; xi ) − C(kx)) − n · k · R − Z(n) − (3) δ 12 The notion that consumers have to pay some transportation cost or "distribution cost" to shop goes back to Hotelling (1929); Betancourt and Gautschi (1988) enumerate various types of distribution costs consumers may incur by shopping in multiple locations. 13 See Basker and Van (2006) for a more detailed discussion. 14 where p(x, n; xi ) is the inverse demand function for each product n at each of the superstore's k locations, x is the quantity sold of each item, and xi is the quantity sold by fringe (mom and pop) competitors. We assume that the cost of inputs C(kx) is increasing, but at a decreasing rate, so that C > 0, C < 0. There is ample evidence that retailers' average cost falls with volume. Although the Robinson-Patman Act (also known as the "Anti Chain-Store Act") has, since 1936, prohibited sellers from price discriminating where the effect may lessen competition, in practice large retailers pay lower prices per unit than smaller ones.14 One common mechanism that generates cost differentials is manufacturers' practice of "reimbursing" large buyers for marketing expenses the retailers incur to promote their products. Our impression from conversations with retail industry insiders is that these payments depend more on the number of units a retailer sells than on any actual costs incurred; the per-unit "reimbursement" increases with the size of the retailer. In addition, if small and larger retailers purchase their wares from different sources, or sell differentiated items, the law may not apply. Chains with large sales volumes have additional potential for savings by contracting directly from overseas supplies, a choice that involves some fixed costs but lower marginal costs (Basker and Van, 2006); Gereffi (2006) presents some evidence that the largest apparel and general merchandise chains import a larger share of their apparel than do smaller retailers. The timing of decisions is as follows. In the first stage, the chain choose its scale (k) and scope (n) and incurs the relevant costs. In the second stage, the chain and its fringe competitors simultaneously choose prices.15 Consumers then observe prices and selection in all stores and make their shopping decisions. We solve the problem by backwards induction, starting with the second stage. We start 14 For a nice discussion about the Robinson-Patman Act's economic consequences, see Ross (1984). 15 There are three reasons why price setting occurs after scale and scope decisions are made. First, it is more realistic, because scale and scope change only at low frequencies while prices can be changed frequently. Second, it will allow us later to model the competitive structure taking n and k as parameters. Third, is simplifies the algebra considerably. 15 with a simple case in which a perfectly competitive fringe does not price strategically. We then solve a more general problem in which the fringe competitors set prices strategically. 5.2 Price Setting with No Strategic Considerations We assume here that, although there is only a single mom-and-pop store selling each product i, the market is contestable in that there is instantaneous free entry of an identical competitor, so each mom and pop store prices at marginal cost, pi = c. In this case, the superstore's inverse demand function can be written as p(x, n). Define C(kx) m = x · p(x, n) − . (4) k In the second stage, the superstore takes n and k as parameters, and maximizes m, average operating profit per store, with respect to x. The first-order condition implicitly defines x∗ (n, k): ∂p x· + p(x∗ , n) − C (kx∗ ) = 0 (5) ∂x x=x∗ This quantity maximizes profit if the second-order condition ∂2p ∂p x· 2 +2· − k · C (kx) < 0 (6) ∂x ∂x holds everywhere. Let m∗ (n, k) be the maximized value of m; by the envelope theorem, ∂m∗ ∂p = x∗ · >0 ∂n ∂n ∂m∗ x C(kx) = − C (kx) > 0. ∂k k kx Our first result states that the larger are the scope and scale of the superstore, the more units it sells of each good in equilibrium: 16 Result 1 (Superstore Sells More Stuff). Operating profit, m, is supermodular in (x, n, k). ∂ 2 m∗ It follows that x∗ (n, k) is monotone nondecreasing in (n, k) and that ∂n∂k > 0. Proof. Supermodularity requires that m has increasing differences in (x, n, k), or equiva- lently, since m is continuous and twice differentiable, that m has nonnegative cross-partial derivatives (Topkis, 1978). ∂2m ∂2p ∂p = x· + ∂x∂n ∂x∂n ∂n ∂2m = −xC (kx) ∂x∂k ∂2m = 0 ∂n∂k all of which are (weakly) positive by inspection. Supermodularity of m implies that x∗ (n, k) is monotone nondecreasing in (n, k). Finally, since m has increasing differences in (n, k) for all values of x, it must also have increasing differences in (n, k) when evaluated at x = x∗ . Figure 1 shows this result graphically. Next, we relax the assumption that the competitive fringe has constant prices. 