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Retail Jobs |
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Retailing consists of the sale of goods/merchandise for personal
or household consumption either from a fixed location such as a
department store or kiosk, or away from a fixed location and
related subordinated services. In commerce, a retailer buys
goods or products in large quantities from manufacturers or
importers, either directly or through a wholesaler, and then
sells individual items or small quantities to the general public
or end user customers, usually in a shop, also called store.
Retailers are at the end of the supply chain. Marketers see
retailing as part of their overall distribution strategy.
Shops may be on residential streets, or in shopping streets with
little or no houses, or in a shopping center. Shopping streets
may or may not be for pedestrians only. Sometimes a shopping
street has a partial or full roof to protect customers from
precipitation.
Shopping is buying things, sometimes as a recreational activity.
Cheap versions of the latter are window shopping (just looking,
not buying) and browsing.
There are three major types of retailing, two of which have
buildings that the customer can visit to do business with. The
first is counter-service, once the only type of shop, but now
rare except for selected items (see below). The second, and now
more widely used method of retail, is self-service. Quickly
increasing in importance are online shops, the third type, where
products and services can be ordered for physical delivery,
downloading or virtual delivery.
Even though most retailing is done through self-service, many
shops offer counter-service items, e.g. controlled items like
medicine and liquor, and small expensive items.
Shops used to deal with just one type of article. In the
nineteenth century, in France, arcades were invented, which were
a street of several different shops, roofed over. From this
there soon developed, still in France, the notion of a large
store of one ownership with many counters, each dealing with a
different kind of article was invented; it was called a
department store. In cities, these were multi-story buildings
which pioneered the escalator. In the mid-twentieth century in
the United States there developed the mall, midway between the
arcade and the department store. A mall consists of several
two-storey department stores linked by arcades (many of whose
shops are owned by the same firm under different names). All the
stores rent their space from the mall owner.
A recent development is a very large shop called a superstore.
Local shops can be known as brick and mortar stores in the
United States.
Many shops are part of a chain: a number of similar shops with
the same name selling the same products in different locations.
The shops may be owned by one company, or there may be a
franchising company that has franchising agreements with the
shop owners (see also restaurant chain).
Some shops sell second-hand goods. Often the public can also
sell goods to such shops. In other cases, especially in the case
of a nonprofit shop, the public donates goods to the shop to be
sold (see also thrift store). In give-away shops goods can be
taken for free.
The term retailer is also applied where a service provider
services the needs of a large number of individuals, such as
with telephone or electric power.
The pricing technique used by most retailers is cost-plus
pricing. This involves adding a markup amount (or percentage) to
the retailers cost. Another common technique is suggested retail
pricing. This simply involves charging the amount suggested by
the manufacturer and usually printed on the product by the
manufacturer.
In Western countries, retail prices are often so-called
psychological prices or odd prices: a little less than a round
number, e.g. $6.95. In Chinese societies, prices are generally
either a round number or sometimes a lucky number. This creates
price points.
Often prices are fixed and displayed on signs or labels.
Alternatively, there can be price discrimination for a variety
of reasons. The retailer charges higher prices to some customers
and lower prices to others. For example, a customer may have to
pay more if the seller determines that he or she is willing to.
The retailer may conclude this due to the customer's wealth,
carelessness, lack of knowledge, or eagerness to buy. Price
discrimination can lead to a bargaining situation often called
haggling — a negotiation about the price. Economists see this as
determining how the transaction's total surplus will be divided
into consumer and producer surplus. Neither party has a clear
advantage, because the threat of no sale exists, whence the
surplus vanishes for both. |
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