The purpose of this paper is to analyse the location of delivery centres of major supermarkets and the areal structure of their delivery networks. Three major supermarkets i. e, Daiei, Seiyu, Jusco and their affiliated firms, were chosen as objects of the investigation. The three companies established more delivery centres in the Kanto area than in other areas of Japan.
The results of the analysis are summarized as follows:
1) In the Kanto area, most of the delivery centres were established in the 1980s. Seiyu built a delivery center there in 1969, but Daiei and Jusco did not build centres there until the early 1980s. From the middle of the 1980s. the three companies established more delivery centres in the Kanto area. These delivery centres were all smaller than the ones previously established.
2) In the early 1980s, a hub and spoke delivery structure was evident in the Daiei and Seiyu groups, whose new stores were concentrated in the southern Kanto area. A bipolar delivery structure became evident in the Jusco group, whose new store locations were split between the southern and northern Kanto areas.
3) From the middle to the end of the 1980s, each supermarket established several delivery centres that were small in size and served a small area within the range of the larger delivery areas. A bipolar delivery structure was noticeable in the Daiei and Seiyu groups, and a multipolar delivery structure became evident in the Jusco group. This transformation may have resulted from each supermarket company emphasizing the importance of store delivery. In addition, this multipolar delivery structure developed due to the increase in the number of widely dispersed retail stores for each of the three corporate groups.
4) Between the Dahei and Seiyu groups, in which a bipolar delivery networks is currently noticeable, the delivery time for each store is different. In the Daiei group, the delivery area is divided within city areas such as Tokyo and Yokohama, in which traffic can be heavy, so there is a large number of stores with a short delivery time. In the Seiyu group, there is only a small number of stores that have a short delivery time. This is because the Seiyu group has a large delivery centre serving a large area where is heavy traffic. and the smaller regional delivery centres serve larger areas compared to the Daiei and Jusco groups. In conclusion, the location of delivery centres and delivery area boundaries, as delivery area size, have a great influence on delivery time.
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