Full Cycle for Self-Service?

Abstract

In the post-World War II period the use of self-service has spread horizontally to practically all types of retail stores on the minimum-service level. Whether labeled “self-selection,” “display merchandising,” “selective open selling,” “simplified selling,” or something similar, all of these represent variously lesser degrees of the supermarket concept of self-service. Whatever it is called, it refers to a still rapidly developing technology co-ordinating the merchandise-presentation efforts of retail stores. This article summarizes the pressures that have been exerted upon retail stores to adopt self-service in greater measure and then identifies the main reasons why some stores prefer to extend more personalized service.