About Opentopia
Opentopia Directory Encyclopedia Tools

Big-box store

Encyclopedia : B : BI : BIG : Big-box store

Big-box store is a colloquial term used to describe a style of retail store, and by extension to the company behind the store. Typical characteristics include the following:

This design provides space for a large amount of merchandise and serves as an enormous billboard to attract customers. It is particularly favored by volume discount retailers.
Exterior of a Wal-Mart SuperCenter—an archetypical big box store— in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
Enlarge
Exterior of a Wal-Mart SuperCenter—an archetypical big box store— in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico

Opponents criticize big boxes especially for being visually overbearing, wasteful of open space, and deleterious to community and small businesses. Proponents point to consumer benefits from greater convenience and lower cost of goods, and the ability of such stores to draw in tax-generating consumers from a wide area. In recent years, particularly in Canada, commercial developers have chosen to build big box stores (often grouped together in so-called "power centres") in lieu of traditional shopping malls [[Citing sources citation needed]].

Generally, big-box stores can be broken down into two categories: general merchandisers, such as Wal-Mart and Target, and so-called category killers, such as Home Depot or Circuit City which specialise in goods within a specific range, such as hardware or electronics. In recent years, many traditional retailers such as Tesco and Praktiker have opened stores in the format in an effort to compete with big box chains, which are expanding internationally as their home markets reach maturity.

Contents

List of big-box chains

Companies known for operating big box stores include the following:

Multi-national

PARKnSHOP Superstore
Enlarge
PARKnSHOP Superstore

  • SM Hypermarket

  • Auchan (Branches in Thailand now changed and acquired by BigC)
  • BigC (a part of Groupe-Casino and Central Retail Corporation)
  • Carrefour
  • Central Superstore (Branches now changed to BigC)
  • Makro
  • Tesco Lotus (a part of Tesco UK) group, includes
  • *Tesco Lotus Discount Store (Branches now changed to Tesco Lotus Supercenter)
  • *Tesco Lotus Supercenter
  • *Tesco Lotus Khumkha (Tesco Lotus Value)

See also

External links

 

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.

Search Titles
0123456789
ABCDEFGHIJ
KLMNOPQRST
UVWXYZ?

E-mail this article to:

Personal Message: