In the United States the general store preceded the single-line store and is still common in small rural communities. In the late 19th cent. the department store came into being—a large-scale general store or a combination of single-line stores in which each line of merchandise is operated as a separate department. Such stores provide the convenience of easy accessibility to a large variety of goods. Modern department stores have been vital to the development of shopping centers and malls, huge retail developments that contain a wide variety of stores and services.
Retail concerns that do business principally through the mail are called mail-order houses. In the United States among the first and largest were Montgomery Ward (founded 1872) and Sears, Roebuck, and Company (founded 1886), which sold their goods to rural residents by means of annual catalogs. Both later developed warehouses and retail stores in many urban communities; Montgomery Ward closed in 2001. Many mail-order houses now also depend on orders placed over the telephone and via the Internet. (Lebar,1999)
Development of the World Wide Web on the Internet has given rise to companies, such as Amazon.com, that sell goods exclusively through an Internet site, or on-line “store,” shipping purchases by mail or other carriers.
Chain stores, though known in earlier times, first developed their modern form in 1859, when the Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company (A&P) standardized the quality and price of all merchandise sold in its stores. Through central management, quantity purchasing, standardization of business methods, and limited individual service, the chains are often able to sell their goods well below prices charged by independent stores. Chain stores were once typified by five-and-ten-cent stores, but the most common forms now are discount superstores, bakeries, tobacco stores, drugstores, groceries, and department stores. (Hendrickson,1989).............
