Department stores carry a wider variety of merchandise than most stores but offer these items in separate departments within the store. These departments usually include home furnishings and electronic and household goods, as well as clothing, which may be divided into departments according to gender and age. Department stores increasingly also have large food departments, such as the renowned food court at Harrods in the United Kingdom. Departments within each store are usually operated as separate entities, each with its own buyers, promotions, and service personnel. Some departments, such as restaurants and beauty parlours, are leased to external providers.

Department stores generally account for less than 10 percent of a country’s total retail sales, but they draw large numbers of customers in urban areas. The most influential of the department stores may even be trendsetters in various fields, such as fashion. Department stores such as Sears, Roebuck and Company have also spawned chain organizations. Others may do this through mergers or by opening branch units within a region or by expanding to other countries.

Supermarkets are characterized by large facilities (15,000 to 25,000 square feet [1,394 to 2,323 square metres] with more than 12,000 items), low profit margins (earning about 1 percent operating profit on sales), high volume, and operations that serve the consumer’s total needs for items such as food (groceries, meats, produce, dairy products, baked goods) and household sundries. They are organized according to product departments and operate primarily on a self-service basis. Supermarkets also may sell wines and other alcoholic beverages (depending on local licensing laws) and clothing.

The first true supermarket was opened in the United States by Michael Cullin in 1930. His King Kullen chain of large-volume food stores was so successful that it encouraged the major food-store chains to convert their specialty stores into supermarkets. When compared with the conventional independent grocer, supermarkets generally offered greater variety and convenience and often better prices as well. Consequently, in the two decades after World War II, the supermarket drove many small food retailers out of business, not only in the United States but throughout the world. In France, for example, the number of larger food stores grew from about 50 in 1960 to 4,700 in 1982, while the number of small food retailers fell from 130,000 to 60,000.

Located primarily near residential areas, convenience stores are relatively small outlets that are open long hours and carry a limited line of high-turnover convenience products at high prices. Although many have added food services, consumers use them mainly for “fill-in” purchases, such as bread, milk, or miscellaneous goods.

Superstores, hypermarkets, and combination stores are unique retail merchandisers. With facilities averaging 35,000 square feet (3,300 square metres), superstores meet many of the consumer’s needs for food and nonfood items by housing a full-service grocery store as well as such services as dry cleaning, laundry, shoe repair, and cafeterias. Combination stores typically combine a grocery store and a drug store in one facility, utilizing approximately 55,000 square feet (5,000 square metres) of selling space. Hypermarkets combine supermarket, discount, and warehousing retailing principles by going beyond routinely purchased goods to include furniture, clothing, appliances, and other items. Ranging in size from 80,000 to 220,000 square feet (7,400 to 20,400 square metres), hypermarkets display products in bulk quantities that require minimum handling by store personnel.

Selling merchandise below the manufacturer’s list price is known as discounting. The discount store has become an increasingly popular means of retailing. Following World War II, a number of retail establishments in the United States began to pursue a high-volume, low-profit strategy designed to attract price-conscious consumers. A key strategy for keeping operating costs (and therefore prices) low was to locate in low-rent shopping districts and to offer minimal service assistance. This no-frills approach was used at first only with hard goods, or consumer durables, such as electrical household appliances, but it has since been shown to be successful with soft goods, such as clothing. This practice has been adopted for a wide variety of products, so that discount stores have essentially become department stores with reduced prices and fewer services. In the late 20th century, discount stores began to operate outlet malls. These groups of discount stores are usually located some distance away from major metropolitan areas and have facilities that make them indistinguishable from standard shopping malls. As they gained popularity, many discount stores improved their facilities and appearances, added new lines and services, and opened suburban branches. Coupled with attempts by traditional department stores to reduce prices in order to compete with discounters, the distinction between many department and discount stores has become blurred. Specialty discount operations have grown significantly in electronics, sporting goods, and books.

Off-price retailers offer a different approach to discount retailing. As discount houses tried to increase services and offerings in order to upgrade, off-price retailers invaded this low-price, high-volume sector. Off-price retailers purchase at below-wholesale prices and charge less than retail prices. This practice is quite different from that of ordinary discounters, who buy at the market wholesale price and simply accept lower margins by pricing their products below retail costs. Off-price retailers carry a constantly changing collection of overruns, irregulars, and leftover goods and have made their biggest forays in the clothing, footwear, and accessories industries. The three primary examples of off-price retailers are factory outlets, independent carriers, and warehouse clubs. Stocking manufacturers’ surplus, discontinued, or irregular products, factory outlets are owned and operated by the manufacturer. Independent off-price retailers carry a rapidly changing collection of higher-quality merchandise and are typically owned and operated by entrepreneurs or divisions of larger retail companies. Warehouse (or wholesale) clubs operate out of enormous, low-cost facilities and charge patrons an annual membership fee. They sell a limited selection of brand-name grocery items, appliances, clothing, and miscellaneous items at a deep discount. These warehouse stores, such as Walmart-owned Sam’s Club and Costco (in the United States), maintain low costs because they buy products at huge quantity discounts, use less labour in stocking, and typically do not make home deliveries or accept credit cards.

Some retailers do not operate stores, and these nonstore businesses have grown much faster than store retailers. The major types of nonstore retailing are direct selling, direct marketing, and automatic vending.