5.3 Price Setting in a Strategic Setting If both the chain and the competitive "mom and pop" fringe set prices strategically, the demand function facing each store depends on its own prices as well as on prices at other stores. Equivalently, assuming the demand functions are invertible, the inverse demand function facing each store is a function of the quantity it sells as well as the quantity sold by its competitors. For the results that follow, it is convenient to define the mom and pop store's choice variable as yi = −xi , where yi ∈ R− is the negative of the quantity sold by store i, and to rewrite the inverse demand functions accordingly. Let p(x, n; yi ) be the superstore's inverse 17 demand function, and let pi (yi ; x, n) be store i's inverse demand function. We assume that ∂pi ∂pi ∂x < 0 and ∂n < 0, i.e., any increase in the number of products sold or number of units sold per product in the superstore shifts demand for the mom and pop store inwards. For tractability, we also assume that neither pi (yi ; x, n) nor p( x, n; yi ) depend on xj , the quantity of any other good sold by another "mom and pop" store. Finally, we assume that any parameter that shifts the demand curve outwards also flattens it (making it more elastic), which implies the following restrictions on the cross-partial derivatives of demand: ∂ 2 pi ≥0 ∂n∂yi ∂ 2 pi ≥0 ∂x∂yi ∂ 2 pi ≥0 ∂x∂n ∂2p ≥0 ∂n∂yi ∂2p ≥ 0. ∂x∂yi The chain as well as all the "mom and pop" stores take (n, k) as parameters, and simultaneously maximize: C(kx) m(x; yi , n, k) = x · p(x, n; yi ) − (7) k πi (yi ; x, n) = −yi · (pi (xi ; x, n) − c) − R (8) with respect to x and yi , respectively (where x is nonnegative and yi is nonpositive); c is the (constant) marginal cost of a mom and pop store, R is the rental (overhead) cost of the mom and pop store, and both p and pi are increasing in yi . Denote the superstore's best ∗ response (BR) function x∗ (yi ; n, k) and the mom and pop store's BR function yi (x; n, k).16 16 In the competitive-fringe setting of the previous section, it is necessary to assume that R = 0. This assumption is no longer necessary here, because the mom and pop store's price can be higher than marginal cost. 18 The next result states that x and yi are strategic complements — alternatively, that x and ∗ xi are strategic substitutes — and that the Nash equilibrium of this game, (x∗ (n, k), yi (n, k)), is increasing in n and k: the larger is the superstore in terms of scale and scope, the more units does the superstore sell of each product, and the fewer its competitors sell in each store. Result 2 (Superstore Sells More Stuff and Shrinks Competitors). The above game is super- ∗ modular, implying that x∗ (n, k) and yi (n, k) are strategic complements. The chain's maxi- mized average operating profit, m∗ , is increasing in (n, k). The game has smallest and largest pure Nash equilibria, denoted, respectively, (x∗ , yi ) and (x∗ , yi ), both of which are increasing ∗ ∗ in (n, k). Proof. Supermodularity of the game requires that both m and πi have increasing differences in (x, yi ), or equivalently, since both functions are continuous and twice differentiable, that they have nonnegative cross-partial derivatives: ∂2m ∂p ∂2p = +x· ∂yi ∂x ∂yi ∂yi ∂x 2 2 ∂ πi ∂ pi = −yi · ∂yi ∂x ∂yi ∂x This implies that the game has at least one Nash equilibrium, and that the set of Nash equilibria has a smallest and largest element (Topkis, 1979). 19 In addition, m is supermodular in (x, n, k), and πi is supermodular in (yi , x, n, k): ∂2m ∂2p ∂p = x· + ∂x∂n ∂x∂n ∂n ∂2m = −xC (kx) ∂x∂k ∂2m = 0 ∂n∂k ∂ 2 πi ∂ 2 pi ∂pi = −yi · + ∂yi ∂n ∂yi ∂n ∂n ∂ 2 πi = 0 ∂yi ∂k ∂ 2 πi = 0 ∂n∂k all of which are (weakly) positive by inspection, given the above assumptions on the cross- partials of the inverse demand curve. This is sufficient to prove that the smallest and largest Nash equilibria are both increasing in (n, k) (Milgrom and Roberts, 1990). Finally, since m has increasing differences in (n, k) for all values of (x, yi ), it must also have increasing ∗ differences in (n, k) when evaluated at an equilibrium (x∗ , yi ). It follows that if the Nash equilibrium of this game is unique, it is increasing in (n, k). This and the previous section therefore establish that the larger are the scale and scope of the retail chain, the more units it will sell of each good in each location, independently of the competitive structure of each market. 