A discount store is a type of department store, which sells products at prices lower than those asked by traditional retail outlets. Most discount department stores offer a wide assortment of goods; others specialize in such merchandise as jewelry, electronic equipment, or electrical appliances. Discount stores are not variety stores, which sell goods at a single price-point or multiples thereof (£1, $2, etc.). Discount stores differ from variety stores in that they sell many name-brand products, and because of the wide price range of the items offered. Following World War II, a number of retail establishments in the U.S. began to pursue a high-volume, low-profit-margin strategy designed to attract price-conscious consumers.
Currently Wal-Mart, the largest retailer in the world, operates more than 1,300 discount stores in the U.S. Target and Kmart are Wal-Mart's top competitors. Wal-Mart as of 2004, owns 90% of the Asda chain of supermarkets in the UK. As of 2008, the main rival to Asda is Tesco.
Read more about Discount Store: History
Famous quotes containing the words discount and/or store:
“Don’t discount our powers;
We have made a pass
At the infinite,”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
“Here, lads, we live by the law of the taiga. But even here people manage to live. D’you know who are the ones the camps finish off? Those who lick other men’s left-overs, those who set store by the doctors, and those who peach on their mates.”
—Alexander Solzhenitsyn (b. 1918)