Institutional Traders Vs Retail Traders
Many of these department stores developed into chains and all large cities had several of these stores by the end of the 19th cent. Gruen’s vision was to create a shopping atmosphere where people felt so comfortable, they would spend more time in the environment, thereby enhancing opportunities for purchasing. The first of these malls opened at Northland Mall near Detroit in 1954. Throughout the twentieth century, a trend towards larger store footprints became discernible. The average size of a U.S. supermarket grew from 31,000 square feet square feet in 1991 to 44,000 square feet square feet in 2000.
Retail trademeans uses primarily engaged in selling merchandise for personal or household consumption and rendering services incidental to the sale of goods. Uses engaged in retail trade sell merchandise to the general public or to households for personal consumption. Warehouse retailers provide a bare-bones shopping experience at very low prices. Costco is the dominant warehouse retailer, with $79.7 billion in sales in 2014.
Retailers selling consumer durables are sometimes known as hardline retailers – automobiles, appliances, electronics, furniture, sporting goods, lumber, etc., and parts for them. Specialist retailers operate in many industries such as the arts e.g. green grocers, contemporary art galleries, bookstores, handicrafts, musical instruments, gift shops. More than half of all retail purchases in BC are made at chain stores.
Reporting in your business system is also very handy here – with various customer, sales and product reports, you can very quickly see what are your best sellers versus no sellers. This lets you order large quantities of what works, and get rid of what doesn’t. Being a wholesaler gives you access to a diverse range of outlets and allows you to reach a large customer base. Offering your product as wholesale allows a larger audience access to your wares, therefore you are able to grow your business quickly.
The single point of purchase could be a brick-and-mortar retail store, an internet shopping website, or a catalog. Once the strategic plan is in place, retail managers turn to the more managerial aspects of planning. A retail mix is devised for the purpose of coordinating day-to-day tactical decisions. The retail marketing mix typically consists of six broad decision layers including product decisions, place decisions, promotion, price, personnel and presentation .
In recent decades, consumer choice has expanded with the goods available unconstrained by locality or season. Private car ownership stimulated the development of supermarkets and hypermarkets from the late 1950s, adding to the retail competition in food, home improvement equipment, and household goods and furniture. Since the early 1980s some stores have been relocated in large purpose-built shopping malls and, whilst providing choice for consumers, they have caused a decline of the traditional urban shopping centre. ‘Internet shopping’, introduced in the 1990s, has not expanded as fast as anticipated. Increasing population produced more purchasing power, with consequences for the organization and development of retailing. Markets and fairs became less important as a wide range of products, carried by regular and reliable transport, became available in established shops.