5.4 Chain Scale and Scope In the first stage, anticipating these effects on second-stage sales, the superstore solves φ(k) max π = kn · (m∗ (n, k) − R) − Z(n) − . (9) n,k δ where m∗ (n, k) is the maximized value of m in the second stage of the game. 20 Our main result establishes that scale and scope are complements in the chain's profit function. Result 3 (Complementarity of Scale and Scope). On the domain where m∗ ≥ R, π is supermodular in (n, k, δ). Therefore, (x∗ , n∗ , k ∗ ) are monotone nondecreasing in δ. Proof. As above, we need show that the cross-partial derivatives of π are nonnegative. ∂2π = 0 ∂n∂δ ∂2π φ (k) = ∂k∂δ δ2 2 ∂ π ∂m∗ ∂m∗ ∂ 2 m∗ = (m∗ − R) + n · +k· +n·k· ∂k∂n ∂n ∂k ∂n∂k The first and second cross-partials are (weakly) positive by inspection. The third cross ∂2π partial, ∂k∂n , is the sum of four terms, the first of which is positive for (n, k) such that m∗ > R, and the second and third of which are unambiguously positive by Result 1 or 2. The last term is zero by either Result 1 or 2.17 Figure 2 shows this result graphically. This result implies that improvements in the retail chain's "chaining technology" — encompassing management, logistics and distribution technology — lead to larger retail stores.18 Analogously, any force that decreases the marginal cost — or increases the marginal benefit — of adding product lines to a store will increase the optimal store size. An example of a force that has decreased marginal costs is the introduction of bar codes (see Holmes, 17 We may be able to do better. If we can show that ∂m∗ ∂m∗ m∗ + n · +k· ∂n ∂k is bounded away from zero for all n ≥ 1 and k ≥ 1. In that case the result will be true for R small enough where "small enough" means smaller than the lower bound on the above expression. 18 Similarly, trade liberalization, by increasing the economies of scale in purchasing, can lead to larger stores; see Basker and Van (2006) for a model relating trade liberalization and chain size. 21 Figure 1. Second-Stage Equilibrium: x∗ (n, k) Figure 2. Global Equilibrium: (n∗ , k ∗ ) 22 2001). One example of a force that may have increased the marginal benefit of adding product lines is increased cost of time due to higher labor force participation of women; another example is suburbanization of demand, which has increased the optimal store size.19 6 Concluding Remarks In this paper, we document, analyze, and offer an explanation for the simultaneous rise in chain size and product offerings by general merchandisers over the last several decades. The average number of distinct (detailed) product lines carried by stores in small chains (with 2-100 stores) is 50% higher than the average number of detailed product lines carried by single-store, or "mom and pop," retailers (28 vs. 17); it is 75% higher in stores that belong to large chains (with more than 100) than in single-store retailers. The figures for broad lines are qualitatively comparable, though the differences are somewhat smaller: stores in small chain carry 33% more broad lines, and stores in large chains carry about 50% more broad lines, than single-store retailers. In addition, the retail chains that have grown the most — adding the largest number of stores — over this period have also expanded into more product markets than other retailers. On average, retail chains have added one broad product line for every 500 stores over this period, or one detailed product line for every 200 stores. Our model explains this relationship with an interaction of economies of scale and demand-driven gains from scope due to consumer preference for one-stop shopping. Dis- economies of both scale and scope prevent the retailer from exploding to fill all geographic markets and/or all product markets. The balance between the marginal cost and benefit to expanding product lines depends on the number of stores in the chain, because the larger the number of stores the larger the benefit of adding a product line. Similarly, the larger is 19 See Pashigian and Bowen (1994) for other consequences of this trend for retailing 23 the number of product lines the retail chain carries, the greater is its profit in each store and therefore its benefit from expanding the number of stores. Our model is a long-run equilibrium model, in that it does not account for short-term "stickiness" in the size of stores. In practice, store size cannot increase overnight, but if a retailer finds that its optimal store size has increased substantially, it has an incentive to close or remodel small stores. One way to further investigate these dynamics is to use another variable collected by the CRT, the square footage of stores. The extent to which increases in stores' product coverage and square footage tend to occur together, in discrete jumps, will give us an idea of the short-run (in)flexibility of