A variety store or price-point retailer is a retail store that sells inexpensive items, usually with a single price point for all items in the store. Typical merchandise includes cleaning supplies, toys, and confectionery. Formerly many variety stores had lunch counters for inexpensive meals. "Variety store" may also refer to a convenience store, especially in Canada, the Philippines, and in northern New England in the United States.
Products
Variety store products include cooking supplies, small tools, personal hygiene supplies, kitchen supplies, organizational supplies, small office supplies, holiday decorations, electronics supplies, gardening supplies, home decor novelties, toys, pet supplies, out of print books, DVDs and VHS tapes, food products and automotive supplies.
Some items sold at a certain price point would cost that much anyway, whereas other items offer a substantially lower price than usual. There are three reasons a variety store is able to sell merchandise at such a low price:
- The product is a generic or private label, often specially manufactured for such stores, using cheaper ingredients and processes than products intended for the mass market.
- The product was manufactured cheaply for a foreign market but was then re-imported by an unauthorized distributor (grey market goods).
- The product is purchased from another retail store or distributor as discontinued and discounted merchandise. (Often items were manufactured to coincide with the promotion of a motion picture, television show or special event (e.g. Olympic games), and are past their prime price.)
Some stores carry mostly new merchandise, some mostly closeout merchandise bought from other stores below regular wholesale cost.
Depending upon the size, some variety stores may have a frozen food and drink section, and also one with fruits and vegetables. The Deal$, Dollar Tree, and 99 Cents Only Store chains in the U.S. are three such examples. Some stores may have a section of single price point items combined on the same premises with a section selling larger, more expensive merchandise like CD players, lamps, and silverware. The flagship store of Jack's 99 and Jack's World in New York City is an example of such a store. Jack's 99 carries all types of items that retail for 99 cents, whereas Jack's World sells branded goods at discount prices.
Economics
In economic terms, the pricing strategy of variety stores is inefficient as some items may actually be sold elsewhere at a lower price. However, this is balanced by the marketing efficiencies of a single price structure and consumers accept potentially overpriced items. The pricing inefficiency becomes unacceptable at higher price points. Thus there are no "100 dollar stores" where all items sell for $100; consumers expect to pay the correct amount, as inaccuracies result in significant dollar amounts.
In many developed countries, stock can be imported from states with lower variable costs, due to factors such as lower minimum wages or taxation. Usually merchandise is imported by a general merchandise importer/wholesaler, then sold to the stores at a wholesale rate.
Although some people may link variety stores with low-income areas, this comparison is not always necessarily true. For example, Atherton, California has a variety store within its city limits, even though it has a median household income of over $200,000 a year.
Throughout the world
North America
The concept of the variety store originated with the five and ten , nickel and dime , five and dime or dimestore , a store where everything cost either five cents (a nickel) or ten cents (a dime). The originator of the concept may be Woolworth's, which began in 1878 in Watertown, New York. Other five and tens that existed in the USA included W.T. Grant, J.J. Newberry's, McCrory's, Kresge, McLellan's, and Ben Franklin Stores. These stores originally featured merchandise priced at only five cents or ten cents, although later in the century the price range of merchandise expanded. Inflation eventually dictated that the stores were no longer able to sell any items for five or ten cents, and were then referred to as "variety stores" or more commonly dollar stores . Given that $0.05 in 1913 when adjusted for inflation is $1.15 in 2009 dollars, this retailing concept has shown remarkable vitality over the years.
Well-known dimestore companies included:
- Duckwall-ALCO
- Ben Franklin Stores
- Butler Brothers
- W.T. Grant
- S.S. Kresge Co.
- S.H. Kress & Co.
- McCrory's
- J.J. Newberry's
- TG&Y
- McLellan's
- Neisner's
- H.L. Green
- G.C. Murphy
- Woolworth's
- Walton's Five and Dime
- Vidler's Five and Dime
- Morgan & Lindsey
Of these, only Duckwall-ALCO and Ben Franklin continue to exist in this form, while Kresge and Walton's went on to become mega-retailers Kmart and Wal-Mart. Beginning around the 1960's, others tried the larger "discount store" format as well, such as W.T. Grant, Woolworth's Woolco stores, and TG&Y Family Centers.
Among today's dollar stores are:
- In the United States: Dollar Tree, Dollar General, Family Dollar, Deal$, Fred's, 99 Cents Only Stores, Galloway Dollar
- In Canada: A Buck or Two (163+), Dollarama (560+), Everything For a Dollar Store, Great Canadian Dollar Store (100+), Dollar Giant (50+), Your Dollar Store With More (180+)
- In Mexico: Waldo's Dollar Mart,
Europe
In Spain there are Todo a 100 shops ("everything for 100 pesetas" (0.60 €)), although due to the introduction of the euro and inflation, most products cost a multiple of 0.60 or 1 euro. Most of these shops maintain their name in pesetas, and most of them have been renamed as Casi todo a 100 ("almost everything for 100 "), Todo a 100, 300, 500 y más ("everything for 100, 300, 500 or more") or Todo a un euro . Colloquially, the expression "todo a 100" implies that something is either cheap, kitsch or low quality.
In Portugal there were Trezentos' shops ("Store of the 300 (escudos)" (1.50€)), but with the introduction of the Euro currency, this designation is not used nowadays and the terms 'bazar' or 'euro store' are preferred.
In Germany, there are ToBi ( To tal Bi llig , which translates as "Totally Inexpensive") stores where most items cost one or two Euro or less.
In Sweden, there is a Dollarstore chain with fixed prices of 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 and steps of 50 up to 500 SEK.
Stores:
- In Italy: NINEtNINE cent paradise
- In Ireland: Euro 2, Poundworld, Euroworld
- In United Kingdom: Poundland, Poundworld, 99p Stores
- In the Netherlands: Hema originally a "guilder store", now a department store
- In Germany: EuroShop, Pfennigland, TEDi
- In Malta: Tal-Lira
- In France: Prisunic, Monoprix, M. 1-2-3
- In Norway: Tier´n , which is a colloquialism for ten kroner = USD 1.75.
- In Sweden: Bubbeltian , called by some Tian , which is a colloquialism for ten kronor (crowns) = USD 1.60. Another chain that has been spreading in Sweden during the last seven years is Dollarstore , a chain where everything costs either 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 or 100 skr, which is supposed to roughly equal one, two, three, four, five or ten dollars. It is not related to the American store.
- In Denmark: Tiger , which means tiger (the animal) as well as being a pun on words for a ten-kroner coin Danish krone (crowns). The chain is owned by corporation "Zebra". The Tiger chain recently began releasing original music, after a campaign on the company's website found them several artists.
Asia
In Japan, 100-yen shops (百円ショップ hyaku-en shoppu or 百均 hyakkin ) have been proliferating across Japan since around 2001. This is considered by some an effect of decade-long recession of the Japanese economy.
For a few years, 100-yen shops existed not as stores in brick-and-mortar building, but as vendors under temporary, foldable tents. They were (and still are) typically found near the entrance areas of supermarkets.
One major player in 100 Yen Shops is Hirotake Yano, the founder of Daiso Industries Co. Ltd., which runs the the Daiso chain. The first store opened in 1991, and there are now around 2,400 stores in Japan. This number is increasing by around 40 stores per month. Daiso has also expanded into North America, Asia, and the Middle East.
In China, two yuan (or three yuan, depending on the area's economic prosperity) shops have become a common sight in most cities.
In Hong Kong, department stores have opened their own 10-dollar-shops (USD 1.28) to compete in the market, and thus there are now "8-dollar-sho
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