When man started to cultivate and harvest the land, he would occasionally find himself with a surplus of goods. Once the needs of his family and local community were met, he would attempt to trade his goods for different goods produced elsewhere.
Thus markets were formed. These early efforts to swap goods developed into more formal gatherings. When a producer who had a surplus could not find another producer with suitable products to swap, he may have allowed others to owe him goods. Thus early credit terms would have been developed. This would have led to symbolic representations of such debts in the form of valuable items (such as gemstones or beads), and eventually money. Over time, producers would have seen value in deliberately over-producing in order to profit from selling these goods. Merchants would also have begun to appear. They would travel from village to village, purchasing these goods and selling them for a profit. Over time, both producers and merchants would regularly take their goods to one selling place in the center of the community. Thus, regular markets appeared. Eventually, markets would become permanent fixtures i.e. shops. These shops along with the logistics required to get the goods to them were, the start of the Retail Trade.
[...] Selection filtering that uses facial or bodily attributes may be considered unlawful in some jurisdictions where it could be considered as de facto discrimination on grounds of race, gender or even age ) Merchandising The way that products are displayed or “merchandised” - can have a significant affect on retail sales. For example, sales of fruit and vegetables tend to increase when displays are full and bold. In self-service stores, staple products tend to be merchandised strategically so that customers looking for these items are required to walk past higher profit items such as luxury goods. [...]
[...] Many of these businesses became more structured and formalized, leading to the retail chains that we see today. HOW RETAIL DEVELOPED? Peddlers and Producers The Retail Trade is rooted in two groups, the peddlers and producers. Peddlers tended to be opportunistic in their choice of stock and customer. They would purchase any goods that they thought they could sell for a profit. Producers were interested in selling goods that they had produced. General Store This division continues to this day with some shops specializing in specific areas, reflecting their origins as outlets for producers (such as Pacific Concord of Hong Kong), and others providing a broad mix, known as General Store (such as Casey's in the Midwest of the U.S.A.). [...]
[...] Where there is a choice of retail outlets selling similar goods, customers will usually make efforts to visit all or most of them in order to get the best deal. Payment Generally, goods are exchanged for cash, although some societies may barter and swap goods without money being involved or may use other goods as payment, supplemented with cash as necessary ) Consumer The consumer is the user of goods and is at the end of the retail supply chain. [...]
[...] From 25 operational malls in 2003, the country is expecting to have over 220 malls by 2006 with a cumulative estimated space of 40 million sq ft and over 600 malls by 2010, with as much as 100 million sq ft retail space. Pro-active steps taken by the government permitting use of land for commercial development in various cities, including Mumbai and Delhi, have also contributed to increased availability of retail space in the country. Availability of retail space is expected to increase further whenever property funds and investment trusts are permitted, which will help create a secondary market for real estate in the country. [...]
[...] Another disadvantage is that where a shop's customers come to the shop, door-to-door salespeople spend a lot of valuable time and often transport costs visiting their customers - and there is no guarantee of a sale ) Retail Chains Types of Retail Chains A ) Non-Franchised Chain Structure Each store in a chain (or multiple store) is called a branch. The original store, or the most important store, may double as the head office. Very large chains may have a completely separate building as their head office. [...]
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