General store

The Brick Store in Bath, New Hampshire, the oldest continually operating general store in the United States.

In Australia, Canada and the United States, a general store is a retailer located in a small town or in a rural area. It usually has a broad selection of merchandise crammed into a relatively small space. People from the town and surrounding rural areas would come to purchase all their general goods, both in stock and special order from larger cities. In the United Kingdom, similar retailers tend to be called a village shop in rural areas or a corner shop in urban or suburban settings. General stores were the precursor of modern convenience stores, which have gained popularity around the world and still reflect the basic function of the general store, but they serve a larger audience. A few general stores still remain and function, but merely as novelty rather than necessity. The general store was dominated and pushed out by the competition of a more modernized version of itself, the convenience store.

History

General Stores are known for their variety of goods and services. In the United States, from colonial times through the nineteenth century, they constituted the typical retail unit; but in 1967 they made up less than 50,000 of the 1,763,324 retail units in the United States, and by the end of the century their numbers had been reduced still further. At the height of their popularity, general stores that were owned and operated by individuals or partners quickly followed peddlers into newly occupied regions. To survive in such limited markets, storekeepers sold great varieties of merchandise to customers, marketed crops taken in trade, operated local post offices, and provided credit and elementary banking services. Many did ultimately turn to banking, manufacturing, processing farm crops, or other specialized business services. General stores thus met an economic need at a vital stage of community development, and they also served as training schools for people who would ultimately concentrate on more specialized commercial enterprises.

Interior of a Moundville, Alabama general store, 1936.

The concept of the general store can be traced back to trading posts. These are places where the trade of goods takes place. The preferred travel route to a trading post, or between trading posts, is known as a trade route. Trading posts also were places for people to meet and exchange the "news of the world" or simply the news from their home country (many of the worlds trading posts were places to which people love to emigrate) in a time when even newspapers did not exist.

Trading posts in general were of great importance of the history of currency and money. The need arose to have something as a payment medium. Trade-tokens, and eventually coins, were extracted from precious metals like gold, silver and copper for the use of buying and selling goods in stead of simply exchanging or bartering. After the introduction of money, the first banks were founded in Genoa and Venice.

Typical trading post for trade with the Plains Indians.

European colonialism traces its roots to ancient Carthage. Originally a trading settlement of Phoenician colonists, Carthage grew into a vast economic and political power throughout the Mediterranean Sea, accumulating wealth and influence through its economic trading prowess. Many important cities started its history as trading posts: Venice, New York, Shanghai, Singapore, Hong Kong, Naples, Rotterdam, as examples.

In the United States in the early nineteenth century, trading posts used by Native Americans were licensed by the federal government and called factories. Tribes were to concede substantial territory to the United States in order to access the factories as happened at Fort Clark in the Treaty of Fort Clark in which the Osage Nation conceded most of Missouri in order to access the trading post.

Due to urbanization, the influx of suburban community development, and the relatively recent phenomenon of "big-box" chain stores and discount stores there are far fewer general stores in operation than there once were. During the first half of the twentieth century, general stores were displaced in many areas by many different types of specialized retailers. But from the 1960s through the 1990s, many small specialized retailers were in turn crushed by the so-called "category killers," which are "big-box" wholesale-type retailers large enough to carry the majority of best-selling goods in a specific category like sporting goods or office supplies.

Convenience stores evolved from general stores. With the rise of urbanization and franchising, general stores were losing their place. Convenience stores provided the same function as general stores but did it more effectively and with more choices. With an increase in automobile ownership, people were willing to travel further, and more people would make their way to drive-up grocery stores or to convenience stores that were situated at the gasoline station. General stores were not accustomed to large customer flows, but convenience stores gladly accepted more traffic.

General Store

Smiths Gully General Store in Smiths Gully, Australia.

