Introduction
Americans have a rich shopping culture whether it is clothes, shoes, home appliances, grocery or other luxurious products. The retail industry records huge turnovers in their annual reports. Companies such as Wal-Mart and Shop-by-Shop are among the country’s largest stores. Large corporations have a significant impact on their customers’ choice. It is disputed whether this impact is good or bad. Retail corporations rely on the outlook of their services and consumer preference to attract customers. Shopping preferences among most Americans are influenced by factors like price, trademark, luxury, class and quality. With the introduction of e-retail, retail sales are set to increase by 16% by 2016 according to a Forrester Research, further increasing profits for retail stores (Rueter, 2012). Changes are also reported among the consumer trends with some opting not to shop at stores where the working environment is poor. Majority of students at San Diego State University also shop at large corporations with some citing trademark, reputation of the corporate and advertising as some of their reasons. Some are even relying on garage sales and the farmers market as their main shopping zones. However, there are differences among the students, as some prefer to shop at local stores because of the lowered prices and convenience while others shop for different things at different stores with no specific store in mind. This paper purposes to assert some of the reasons the students prefer the large stores like WalMart and their basis for such choices.
Methods
We conducted a survey in order to find conclusive answers to these crucial questions. Students at San Diego State University were the primary participants. We targeted different students from different class levels, ethnic background and different ages. Participating candidates were of both genders. Students were the ages of 19 and 26 inclusive of international students from Africa, Europe and Asia. Most of the questions sought the opinion of the students. The survey consists of eight questions both closed and open end. The first part of the questionnaire has five questions, which are open. This was done in order to reduce limitations to the correspondent who may have a broader perspective on the topic. Part two of the questionnaire comprised of closed queries using a scale analysis to establish absolute answers. Part one of the questionnaires categorized the respondents into: the year they are in, where they bought their products, their desired store, motives for choice with how often they frequented the store.
One of the questions was a close question on whether or not they preferred to shop at a large corporation. We chose to put a scale of 1-5 to establish how the students rank to highlight their feelings towards WalMart and other similar stores. Five was a representation of complete agreement while one to show total disagreement. The questions included; whether WalMart treat their employees well, if they had cheap and quality products and whether such corporations have everything the participant needs. Final data would be classified on these questions. WalMart was used as the main brand and example because most of the students would identify with it. This method was targeting to express the views of students and their presumption about major corporations and stores like WalMart. Conducting the survey around the school with different people of economic and social backgrounds gives a wide assortment of information. Information obtained through this methodology is also relatively accurate.
Results
The study was conducted mainly on the students of the institution who were classified into four groups namely freshmen, sophomore, junior and senior students. The sophomore constituted the largest numbers in the study as they made up 35% of the population, the juniors constituted 15% of the population, the freshmen 15% and the seniors constituted 25% of the population size in the study. This was paramount to obtain a clarified view in terms of preferences in shopping stores and their trends in consumption and purchases. 62% of the participants in the survey indicated that they preferred to make purchases from corporations, whereas 38% of the participants indicated that they preferred to make purchases from local stores.

In the chart above, the relation between the students and their shopping habits were compared. In addition, a comparison was made to the differences in stages of study with the freshmen being the largest percentage of students that were targeted by the research. The freshmen preferred shopping at large corporations, while the seniors preferred shopping at local stores. Shopping preferences for the other two groups were almost evenly distributed.
In addition, the ability to make purchases or identify preferred outlets for making purchases was characterized and grouped into several classifications. The classifications include the trademark of the entity for making purchases, the price of commodities, and the reputation of the corporation and the location of the entity. All these elements are significant determinants, which facilitate the ability of an individual to identify where to make purchases. The freshmen identified amongst the participants indicated that they made their purchases from three distinct stores. The numbers provide that 33.3% of the participants in the freshman class made their purchases from Walmart, 46.7% made their purchase from Target outlets 6.7% made their purchases from Kmart while the remainder 13.3% made their purchases from other outlets in the country.
Additionally, 86.7% of freshmen preferred to make purchases from large corporations, whereas 13.3% preferred to make purchases from other smaller stores. Their ability to make purchases was based on three issues, advertisements, and price of commodities, trademarks, corporation reputation and other issues, which were not identified in the study. 6.7% were influenced by advertisements to make purchases, 40 % were influenced by the prices of the commodities, corporate reputation was at 26.6%, 6.7 % were influenced by the trademark of the organization, whereas 20% was influenced by other issues not disclosed in the study (Pope, 2003).
