Relative Prices

Retailers may also be classified according to the cost they charge. Mostly retailers charge steady prices and offer customer service and normal-quality goods. Others offer higher-quality service and goods at higher prices.  The retailers that feature low prices are discount stores, "off-price" retailers, and catalogue showrooms:

Discount Stores:

A discount store sells standard merchandise at lower prices by selling higher volumeand accepting lower margins.  The  early  discount  stores  cut  cost  by  offering  few  services  and operating in warehouse as facilities in low-rent, heavily travelled districts. In current years, facing intense competition from other department stores and discounters, various discount retailers have "traded up." They have superior decor, added new lines and services, and opened built-up branches, which have led to higher prices and costs.

Off-Price Retailers

While the major discount stores traded up, a brand new wave of off-price retailers moved in to fill the low-price, high-volume gap. Customary discounters purchase at regular wholesale prices and to keep prices down accept lower margins. On the contrast, off-price retailers purchase at less-than-regular wholesale prices and charge consumers less than retail. Off-price retailers may be found in all of the areas, from clothing, food and electronics to no-frills banking and discount brokerages.

The three major types of off-price retailers are factory outlets, independents and warehouse clubs. Independent off-price retailers are either run and owned by entrepreneurs or are divisions of higher retail corporations. Although various type of off-price operations are run by smaller independents, most of large off-price retailer operations are owned by larger retail chains. Factory outlets- sometimes in factory outlet malls and value-retail centres, group together where dozens outlet stores offer prices as low as 50 percent below retail on a wide range of items. While outlet malls consists primarily of manufacturers' outlets, value-retail centres joint manufacturers' outlets with department store and off-price retail stores clearance outlets. In retailing Factory outlet malls have become one of the hottest growth areas

Now the malls are moving upscale, narrowing the gap amongst factory outlets and more traditional forms of retailers. Since the gap narrows, the discounts offered by outlets are getting smaller. Producer counter that they send last year's merchandise and seconds to the factory outlet malls, not the fresh merchandise that they supply to the department stores. The malls are also located faraway from urban areas, making travel to them harder. Still, the department stores are concerned regarding the growing number of shoppers eager to make weekend trips to stock up at substantial saving son branded merchandise.

Warehouse clubs (or membership warehouses, or wholesale clubs), operate in biggest, draftee, warehouse such as facilities and offer few frills. Customers themselves have to wrestle furniture, heavy appliances, and other big items to the checkout line. Such type of clubs makes no home deliveries and accepts no credit cards, yet they do offer rock-bottom prices.