Warehouse Clubs/Superstores

The warehouse club and superstore industry is comprised of extensive stores that predominantly sell a typical product line of grocery items and merchandise products, such as food, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics and personal care items, health products, apparel, games and toys, hobby items, and sometimes furniture and appliances. The warehouse club and superstore industry is a portion of the retail trade market.

Warehouse clubs require that consumers may a membership fee in order to shop within the store. Once a member, warehouse clubs provide consumers with a broad array of products for discounted costs. Supercenters are essentially expansive department stores, though they retail groceries as well as merchandise. Supercenters do not require shoppers to have memberships.

Warehouse clubs and supercenters usually purchase their merchandise from manufacturers and wholesalers. They then offer the products for sale to the general public through their warehouse and supercenter locations. Many of the products bought at warehouse clubs and superstore are used by other wholesalers and smaller retail businesses for their own companies, but a certain amount of the goods in this industry are purchase by individual consumer for their own personal uses.

Warehouse clubs and supercenters are in constant competition with mass merchandisers, drug stores, department stores, wholesalers, grocery stores, and specialty retail stores. There are some retailers that operate warehouse stores, superstores, and discount stores. Demand in this industry is brought about by demographics and small business growth. Large warehouse clubs and superstore chains are predominant in this market because of their economies of scale in financing, purchasing, and distributing. Independent companies rely on the sale volume, purchasing at low prices, and effective distribution practices to generate profit.