A retail store is a place of business (establishment)—open to and frequented by the general public—in which sales are made primarily to ultimate consumers, usually in small quantities, from merchandise inventories stored and displayed on the premises. [1]
Demand area or destination area refers to a department in a store in which demand for goods or services are created before customers get to their destination. [1]
A chain store system is a group of retail stores of essentially the same type, centrally owned and with some degree of centralized control of operation. Chain store refers to a single store as a unit of such a group. [1]
A department store is a retail establishment that carries several lines of merchandise, such as women’s ready-to-wear and accessories, men’s and boys’ clothing, piece goods, smallwares, and home furnishings, all of which are organized into separate departments for the purpose of promotion, service, accounting, and control. For Census purposes, it’s an establishment normally employing 25 or more people and engaged in selling some items in each of the following lines of merchandise: furniture, home furnishings, appliances, radio and TV sets, a general line of apparel for the family, household linens, and dry goods.
Big-and-tall store
NOTE: An establishment with total sales of less than $10M in which sales of any one of these groupings is greater than 80 percent of total sales is not classified as a department store. [2]
Departmentalized specialty store is a term used to designate a retailer organized in the same way as a department store but handling a narrower range of merchandise. [1]
A factory outlet center is a shopping center that specializes in manufacturers’ outlets that dispose of excess merchandise or that may serve as an alternate distribution channel.
Fringe sizes (also end sizes, out sizes or plus sizes) are those that are either very large or very small. If offered at all, they are usually offered in very limited depth because of their thin market demand. Some retail stores specialize in fringe sizes (e.g., a big-and-tall store or a plus-size women’s store).
A general store is an establishment primarily selling a general line of merchandise, the most important being food. The more important subsidiary lines are notions, apparel, farm supplies, and gasoline. Sales of food account for at least one-third and not more than two-thirds of total sales. This establishment is usually located in rural communities. [1]
Ben Franklin was one of the original five-and-dime stores,
A general merchandise store sells household linens and dry goods, and either apparel and accessories or furniture and home furnishings. Establishments that meet the criteria for department stores, except as to employment, are included in this classification. Included for U.S. Census purposes are establishments whose sales of apparel or of furniture and home furnishings exceed half of their total sales, if sales of the smaller of the two lines in combination with dry goods and household linens accounts for 20 percent of total sales. [1]
Location affinities refer to the tendency for similar or complementary retail stores to be located in close proximity to one another. For example, furniture stores in a city may be clustered together in order to facilitate consumer comparison shopping. [1]
A variety store sells a wide variety of merchandise in the low and popular price range usually in limited assortments (such as stationery, gift items, women’s accessories, toilet articles, light hardware, toys, housewares, and confectionery). [1]
Variety stores were formerly known as limited price variety stores because merchandise was usually not sold outside some specified price ranges. The concept originated with the five-and-dime or dime store. Depending on its location, this type of store may be referred to as a dollar store (US and Canada), pound shop (UK), Eurostore (Germany), etc. [1]
See Also
Brand activation
Retailing
Retail store layout
Share of shelf
References
- American Marketing Association, AMA Dictionary.
- Farris, Paul W.; Neil T. Bendle; Phillip E. Pfeifer; and David J. Reibstein (2010). Marketing Metrics: The Definitive Guide to Measuring Marketing Performance (Second Edition). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc.