Page 47 - DMGT553_RETAIL_STORE_MANAGEMENT

Retail Store Management

Notes 30,000 square feet in size. Although major portion of their sales comes from food items,
most supermarkets have added many essential non-food items as well. However, the
variety of non-food items that they offer such as health and beauty aids general merchandise
is limited. Super markets usually appeal to customer as account of their low prices and
because of their pioneering role in self-service retailing.

Specialty Stores, Mall and other Formats: As the needs of the consumers grew and changed,
one face the emergence of commodity specialised mass merchandisers in the 1970s. The
seventies also were witness to the use of technology in the retail sector with the introduction
of the barcode. Specialty chains developed in the 80’s as did the shopping malls.
Shopping mall, a late 20th century development, was created to provide for the customer’s
need in a single, self-contained shopping area. Although they were first created for the
convenience of suburban populations, they are now found in many main city
thoroughfares. A large Brand of a well-known retail chain usually serves as mall’s retail
flagship, which is the primary attraction for customer.
Rise of the Web: The world of retail changed, yet again, when in 1935, Amazon.com
opened the doors to a world market on the Web. With the growth of the World Wide Web,
both retailers and customers confined suppliers and products from any where in the
world.
Thus the evolution of retail formats worldwide has been largely influenced by constantly
changing social and economic landscape. Today’s consumer when compared to the
consumer of the earlier generation, is definitely more demanding, and is focused on what
he wants; consumer demand is the prime reasons of the emergence of the various formats.
Hypermarkets: The word hypermarket is derived from the French word Hypermarche,
which is a combination of a supermarket and department store. This retail business format
has evolved since its invention by retailer Carrefour in Sainte Genevieve des Bois near
Paris, in the year 1963. A retail store with a sales area of over 2,500 sqm, with at least
35% of selling space devoted to non-grocery products, is termed as a hypermarket. The
stores occupies an area which ranges from anywhere between 80,000 to 2,20,000 square
feet and offer a variety of food and nonfood products like clothes, jewellery, hardware,
sports equipment, books etc. Hypermarkets are usually part of Retail Park, along with
other shops, cafeterias and restaurants. They almost always have their own petrol station
on the site.

Off Price retailers: The merchandise may be in odd sizes, unpopular colours or with minor
defects. Off price retail stores may be manufacturers owned or may be owned by a specialty
or departmental store. These outlets are usually seen by the parent company as a means of
increasing the business. The factory outlets in case the manufacturer owns them, may
stock only company merchandise.

Catalogue Showrooms: Catalogue retailers usually specialize in hard goods such as house
ware, jewellery and consumer electronics. A customer walks into this retail showroom
and goes through the catalogue of the products/that he would like to purchase. Some
stores require the customer to write out the product code number and hand it over to the
clerk, who then arranges for the product to the brought out from the warehouse for
inspection and purpose. Some of the popular catalogue showroom retailers in the world
include, Argos, service Merchandise and Best Products.

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