General stores often sell staple food items such as milk and bread, and various household goods such as hardware and electrical supplies. General stores served the function of providing small communities with basic essentials. This allowed rural areas with little outside contact to maintain their solidarity and save on the expense of traveling to a far off area to buy necessary products. The social significance of the general store is its ability to maintain a community: the general store provided the basic needs of the people who resided near the store. It ensured the community that there is a place where products that may be harder to come by in rural areas can be found. It essentially brought a miniature version of the urban market to residents outside the urban areas.

The convenience inherent in the general store has been revived in the form of the modern convenience store, which can be seen as taking the general store concept to its largest possible implementation. For example, in the United Kingdom, Village shops have become increasingly rare due to the rise in car ownership and competition from supermarkets.

Bodeguita

Bartender at the famous La Bodeguita del Medio in Havana, Cuba. Hanging on the bar is a plate with a likeness of Ernest Hemingway and a framed, signed message written by him. He was a regular patron.

Bodeguita comes from the Spanish language meaning "small store" or "small warehouse." Traditionally, Bodeguita existed selling general merchandise, then they where replaced slowly by the chain store, the same way large US chains have practically eliminated the "mom and pop" store.

The Bodeguita existed primarily in Latin America, and in many small towns, they still exist like smaller versions of a general store. In the United States, there are some bars and restaurants that mainly serve Cuban food; they are modeled on the famous bar, "La Bodeguita del Medio," in Cuba. An internet "Bodeguita" offers hard to find products from Latin America in the United States.

Convenience Store

A convenience store is a small store or shop, uusally located alongside busy roads, or at gas/petrol stations. They can take the form of gas stations supplementing their income with retail outlets, or convenience stores adding gas to the list of goods that they offer. Railway stations also often have convenience stores. They are also frequently located in densely-populated urban neighborhoods.

Sometimes abbreviated to c-store, various types exist, for example: liquor stores, mini-markets (mini-marts), or party stores. Typically junk food (candy, ice-cream, soft drinks), lottery tickets, newspapers, and magazines are sold. Unless the outlet is a liquor store, the range of alcoholic beverages is likely to be limited (to beer and wine) or non-existent. Many stores carry cigarettes and other tobacco products. Varying degrees of food supplies are usually available, from household products, to prepackaged foods like sandwiches and frozen items. Automobile related items such as motor oil, maps and car kits may be sold. Often toiletries and other hygiene products are stocked, as well as pantyhose and contraceptives. Some stores also offer money orders and wire transfer services.

Some convenience stores offer prepared food service, with items such as chicken pieces, breakfast sandwiches, and many other food items. Often there is an in-store bakery – throughout Europe these now sell fresh French bread (or similar). A process of freezing part-baked bread allows easy shipment (often from France) and baking in-store. A delicatessen counter is also popular, offering custom-made sandwiches and baguettes. Some stores have a self-service microwave oven for heating purchased food. Racks offering fresh delivered doughnuts from local doughnut shops are common. Increasingly, fast food chains offer a counter in convenience stores. Instead of cooking food in the store, these counters offer a limited menu of items delivered several times a day from a local branch of the restaurant. Convenience stores may be combined with other services, such as a train station ticket counter or a post office counter.

Prices in a convenience store are typically higher than at a supermarket, mass merchandise store, or auto supply store (with the exception of the goods such as milk, soda, and fuel in which convenience stores traditionally do high volume and sometimes use as loss leaders). Although larger, newer convenience stores have quite a broad range of items, the selection is still limited compared to supermarkets, and in many stores only one or two choices are available.

In the United States, the stores will sometimes be the only stores and services near an interstate highway exit where drivers can buy any kind of food or drink for miles. Most of the profit margin from these stores comes from beer, liquor, and cigarettes. Although those three categories themselves usually yield lower margins per item, the amount of sales in the categories generally makes up for it. Profits per item are much higher on deli items (bags of ice, chicken, and so forth), but sales are generally lower. In some countries, convenience stores have longer shopping hours, some being open 24 hours.

North America

The first chain convenience store in the United States was opened in Dallas, Texas in 1927 by the Southland Ice Company. This eventually became nationwide 7-Eleven. Since that time many different convenience store brands have developed, and their stores may either be corporate-owned or franchises. The items offered for sale tend to be similar despite store brand, and almost always include milk, bread, soft drinks, cigarettes, coffee, candy bars, hot dogs, ice cream, pretzels, popcorn, beef jerky, maps, magazines, newspapers, small toys, car supplies, feminine hygiene products, and toiletries. Nearly all convenience stores also have an automated teller machine (ATM), though other banking services are usually not available. State lottery tickets are also available at these stores. Some convenience stores in the United States also sell gasoline. Policies regarding the sale of adult magazines vary, but generally larger chains (such as 7-Eleven and Casey's General Stores) do not sell these items, while smaller independent stores may do so.

Because the laws regarding the sale of alcoholic beverages vary from state to state in the United States, the availability of beer, wine, and liquor varies greatly. For example, while convenience stores in Alaska, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey cannot sell any kind of alcohol at all, stores in Nevada and California may sell alcoholic beverages of any sort, while stores in Virginia, Washington, or Oregon can sell beer and wine, but not liquor.

American convenience stores are many times a direct target of armed robbery. In some areas of the United States, it is not uncommon for clerks to work behind a bulletproof glass window, even during daylight hours. The main dangers are that almost all convenience stores have only one person working the night shift, most of the transactions are in cash, and easily resold merchandise, such as liquor, lottery tickets and cigarettes are on the premises. Most convenience stores have a cash drop slot into a time-delay safe so clerks may limit the amount of cash on hand. Many have installed security cameras to help prevent robberies and shoplifting.

Couche-tard convenience store in Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Convenience stores have also expanded in Canada. Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc., which operates Mac's Convenience Stores and Beckers Milk, is the largest convenience store chain in Canada. Another large chain is Quickie Mart. The world's largest convenience retailer, 7-Eleven, has about five hundred locations from British Columbia to Ontario. Marketing itself as "more than just a convenience store," there are over one hundred fifty Hasty Market locations throughout Ontario.

Convenience stores are also commonly referred to as "corner stores" or "variety stores" in some regions of Canada. In the mostly French-speaking province of Quebec, a convenience store is known as a "dépanneur," or "dep" for short. "Dépanneur" means literally "one who gets you out of a jam," reflecting the role of such stores in providing essential items at convenient locations often round the clock.

Asia

Lawson Terauchicho 1Chome Shop （Moriguchi, Osaka, Japan）

Although originating in the United States, convenience stores developed tremendously in Japan. 7-Eleven Japan, while struggling to localize their service in 1970s to 1980s, evolved its POS-based business. Ultimately, Seven & I Holdings Co., the parent company of 7-Eleven Japan, acquired 7-Eleven (US) from Southland Corporation in 1991. Japanese styled convenience stores called konbini also heavily influenced those stores in other Asian nations, such as Taiwan, Thailand, South Korea, and China. Convenience stores heavily rely on POS system. Customers' ages, gender, as well as tomorrow's weather forecast are important data. All orders are made on-line. As their store sizes are limited, they have to be very careful in choosing what brands to sell.

In many cases, several same-chained stores exist in neighboring area. This strategy, called dominant, makes distribution to each store cheaper. It also makes multiple distributions per a day possible. Generally, foods are delivered two to five times a day from factories to each store. Since products are delivered as needed, stores do not need large stock areas.

File:Conv.jpg

Convenience store in Tokyo, Japan

As of 2005, there were over forty three thousand convenience stores in Japan. Among them, 7-Eleven led the market with over eleven thousand stores, followed by Lawson and FamilyMart. Convenience stores in Japan are similar to those in the rest of the world with the addition of a few items, including rice and noodle meals, and the ability to pay for utilities and insurance at convenience store counters. Also, there are no lottery tickets or gasoline available in Japanese convenience stores, in contrast with most other countries.

With the highest 7-Eleven outlet density in the world, it is not an unusual scene seeing two 7-Eleven shops stand face to face in a same intersection in Taiwan. The distance between them might be less than 50 meters.