retailers to adjust their product reach. We can also investigate the frequency of increases in product lines: at the store level, do lines increase steadily from one Census year to the next, or are there large jumps in a single year — possibly coinciding with a major renovation in which the store's square footage also rises — preceded, and followed, by relative stability? While the count of lines increases, ceteris paribus, with a store's entry into a product line and decreases with exit, we do not explicitly address such entry and exit in the current draft. Addressing entry and exit of product lines will require a careful accounting of which product lines are included in which forms and in what years, so as to avoid misattributing a change in forms to a change in the store's product coverage. Our paper has some interesting predictions and policy implications. In particular, our model implies that any exogenous force that increases store size — for example, consumers' increased preference for one-stop shopping due to changes in the composition of the labor- force or other changes in the value of time or the cost of gasoline — will lead chains to increase their scale as well as scope. Conversely, any exogenous force that increases a chain's optimal scale, such as improvement in technology, or cost reductions due to trade liberalization — will lead the chain to increase their scope as well as scale. Complementarity between chain size and store size implies that local ordinances to limit store size could also limit the chain's size, and vice versa. In this light, some local ordinances 24 that limit the expansion of chain stores — such as a measure passed by Chicago's City Council in 2006 (but later vetoed by the mayor) which would have doubled the effective minimum wage paid by stores with at least 90,000 square feet, operated by retailers with at least $1 billion in annual sales (Basker, 2006) — are better understood as attempts to combat large stores. 25 References Bagwell, K., G. Ramey, and D. F. Spulber (1997) "Dynamic Retail Price and Investment Competition," RAND Journal of Economics, 28(2), 207–227. Barger, H. (1955) Distribution's Place in the American Economy since 1869. Princeton Uni- versity Press, Princeton, NJ. Basker, E. (2006) "The Causes and Consequences of Wal-Mart's Growth," unpublished pa- per, University of Missouri. Basker, E., and P. H. Van (2006) "Putting a Smiley Face on the Dragon: Wal-Mart as Catalyst to U.S.-China Trade," unpublished paper, University of Missouri. Betancourt, R., and D. Gautschi (1988) "The Economics of Retail Firms," Managerial and Decision Economics, 9(2), 133–144. Bliss, C. (1988) "A Theory of Retail Pricing," Journal of Industrial Economics, 26(4), 375– 391. Foster, L., J. Haltiwanger, and C. J. Krizan (2006) "Market Selection, Reallocation and Restructuring in the U.S. Retail Trade Sector in the 1990s," Review of Economics and Statistics, 88(4), 748–758. George, L., and J. Waldfogel (2003) "Who Affects Whom in Daily Newspaper Markets?," Journal of Political Economy, 111(4), 765–784. Gereffi, G. (2006) "The New Offshoring of Jobs and Global Development," unpublished manuscript, Duke University. Holmes, T. (2001) "Bar Codes Lead to Frequent Deliveries and Superstores," RAND Journal of Economics, 32(4), 708–725. (2005) "The Diffusion of Wal-Mart and Economies of Density," unpublished paper, University of Minnesota. Hotelling, H. (1929) "Stability in Competition," Economic Journal, 39(153), 41–57. Jarmin, R. S., S. D. Klimek, and J. Miranda (2005) "The Role of Retail Chains: National, Regional and Industry Results," unpublished paper, U.S. Census Bureau. Loertscher, S., and G. Muehlheusser (2006) "Global and Local Players in a Model of Com- petition," unpublished paper, University of Bern. Milgrom, P., and J. Roberts (1990) "Rationalizability, Learning, and Equilibrium in Games with Strategic Complementarities," Econometrica, 58(6), 1255–1277. Pashigian, B. P., and B. Bowen (1994) "The Rising Cost of Time of Females, the Growth of National Brands and the Supply of Retail Services," Economic Inquiry, 32(1), 33–65. 26 Ross, T. W. (1984) "Winners and Losers under the Robinson-Patman Act," Journal of Law and Economics, 27(2), 243–271. Topkis, D. M. (1978) "Minimizing a Supermodular Function on a Lattice," Operations Re- search, 26(2), 305–321. (1979) "Equilibrium Points in Nonzero-Sum n-Person Submodular Games," SIAM Journal on Control and Optimization, 17(6), 773–787. 27
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5:30 Who touched my garments. The touch of faith is felt by Jesus, even though in such a dense crowd many people were touching Him. The phrase "power had gone out from him" occurs only here.