Features of Departmental Stores
The features of Departmental Stores are as follows:
1. Excellent Services: A modern department store may include all amenities such as a restaurant, a travel and information bureau, a phone booth, restrooms, and so on. As a result, they strive to provide the excellent service possible to a higher class of customers for whom price is secondary.
2. Centralised Locations: These departmental stores are generally located in a central location in the heart of a city, where they can serve a large number of customers.
3. Corporate Status: As these stores are so large, they are usually organised as a joint stock company operated by a board of directors. A managing director is in charge, who is assisted by a general manager and several department heads.
4. Elimination of Middlemen: A department store performs both retailing and warehousing functions. They buy directly from manufacturers and have their own warehouses. As a result, they contribute to the elimination of undesirable middlemen between producers and customers.
5. Centralised Purchasing: They have centralised purchasing procedures. All purchases in a department store are made centrally by the store’s purchase department, whereas sales are decentralised in various departments.
6. Variety of Goods: These stores maintain a large variety of goods and services and are able to meet all the requirements of the customers.