Taiwan boasts over eight thousand convenience stores in an area of over 35,000 km² and a population of over 23 million. It has the Asia Pacific’s and perhaps the world’s highest density of convenience stores per person. With close to four thousand 7-Eleven stores, Taiwan also has one of the world’s highest density of 7-Elevens per person. In Taipei, it is not unusual to see two 7-Elevens across the street or several of them within a few hundreds of meters of each other.

Because they are found everywhere, convenience stores in Taiwan provide services on behalf of financial institutions or government agencies such as collection of the city parking fee, utility bills, traffic violation fines, and credit card payments. It is estimated that eighty percent of urban household shoppers in Taiwan visit a convenience store each week

Major convenience stores in Singapore are 7-Eleven owned by Dairy Farm International Holdings and Cheers owned by NTUC Fairprice. Figures from the Singapore Department of Statistics showed that there are 338 7-Eleven stores and 91 Cheers outlets in 2004. Other convenience stores such as Myshop and One Plus appeared in 1983. Myshop belongs to a Japanese company and One Plus belongs to Emporium Holdings.

Various reasons unique to Singapore have been given for the great popularity of convenience stores there. Convenience stores sell a wide range of imported goods, whereas minimarts and provision shops sell local products with a limited range of non-Asian products. Convenience stores are situated within housing estates thus reducing consumers’ traveling time. Most families in Singapore are dual-income. Since both the husband and wife are working, there is greater need for convenience in shopping for daily necessities. The 24 hour opening policy allows convenience stores to reach out to a larger group of consumers. Firstly, the policy caters to the shopping needs of consumers who work shifts or have irregular working hours. Secondly, the policy caters to the increasing number of Singaporeans who are keeping late nights, reported to be 54 percent staying up past midnight in an economic review by Price Waterhouse Coopers (PWC) in 2005.

7-Eleven began the trend of convenience stores in Singapore when it opened its first store in 1982 by Jardine Matheson Group, under a Franchise Agreement with Southland Corporation of the United States. Dairy Farm International Holdings acquired the chain from Jardine Matheson Group in 1989.

The number of 7-Eleven outlets continued to increase in 1984 while other chains were having difficulty in expanding. One Plus chain was unable to expand due to the shortage of good sites. The original owners of the Myshop franchise, which had seven outlets, sold out to one of its suppliers due to a lack of demand.

However, in 1985, 7-Eleven faced difficulty in finding favorable locations and failed to meet its one-store-a-month target. The situation improved in 1986 with a new Housing Development Board (HDB) tendering system which allowed 7-Eleven to secure shops without having to bid too high a price.

7-Eleven stores are open twenty-four hours round, seven days a week, including Sundays and public holidays. This 24 hour policy was seen as the reason which gave 7-Eleven its edge over its competitors.

Examples

7-Eleven Under A Block of Flats

General Stores

• Mast General Store, established in 1883 in North Carolina.
• End of the Commons General Store, estalbished in 1840 in Ohio.
• Barnard General Store, established in 1832 in Vermont.
• Penns Store, traced back to 1845 in Kentucky.

Convenience Stores

• 7-Eleven, one of the largest chain of convenience stores in the world.
• Cumberland Farms, a convenience store chain serving mainly the eastern coast of the United States.
• Wawa, a convenience chain serving primarily the mid-Atlantic United States.
• QuikTrip, commonly abbreviated as "QT," serves the Midwestern and Southern United States.
• Centra, a convenience store chain found in Ireland.
• Narvesen, a convenience store found in Norway and Latvia.
• Daily Yamazaki, a convenience store found in Japan.
• FamilyMart, a convenience chain that can be found in Japan, Thailand, South Korea, North Korea, Taiwan, and China.

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Atherton, Lewis. 1971. The Frontier Merchant in Mid-America. University of Missouri Press. ISBN 978-0826205308.
• Fleming, R.B. 2002. General Stores of Canada. Lynx Images, Inc. ISBN 1894073290
• Trade Dimensions. 2007. Directory of Convenience Stores 2007: The Book of C-Store Market Facts. Trade Dimensions. ISBN 1891856650

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