Schumpeter, the "Big" Disturbance and Retailing

Abstract

For Schumpeter there were two kinds of competition: the repetitive, familiar competition of established firms, and the unfamiliar and disrupting competition of innovating institutions. The point is here argued that supermarkets (selling non-foods), discount houses and planned shopping centers are innovating institutions in the Schumpeterian sense; they force the old to adapt and imitate.