We analyze the effects of the entry of Super Supermarket (SSM) on the
subsequent entry and exit of retail stores in the county-level local market.
Using establishment-level data from the Census on Establishments, we
construct a panel dataset for 249 counties from 2005 to 2011. Our result shows
that the entry of an additional SSM leads to an increase of 11 related retail
stores (including mom-and-pops, convenient stores, and specialized food
retailers) in the county. Given the declining trend of the total number of
retailers throughout counties in the sample period, our result indicates that the
SSM opening partly mitigates the declining trend in the county entered by
SSM. This paper improves our understanding of the underlying micromechanism
of the entry effect of SSM on structural changes in the local retail
industry.