Harper Adams MSc International Agri-Business · UK · Harper Adams University
Original practice questions written to the published syllabus · not past papersHow food reaches consumers through retail: the market, the value chain, merchandising, store operations, finance and formats.
In the exams: Not an explicit unit in the catalogued exams; programme course
How our questions for Harper Adams MSc International Agri-Business spread across the units of Food Retail & Agri-food Retail Management. Difficulty: 9 easy, 27 medium, 14 hard.
| Retail formats | 8 | |
| Retail finance | 8 | |
| Retail selling | 8 | |
| The international food market | 7 | |
| Retail operations | 7 | |
| The retail value chain | 6 | |
| Merchandise management | 6 |
Choose an answer, then open the working. Each explanation says why the right answer is right and why the others are not.
The 'bullwhip effect' in a food supply chain refers to:
D. order swings growing larger as they pass upstream from the retailer through wholesalers to the farmer
The bullwhip effect is the amplification of demand variability upstream, caused by forecasting on orders rather than consumer sales, batching, promotions and rationing games. Shared point-of-sale data, VMI and CPFR reduce it. The first option states the reverse.
Which description best fits a hard (limited-assortment) discount food store?
B. A narrow range, mostly store brands, minimal service, goods shown in shipping cartons
Hard discounters cut cost with a narrow assortment, mostly own brands, low service and case-ready display. The distractors describe a hypermarket, a convenience store and a warehouse club.
Which factor most determines whether a quick-commerce dark store can become profitable?
C. Order density: enough orders per day within a small radius to spread fixed and delivery costs
Quick commerce depends on dense demand, short trips and high throughput per store. Wider assortment and larger radius raise cost and slow delivery; fresh items are core to the frequent-purchase basket.
A retailer appoints a leading brand manufacturer as 'category captain' for breakfast cereals. What is the main concern competition authorities raise about this arrangement?
B. The captain may bias shelf space, range and pricing advice toward its own brands over rival brands
A category captain advises on the whole category, saving the retailer analysis cost, but its access to the plan creates a risk of disadvantaging rival suppliers. It does not take ownership or buy back stock, and advising is not automatically price fixing.
A retailer's own-brand product imitates the leading national brand in pack colour and positioning and is priced somewhat below it. In the standard classification of private labels this is:
C. a standard or copycat private label
Copycat or standard lines imitate the leader at a lower price. Generics use plain packs at the lowest price; premium lines compete on quality and distinctiveness, often priced at or above brands; a fighter brand is a manufacturer's own low-price brand, not a retailer's label.
A buyer must remove 20 of 120 yoghurt SKUs to free shelf space. Which SKUs should be removed first?
A. Slow sellers whose buyers would mostly switch to another SKU still stocked
SKU rationalisation removes items that are not incremental: if their buyers transfer to remaining SKUs, sales are largely kept. Removing the only item serving a need (lactose-free, organic) loses those shoppers, and possibly their whole basket. Best sellers and price-based cuts ignore demand transfer.
A produce manager stores ripe bananas and apples next to leafy greens and cut flowers in the same small chiller. What is the main risk?
B. Ethylene from the ripening fruit speeds yellowing, wilting and ageing of the greens and flowers
Ripening fruit such as apples and bananas produce ethylene; ethylene-sensitive items (leafy greens, many flowers) yellow, wilt or age faster in it. Such items should be separated. Leafy greens are not major ethylene producers.
Further reading: Kader (ed.), Postharvest Technology of Horticultural Crops
A dairy department has annual sales of 1,200,000, a gross margin of 30 percent and an average inventory at cost of 120,000. What is its GMROI?
D. 3.0
GMROI = gross margin / average inventory at cost = 360,000 / 120,000 = 3.0. 10 is the sales-to-stock ratio, which must be multiplied by the margin percentage; 0.3 is the margin alone; dividing by inventory valued at retail (171,429) gives 2.1.
Further reading: Levy, Weitz and Grewal, Retailing Management
Of 10,000 store baskets, 2,000 contain bread, 1,500 contain butter and 600 contain both. What is the lift of the rule 'bread implies butter'?
A. 2.0
Confidence = 600/2,000 = 0.30. Share of baskets with butter = 1,500/10,000 = 0.15. Lift = 0.30/0.15 = 2.0, meaning bread buyers are twice as likely as average to buy butter. 0.30 is confidence, 0.06 is support, and 0.4 is the confidence of the reverse rule.
A retailer analyses 8,000 baskets and finds 480 that contain both pasta and pasta sauce. What is the support of the item pair?
C. 6.0 percent
Support = baskets with both items / all baskets = 480/8,000 = 0.060 = 6.0%. 16.7 inverts the ratio (8,000/480), 60.0 divides by 800 instead of 8,000, and 0.06 leaves the decimal unconverted.
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