Major type of retail stores

There is no universally accepted method of classifying retailer.

Various schemes have been proposed to categories retailers
based on
 Number of outlets
 Margin vs. turnover
 Location
 Size.
Because of overlap of classification criteria, some stores may
qualify as under two different categories.

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1. General merchandise retailer: general merchandise
retailer carry a variety of product lines, with considerable
depth. Some major types of these stores include
supermarkets and hypermarkets , discount stores and
department stores.

o Super market: A supermarket is a large self service retail

store that carries a wide variety of consumer products under
one roof , such as complete line of food products , laundry
requirement, household maintenance items. In India
cooperative have managed some supermarkets for quite
sometime like super bazaar in Delhi, apna bazaar shakari
bhandar etc.
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o Discount store: these stores are self service, standard
general merchandise retailers regularly offering brand
name and private brand items at low price, earn lower
margins and push for high sales turnover. The
characteristics of true discount stores include
 Selling products at discounted price
 Carry standard international , national, or store brand toi
build image
 Self service stores to minimize operational costs
 Preferred store location are low rent areas.
Like best known discount store is Wal-Mart. In India almost all
retail stores offer discounts, subhiksha

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o Department store: a department store is larger retail store
organized into several departments, offering a broad verity
and depth of product lines. The product mix may include
food products, appliances, clothing, furnishing and other
household goods.
 Like Pantaloons, shoppers’ stop,
 department store only for kids is Kids Kemp.
 Fashion related department stores in India are Ebony,
Globus, pantaloons, lifestyles.

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2. Specialty Stores: specialty stores carry a narrow
product mix with depth of assortment within the line.
 The emphasis is on a limited number of complimentary
products and high level of customer service
 Specialty store often sell shopping goods such as Jewelry,
apparel, computers, music systems, sporting goods.
 Like; Tanishq, Titan watches, Van Heusen, Raymond's.

3. Shopping Malls: shopping malls typically deal with

several bases and product categories and provide a large
variety of merchandise abs service. There are 96
operational malls in India and expected to grow 158 by
this current year.
 Ansal plaza (Delhi), Garuda mall (Bangalore) Sahara plaza
Gurgaon Spenser Plaza Chennai
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4. Retail chains: a retail chain operates multiple retail
outlets under common ownership in different cities and
towns.

 To some extent the purchasing function and decision

making are coordinated or centralized.
 Like Westside, Globus, Food world, McDonald's retail
petrol outlets. Etc.