In his article, the author suggests to look at the issue of functioning and growth of trade enterprises in the context of assumptions and claims of the microeconomic theory. In particular, the following aspects of this issue are discussed: (1) regularities of institutional changes in retail trade, formulated on the grounds of traditional streams of the microeconomic theory; (2) basic assumptions of the theory explaining the mechanism of market selection of firms and their reception on the grounds of commercial science; (3) problem of usage of output of the neoclassical institutional economy and, first of all, of the theory of transaction costs, in an analysis of the developmental processes of modern retailers. Hence, there is adopted the following line-of-thought: from views on development of trade companies, derived from the assumption of excellence of market coordination, having analysed the conditions and factors where firms take over control over the transaction process, substituting the market in its coordinative functions.