Discount stores are retail establishments that sell products at prices lower than the standard or List price. Discounters rely on bulk purchasing and efficient Logistics to keep down costs.
Types
Discount stores can be categorized into several types, which vary by country; the following examples focus on the United States.
Hypermarkets (superstores)
Discount
such as
Walmart or Target sell general merchandise in a
big-box store; many have a full grocery selection and are thus
, though that term is not generally used in North America.
In the 1960s and 1970s the term "discount department store" was used, and chains such as
Kmart,
Zodys and TG&Y billed themselves as such.
The term "discount department store" or "off-price department store" is sometimes applied to big-box discount retailers of apparel and home goods, such as
Ross Stores,
Marshalls,
TJ Maxx, and Burlington.
Category killers
So-called
category killer stores, specialize in one type of merchandise and sell it in
. Examples include:
Warehouse clubs
When membership is required, discount superstores are known as
warehouse clubs, and often require purchases of larger sizes or quantities of goods than a regular superstore. The main national chains, both of which have operations outside the U.S., are
Costco and Sam's Club.
Discount grocery store
Major discount
grocery store retail chains in the U.S. include
Aldi,
Lidl,
Save-A-Lot and
Grocery Outlet.
As of 2025,
Aldi operates around 6,600 stores and
Lidl operates around 12,600 stores worldwide.
Variety stores, dollar stores, five and dimes
In the United States,
Variety store are commonly known as dollar stores—such as
Dollar General,
Family Dollar and
Dollar Tree,—which typically sell goods at a single or low fixed price point. During the early and mid-twentieth century they were commonly known as "five and dimes" or "dime stores". Stores of the main chains, Woolworth's, J. J. Newberry and
Kmart, lined the shopping streets of U.S. downtowns and suburbs, and starting in the 1950s they also opened branches in shopping malls. These chains originally sold items for 5, 10 or 25 cents, but many later moved to a model with flexible price points, with a variety of general merchandise at discounted prices, in formats smaller than today's discount superstores.
History
United States
During the period from the 1950s to the late 1980s, discount stores were more popular than the average
supermarket or
department store in the United States. There were hundreds of discount stores in operation, with their most successful period occurring during the mid-1960s in the U.S. with discount store chains such as
Kmart, Ames,
Two Guys, Gibson's Discount Center, E. J. Korvette,
Mammoth Mart, Fisher's Big Wheel,
Zayre,
Bradlees,
Caldor,
Jamesway, Howard Brothers Discount Stores, Kuhn's-Big K (sold to
Walmart in 1981), TG&Y and
Woolco (closed in 1983, part sold to Wal-Mart) among others.
Walmart, Kmart, and Target all opened their first locations in 1962. Kmart was a venture of S. S. Kresge Company that was a major operator of dime stores. Other retail companies branched out into the discount store business around that time as adjuncts to their older store concepts. As examples, Woolworth opened a Woolco chain (also in 1962); Montgomery Ward opened Jefferson Ward; Chicago-based Jewel-Osco launched Turn Style; and Central Indiana-based L. S. Ayres created Ayr-Way. J. C. Penney opened discount stores called Treasure Island or The Treasury; Sheboygan, Wisconsin based H. C. Prange Co. opened a chain of discount stores called Prange Way, and Atlanta-based Rich's owned discount stores called Richway.
During the late 1970s and the 1980s, these chains typically were either shut down or sold to a larger competitor. Kmart and Target themselves are examples of adjuncts, although their growth prompted their respective parent companies to abandon their older concepts (the S. S. Kresge five and dime store disappeared, while the Dayton-Hudson Corporation eventually divested itself of its department store holdings and renamed itself Target Corporation).
In the United States, discount stores had 42% of the overall retail market share in 1987; in 2010, they had 87%.["America's top stores." 'Consumer Reports, June 2010, p. 17.]
Many of the major discounters now operate "Hypermarket", which adds a full-service grocery store to the traditional format. The Meijer chain in the Midwest consists entirely of supercenters, while Wal-Mart and Target have focused on the format as of the 1990s as a key to their continued growth. Although discount stores and department stores have different retailing goals and different markets, a recent development in retailing is the "discount department store", such as Sears Essentials, which is a combination of the Kmart and Sears formats, after the companies' merger as Sears Holdings Corporation.
