This paper has two different purposes. The first one is to establish the main requirements necessary to settle the efficient consumer response (ECR) ideas. Secondly, it is also intended to unveil the present logistic conditions of Brazilian supermarket industry related to the previous identified requirements to the ECR approach . The requirements are pointed out considering interviews with experts and literature revision. The present situation of Brazilian supermarkets is discussed based on a research carried out with 21 companies from the group of the most important Brazilian chains. The main conclusion is that the integration of Brazilian supermarkets with their suppliers is still very weak. The limited use of electronic data interchange (EDI) is the most important explanation for this finding.
supermarkets; logistics; ECR; EDI
