摘要：Strategically speaking, retailing occupies a two-way position in a market economy. On the one hand, it is the last link in the marketing channel from producer to wholesaler to retailer. In this regard, retail mainly performs a distributive function. However, the role of the retailer is further extended to include an informative function. In performing the latter function, retail acts as an agency through which the consumer sends signals back through the channel to the manufacturer by a way of a specific reaction to the offering of goods in the market place. Consumers' reaction to product offerings and consumer behaviour is directly measurable from consumer spending patterns, among other indicators. Furthermore, quantifying consumer spending is of particular use in analysing demand for groups of goods and services and for tracking the spending trends of different consumer units. Although national data on consumer spending patterns in the formal sector are readily available, there are a dearth of disaggregated data on consumer spending patterns in the informal economy. This is particularly evident in the informal retail trade industry of South Africa, despite consensus that the informal retail trade industry is growing rapidly and is claiming a growing share of the total retail trade industry. These structural changes have resulted in changes in consumer demand that differ by product, region and population group.
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