Variety store

"Five and dime", "99 cents store", and "Dollar store" redirect here. For the cartoon, see Five and Dime. For the specific dollar store chain, see 99 Cents Only Stores. For the type of store in Cuba, see Dollar store (Cuba).
99 Cents Only Stores in Dallas, Texas
F. W. Woolworth and S. S. Kresge stores on Lackawanna Avenue, in downtown Scranton, Pennsylvania. The two stores were often found near each other in downtown areas.
An art gallery in Seattle's International District preserves the façade and some features of Higo Variety Store, an independent Japanese-American five and ten.

A variety store (also five and dime (historic), pound shop, or dollar store) is a retail store that sells general merchandise, such as apparel, auto parts, dry goods, toys, hardware, furniture, and a selection of groceries. It usually sells them at discounted prices, sometimes at one or several fixed price points, such as one dollar, or historically, five and ten cents. Variety stores, as a category, are different from general merchandise superstores, hypermarkets (such as those operated by Target and Walmart), warehouse clubs (such as Costco), grocery stores, or department stores.[1]

Dollar stores that sell food have been alleged to create food deserts: areas with limited access to affordable and healthy food. This is alleged to occur when dollar stores outcompete local businesses, and soon become some of the only grocery store–like businesses available in some areas.

  1. ^ "Dollar and Variety Stores". IBIS World Research. Retrieved 21 June 2020.