Self-service retailers increased rapidly in the US during the Great Depression in the 1930's.  Customers were willing to perform their own "locate-compare-select" process to save money.  Today, self-service is the basis of all discount operations, and typically is used by sellers of convenience goods (such as supermarkets) and nationally-branded, fast-moving shopping goods (such as catalog showrooms).

Limited service retailers, such as Sears and JCPenney, provide more sales assistance because they carry more shopping goods about which consumers need information.  Their increased operating costs result in higher prices.

Full service retailers, such as specialty stores and first-class department stores, have salespeople to assist customers in every phase of the shopping process.  Full service stores usually carry more specialty goods for which customers like to be waited on.  They provide more liberal return policies, various credit plans, free delivery, home servicing, and extras such as lounges and restaurants.

Specialty stores carry a narrow product line with a deep assortment within that line.   Examples include stores selling sporting goods, books, furniture, electronics, flowers, or toys.  Today, specialty stores are flourishing, due to the increasing use of market segmentation, market targeting, and product specialization.

A department store carries a wide variety of product lines.  Each line is operated as a separate department managed by specialist buyers and merchandisers.

Supermarkets are large, low-cost, low-margin, high-volume, self-service stores that carry a wide variety of food, laundry, and household products.  Most US supermarket stores are owned by large chains such as Safeway, Kroger, Publix, Winn-Dixie, Jewel, and Tops.   Chains account for almost 70% of all supermarket sales.

Convenience stores are small stores that carry a limited line of high-turnover convenience goods.   Examples include 7-Eleven, Circle K, Wilson's Farms, and Starvin' Marvin.   These stores located near residential areas and remain open long hours, seven days a week.  Convenience stores must charge high prices to make up for higher operating costs and lower sales volume, but they satisfy an important consumer need.

Superstores, combination stores, and hypermarkets are all larger than the conventional supermarket.  Many leading chains are moving toward superstores because their wider assortment allows prices to be 5-6% higher than conventional supermarkets'.  Combination stores are combined food and drug stores.   Examples are A&P's Family Marts and Wal-Mart's Supercenters.  Hypermarkets combine discount,  supermarket, and warehouse retailing, and operate like a warehouse -- products in wire baskets are stacked high on metal racks, and forklifts move through aisles during selling hours to restock shelves.  They usually give discounts to customers who carry their own heavy appliances and furniture out of the store.

Discount stores sell standard merchandise at lower prices by accepting lower margins and selling higher volume.  Occasional discounts or specials does not make a store a discount store.  A true discount store regularly sells its merchandise at lower prices, offering mostly national brands, not inferior goods.

In recent years, facing intense competition from other discounters and department stores, many discount retailers have "traded up" by improving their decor, adding new lines and services, and opening suburban branches.   This, of course, has led to higher costs and prices.  With the discounters trading up, off-price retailers have moved in to fill the low-price, high-volume gap.  They obtain a changing and unstable collection of higher-quality merchandise, often leftover goods, overruns, and irregulars at reduced prices from manufacturers or other retailers.  The three main types of off-price retailers are factory outlets, independents, and warehouse clubs.

The chain store is one of the most important retail developments of this century.   Corporate chains appear in all types of retailing, but they are strongest in department, variety, food, drug, shoe, and women's clothing stores.  The size of corporate chains allows them to buy in large quantities at lower prices, and chains gain promotional economies because their advertising costs are spread out over many stores and over a large sales volume.

The great success of corporate chains caused many independents to band together under contractual associations.  The voluntary chain is a wholesaler-sponsored group of independent retailers that engages in group buying and common merchandising.  Examples include the Independent Grocers Alliance (IGA), Sentry Hardware, and Western Auto.  The retailer cooperative is a group of independent retailers that set up a jointly- owned central wholesale operations and conduct joint merchandising and promotion efforts.  Examples include Associated Grocers and True Value Hardware.

A franchise is a contractual association between a manufacturer, wholesaler, or service organization (the franchiser) and independent businesspeople (the franchisees) who buy the right to own and operate one or more units in the franchise system.  Franchising has been prominent in fast-food companies, motels, gas stations, video stores, auto rentals, hair cutting salons, real estate, and dozen of other goods and services.  The compensation received by the franchiser may include an initial fee, a royalty on sales, lease fees for equipment, and a share of the profits.

Merchandising conglomerates are corporations that combine several different retailing forms under central ownership and share some distribution and management functions.   Examples include Dayton-Hudson and JCPenney.

Central business districts were the main form of retail cluster until the 1950's.   Every large city and town had a central business district with banks,   department stores, specialty stores, and movie theatres.  When people began to move to the suburbs, however, these central business districts (with their traffic, parking, and crime problems) began to lose business.

A shopping center is a group of retail businesses planned, developed, owned, and managed as a unit.   All shopping centers combined account for about 1/3 of all retail sales.

New retail forms will continue to emerge to meet new consumer needs and new situations.  In such a dynamic environment, seemingly solid retail positions can crumble quickly.

The Wheel of Retailing concept states that new types of retailers usually begin as low-margin, low-price, low-status operations, but later evolve into higher-priced, higher-service operations, eventually becoming like the conventional retailers they replaced.