shops (2, 22, 28). Among all urban food retailers, however, these smaller

scale merchants tend to have higher costs of operation and more difficulty

coordinating with urban and rural wholesale suppliers for the provision

of the mix of foods demanded by their customers. Unfortunately, this group

of small urban retailers have not received adequate research and develop-

ment program assistance, while the urban marketing reforms undertaken

have tended to benefit larger scale retailers and wholesalers who serve

middle and high income consumers (1, 29, 30, 31). Therefore, there is

a special need for research to determine how small scale food retailing in

both rural and urban areas can be improved through managerial and technologi-

cal innovations which reflect each countries' labor and capital endowments

and which contribute to more effective vertical market channel coordina-

tion linking small scale merchants and farmers.

 In terms of overall evaluation of marketing channels,

 What evidence can be cited to indicate poor market

 performance with respect to a) costs of providing exist-

 ing services, b) effectiveness of vertical coordination

 mechanisms in communicating consumer demands to marketing

 firms and ultimately to farmers, c) adequancy of variety,

 quality and condition of products reaching consumers, d)

 effectiveness of product distribution over space and over

 time, e) progressiveness of public and private enter-

 prises in adopting new marketing practices, and f)

 equitability of the system in distributing benefits of

 marketing improvements?