Household expenditures at Japanese food and beverage retailers

We assess determinants of household expenditures at Japanese off-premise food and beverage (F&B) retailers using data from a recent business census that provides data on 786 cities comprising 91% of Japan's population. We make three fundamental contributions to the literature. First, we determine the effect on expenditures from non-residents who regularly enter a city for education or employment; they alter the actual daytime population by up to 5/8^ths more – or 5/8^ths less – than the resident population. Second, we examine the impact of intratype and intertype competition on expenditures. Third, we use product assortment and customer service as mediators between our determinant variables and expenditures. We show that a city's daytime population raises demand at F&B retailers; intratype competition (i.e., supercenters) lowers sales at F&B retailers, and intertype competition (i.e., restaurants) benefits F&B retailers. Product assortment and customer service mediate the effects of independent variables on household expenditures.