Canada
Woolworths entered Canada in the 1920s, the stores were converted to the
Foot Locker,
Champs Sports and other stores in 1994.
Kmart, a competitor to Woolworth's entered the Canadian market in 1929.
Zellers was founded in 1931, and was acquired by the Hudson's Bay Company in 1978. Giant Tiger opened its first store in Ottawa in 1961, modeled on Woolworths. Winners was founded in 1982 in Toronto, and sells off-price brand clothing. Costco entered Canada in 1986. In 1990, the American chain Walmart purchased the Woolco chain in Canada and converted the stores into Walmarts. Dollarama was founded in Quebec in 1992. In 1998, Zellers bought out Kmart Canada, taking over its stores.
In 2011, Marshalls, owned by the American TJX Companies, entered Canada, and Zellers sold most of its stores to Target. Target Canada filed for bankruptcy in 2015, selling its stores to Walmart, Lowe's and Canadian Tire.
In 2016, the Hudson's Bay Company started opening Saks Off 5th locations to sell off-price brands. American off-price chain Nordstrom Rack opened its first Canadian location in Vaughan Mills in 2018.
-
Food Basics discount supermarket.
-
No frills discount supermarket.
Multinationals
By country
Outside the United States and Canada, the main discount store chains listed by country are as follows:
Australia
Albania
Argentina
Austria
Angola
Belgium
Botswana
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Brazil
Bulgaria
Chile
China
Colombia
-
Tiendas D1
-
ARA (Jerónimo Martins)
-
Dollarcity
-
Ísimo, formerly Justo Y Bueno
Costa Rica
Croatia
Cyprus
Czechia
Denmark
Greece
Guatemala
-
Super del Barrio
-
Despensa Familiar
-
Dollar City
-
Econo Super
Ecuador
Egypt
El Salvador
Estonia
Eswatini
Finland
Germany
Major chains of discount supermarkets in Germany are
Aldi,
Lidl, Netto Marken-Discount, Netto (store), Norma and Penny.
Honduras
Latvia
Hungary
Ireland
Kenya
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Italy
Italy has numerous discount supermarkets, including
Lidl and
EuroSpin, the chains with the largest number of stores, and
Aldi,
Discount Dial, Dpiù,
MD Discount, Penny,
Todis and Tuodì.
Japan
Japan has numerous discount stores, including
Costco,
Daiso, Don Quijote (store) and The Price (owned by
Ito Yokado).
Malaysia
Malta
Malawi
Mexico
Lesotho
Morocco
Mozambique
Namibia
Netherlands
Action, Euroland, Solow,
Blokker Holding and Zeeman. In addition, the German discount supermarkets
Lidl and
Aldi both operate in the country.
New Zealand
North Macedonia
-
KAM Market
-
Market Kipper
-
Stokomak
-
Lidi
Norway
Nicaragua
Peru
Philippines
-
Dali Everyday Grocery
-
O!Save
Poland
Discount supermarkets cover about 30% of food sales in Poland. Main chains include
Biedronka,
Lidl, Netto, and
Aldi.
Portugal
-
Aldi
-
Lidl
-
Minipreço / Dia (supermarket chain)
-
Plus sold to Jerónimo Martins
Netto converted into Intermarché
Panama
Romania
Russia
Former
Serbia
Slovakia
Slovenia
South Africa
-
Wellsave
-
Devland Hyper
-
Foodeez
-
Looters Slashed price warehouse
-
Usave
-
Boxer Superstores
-
Deals Superstores
Spain
Sweden
Switzerland
Turkey
-
A101
-
BİM
-
File owned by BİM
-
Hakmar Express owned by Hakmar
-
Şok owned by Yıldız Holding
Ukraine
United Kingdom
Venezuela
-
Tiendas Ovejita
-
Tiendas Daka
See also
Further reading
-
Nelson, Walter Henry, The Great Discount Delusion, New York: D. McKay, 1965.
