ABSTRACT
This chapter examines census data to identify some characteristics of the structure of distribution. It sheds light on two historical factors –one is the development of retail formats, which arose autonomously from manufacturers' channel policy and provided a different point of view on channels from the manufacturers' one. Other is the political and judicial movement of anti-trust policy as a macro environment of the channel idea. The chapter explores the channel idea, from the managerial point of view on marketing. The three major criteria on channel selection, the long-or-short, the wide-or-narrow, and the open-or-closed criteria are utilized again as a measure for analysis. The chapter focuses on the writings that intentionally took the managerial point of view and that set the precedents for mainstream marketing thought. The macro environment in terms of politics and laws surrounding manufacturers' marketing channels was also changing between the two world wars, resulting in twofold effects on channel policy.
