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Service and Technology in Retailing:
History, Concepts, and Concerns
Retailing and the Moment of Truth
For centuries, retailing comprised direct face-to-face contact between a
service provider and the customer. In traditional models of retail service
encounters, face-to-face transactions predominated. Such encounters were
composed of moments of truth between the service employee and the
customer. This sociocommercial relationship meant that the retail service
encounter was rich in moments of truth. But the situation didn’t stop there.
Retail outlets also needed to develop business and often personal relation-
ships with producers and thei ...