Junior students were grouped in terms of the outlets, which they preferred, 11% preferred the farmer’s market, 22% the Vons, 22% Walmart, 11% Ralph seafood city 11%, target 11% and Costco 11%. The overall standings were 78% preferred to make purchases at large corporations whereas the local stores were 22%. Price was the main determinant whereby 73% were driven by price, 14% advertisements, and 14% were influenced by convenience.
Senior students, on the other hand, were divided into several preferred stores for making purchases. Of the senior participants, 20% preferred to make purchases at Target, 13.3% at Walmart, whole foods 13.3%, Stater bothers 6.66%, 6.66% at Food4less, 6.66% at Ralph, 13.3% at Costco, 6.66% at Albertsons, 6.66% at Vons and 6.66% at Farmers Market. Purchases by the senior participants would be influenced by several issues such as the trademark price, advertisements, the corporate reputation and other issues. The result for this classification based on the identified elements was 33.3% made purchases due to trademark, 13.3% based on price, 6.66% based on advertisements, 6.66% based on corporate reputation of the outlet, 6.66% based on other unidentified issues. From the study, the main entities, which were predominantly preferred, include target, Wal-Mart, Kmart, Ralph, Costco and other entities, which were not mentioned numerously (Pope, 2003). Values in Percentage (%)
Chart provides the purchase preference for either large corporation of smaller entities.
Discussion
Walmart emerged as the largest preferred entity from the empirical study conducted. Large corporations were preferred by a majority of the students. This is because of the ability of the large corporations to give high quality services and products at relatively lower costs to the consumers. In addition, this is made possible by the ability of the corporations to take advantage of the economies of scale where the organization makes large purchases and sales at relatively lower costs in comparison to the smaller entities, which are unable to make large purchases of stock due to limited resources (Grover, & Vriens, 2006). From the studies, it is predominantly evident that price is a crucial driver in making purchases by students who participated in the study. In addition, price is a factor in relation to making a purchase to either large or small entities. Hence, the organizations in the consumer industry should focus on the ability to make bulk purchases of consumer products in order to make subsequent sales at lower costs in the market (Grover, & Vriens, 2006).
Other major determinants in making purchases, were the corporate reputation of the organization. The corporate reputation could be termed as the image of an organization. Hence, brand image was also a determinant and influence in subsequent association and purchases made by an individual. Consumerism has increased in the world given the increased ability of consumers to make purchases. Hence, there is a dire need by organizations to ensure that they attain and improve their competitiveness in comparison to other organizations in the market. Competitiveness could be improved through investments in branding of the select organizations and through solid sales and marketing strategies (Grover, & Vriens, 2006).
The consumer market is one of the most competitive industries in the world given the high turnovers in terms of sales as well as revenue accrued by organizations involved in this market. In addition, this brings about the presence of aggressive competition by firms in the market. This is evidenced by the presence of varied prices between the entities. Prices of the commodities are the main drivers of sales by the organizations as well as the subsequent purchases by the consumers (Grover, & Vriens, 2006). The brand image is a driver of purchases and sales on the part of consumers and organizations respectively because of the need for association with an entity. Majority of the consumers indicated the need for association with the large organizations in the market because of benefits such as social image and prices of the commodities. Large entities are usually at an advantage because of the ability to source for goods in bulk and lower operational costs because of their economies of scale. Economies of scale apply to lower costs of operation, and purchase costs and subsequent reduction in prices of products in the entities (Grover, & Vriens, 2006). Quality of products and services is also another determinant, which was not mentioned in the study but is of importance to any consumer seeking to make a purchase. This should be in relation to the prices of products and services in the organization. Qualities of products usually are priorities in consumer decisions for purchases. This is because quality is determinant in satisfaction of the consumer needs and wants that should be provided by products.

Reference
Grover, R., & Vriens, M. (2006). The handbook of marketing research: Uses, misuses, and future advances. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.
Pope, J. L. (2003). Practical marketing research. New York: AMACOM.
Reuter, T. (February 27 2012). E-Retail Spending to Increase 62% by 2016. Internet Retailer. Retrieved from www.internetretailer.com.