Definition: Variety store

Category: Distributive trade

A variety store is a retail outlet run on a self-service or pre-selection basis whose various departments offer a relatively broad but not very deep range of everyday consumer goods at low prices and with a reduced level of service. Outlets of this type used to be known in the USA, for example, as dime stores. Food departments may constitute a supermarket within the variety store, depending on the floor space they occupy and their turnover.