The US market now offers many outlets, each seeking to fill customer needs in a specific way. A specialty shop, a type of conventional limited-line store, is usually small and has a distinct personality or shopping environment. Specialty shops focus on a narrow target market they know well with better service, knowledgeable salespeople, and a unique assortment. This combination generally supports higher prices for products. These are larger stores that are organized into many separate departments and offer many product lines.
Supermarkets are large stores specializing in groceries with self-service and wide assortments.
These retailers sell several lines out of a catalog and display showroom, with backup inventories. These are large, self-service stores with many departments that emphasize soft goods and staples, with low prices and lower margins to get faster turnover. Consumers pay a membership fee to shop in these large, bare-bone facilities that carry homogeneous shopping items. These stores are called category killers because it is so hard for less-specialized retailers to compete.