A Study of Location Selection of Department Store Food Courts— the Example of Taipei Xin-Yi Commercial Areas

• Main Authors: Yau-Hua Chen, 陳耀華
• Other Authors: KUO-REN LOU 婁國仁
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2009
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/07997570826341499012

碩士 === 淡江大學 === 管理科學研究所企業經營碩士在職專班 === 97 === Of all the visitors to a department store, 57% would patronize its food court, and previous studies (Wang, 2006) suggest that the leading four major purposes of visiting the Sinyi Business District are respectively “strolling around the streets” (24.9%), “shopping” (16.1%), watching movies (13.4%), and “dinning” (11.4%). The study finds the food court of a department store in the Xin-Yi Commercial Areas accounted for approximately 10% of the store’s total business revenues in 2006. It is obvious that food court plays a pivotal role in the business operation and performance of a department store. This crucial importance has prompted department stores to pay greater and closer attention to differentiate their food courts from those of their competitors by highlighting innovative culinary styles. Past studies on foodservice industry have rarely focused on food court, and when department stores are selected as the research subject, it is usually management or marketing issues, such as customer management, customer service, branding, marketing strategies, and business model, that form the central concern. There is hardly any study concentrating on food court in department store. The study finds its sample business district in the large-scale Xin-Yi Commercial Areas serving over 1.5 million consumers in Taipei City. The food courts in the seven department stores in the business district host altogether 122 vendors with a total capacity of 2,949 seats. AHP (Analytical Hierarchy Process) is adopted to examine the major factors the foodservice companies take into consideration while making the decision to set up vendors in department stores. Analysis model is set up, and analysis results are tabulated to provide reference helping foodservice companies select the optimal location for setting up service counters in the food court of department store. Major results of the study can be summarized as follows: I. The primary criteria for location selection are respectively: (1). Convenience of the department store; (2). Special features of the food court; (3). Competitiveness of the food court; (4). Management capability of the department store; (5). Business image of retail stores in the department store; and (6). Characteristics of consumers visiting the department store. II. The secondary criteria for location selection are respectively: (1). Service quality; (2). Traffic accessibility; (3). Consumers’ purchasing power and habits; (4). Brand name attraction and image of retail stores; (5). Parking capacity and accessibility; (6). Food court service capacity; (7). Pricing concern; (8). Volume of visitors to the department store; (9). Comprehensiveness of service facilities; and (10). Food court accessibility. III. Based on the findings outlined above, the study has proposed a list of criteria for food court location selection aiming at helping foodservice companies in identifying the optimal location for setting up service counters in local food courts.