ABSTRACT
The potential role of marketing in Africa's economic growth remains largely unexplored. This chapter explores the scanty knowledge in the field by bringing together fragmented theoretical and empirical knowledge about the roles that international retailers are playing in the East African Community (EAC) countries and reports on food retail activities in Tanzania. It presents an overview of previous studies into retailing in developing countries in order to provide a theoretical backdrop for the discussions about food retailing in EAC. The chapter examines the development of the food retail sector in Africa. It presents the results of investigations in Tanzania with a discussion of the implications of that study for an understanding of drivers of growth within the food retail sector in the East African region. The chapter shows that there has been a migration of low-income consumers from the traditional marketplaces to the supermarkets, due to loyalty marketing tactics adopted by the supermarkets in Tanzania.
