Shelf Wars: A Grocery Channel Simulation

Abstract

Participant teams in this simulation represent either retailers or manufacturers. All manufacturer teams must negotiate contracts with all retailer teams to establish shelf price and promotional plans. After the instructor enters the contract data into a spreadsheet, sales and market share results are calculated as a function of the contract inputs. These results are printed and distributed to the teams before the start of the next round. The simulation emphasizes channel member interactions while attempting to accurately simulate the retail grocery-buying environment.