Retail Glossary

About the Glossary

For those of you who are unfamiliar with retail, here is a glossary of terms that people in the retail community like to use. Terms will be added here as needed.
Last Updated: May 1st, 2020

Thanks to the following contributors

Retail Retell
DZ Retail
(Copyright contributors)
 
Banners: Different names that a company operates under. Examples: Loblaws operates under various banners, including Loblaws, Zehrs, Nofrills.

Decor Package: The signage, paint colours and overall look and feel of a store. There can be multiple types of decor package.

Goseneck signs: Sub-Signage in aisles identifying where products are located.

Aisle Markers: Signage saying what things are located in each aisle.

Dead Mall: A mall with very high vacancy rates.

Click and collect: A service that some stores offer where you order things on their website and pick it up at their store. Examples: PC Express, Walmart Pickup.

Bankruptcy: A legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts.

Retail Apocalypse: The closing of numerous North American brick-and-mortar retail stores, especially those of large chains, starting around 2010 and continuing onward.

Brick-and-Mortar Store: A physical retail establishment.

The following contributions were made by Flickr user Retail Retell.

Layout (Floorplan): The orientation of departments, aisles, actionways, etc. inside stores.

Actionway (Action Alley, Racetrack): The wide, open paths or walkways that set a designated course for customers to follow throughout a store’s salesfloor. Frequently are lined with pallet drops featuring new or sale items.

Salesfloor: The portion of a store’s interior dedicated to sales; that is, everywhere merchandise is placed and a customer is allowed to shop. A store consists of the salesfloor and “the back,” which is home to the stockroom, manager’s offices, employee break room, etc.

Remodel: An update or refresh given to a store or restaurant. Typically involves any number of the following: a change in décor or other cosmetic elements, new equipment or fixtures, a reset of the store layout, new lighting or flooring, exterior modifications, etc.

Signage Swap: A light remodel that involves only changing out one décor package for another, often cheaply, and leaving most everything else alone.

Reset: A change in a store’s layout wherein merchandise, or entire departments, is/are moved from one location within the salesfloor to a different location. May or may not occur simultaneously with a remodel.

Fixture: Some physical object, used inside a store, which either holds merchandise or is used by employees to stock merchandise (e.g. clothing racks, gondolas, quads, display tables, refrigerated or frozen cases, Z-racks…).

Gondolas (Shelving Units): The shelves that hold products in stores. Typically come in standard widths and lengths, with adjustable shelf heights.

Endcaps: The ends of aisles, usually used to promote new or sale merchandise.

Coffin Coolers: Frozen or refrigerated cases that are low to the ground and usually (but not always) have open-faced tops, not unlike a coffin.

Drop Ceiling: A ceiling with ceiling tiles.

Open Truss Ceiling: A ceiling without ceiling tiles.

Vaulted Ceiling: A ceiling that peaks in the middle and slopes downward from there out toward the edges.

Support Column: Structural floor-to-ceiling poles inside buildings.

Department (Section): An area within a store (e.g. apparel department, electronics section, etc.).

Service Counter/Department: A department within a store that provides some sort of service; for example, a store’s deli, bakery, butcher, or pharmacy.

Box: A term sometimes used to describe a buildout for a department within a store that consists of four walls. For example, a standalone pharmacy department enclosed within four walls might be called a “pharmacy box.”

Store-Within-A-Store: Either a literal instance of one business operating a location within some other business (e.g. Sephora inside JCPenney), or a store department designed so uniquely as to appear separate from all the other departments (like a store of its own; usually in relation to name-brand apparel departments).

Grand Aisle: In a grocery store, the area one encounters soon after entering, generally along one of the perimeter walls and home to the produce department, the deli and bakery counters, and many displays. Characterized by a wider, more open floorplan than can be found in the rest of the store.

Center Store: The aisles and departments that comprise the bulk of a store’s salesfloor, away from the perimeter walls.

Wayfinder/Directory Sign: A sign typically placed at actionway intersections that lists department names alongside arrows marking the directions in which those departments are located.

Local Flair: Any example of a store or restaurant paying homage to its community within its décor, often with historical images.

Greenhouse Windows (Solarium): A separate “room” of sorts added onto the front of a restaurant, with curved glass windows serving as the entire wall and ceiling (adjoining to an existing structure). May also be found at stores (e.g. Super Kmart cafés), but this is less common.

Vestibule: The area between a store’s exterior-facing doors and the second set of doors which lead to the interior; in many stores, often used to hold shopping carts.

Gable: A vaulted element on a store’s exterior, typically added for architectural emphasis and designed to house a vestibule below.

Façade: A store’s exterior, specifically the portions that are architecturally distinctive or unique and whose design easily identifies the retailer.

Storefront: May be used to describe a store’s physical exterior, or in some cases to refer to the number of locations a store has (“ABC Mart has over 1,000 storefronts nationwide”). Storefronts are typically distinctive in design and apply both to traditional buildings and stores within indoor shopping malls.

Paint-Out: A paint job given to a store or restaurant, particularly those with distinctive architecture or paint schemes, after it moves out in an attempt to disguise the building’s past. Some situations may also involve removing some of the distinctive architectural elements, if possible.

Labelscar: The faint trace left behind by a previous sign after it has been removed and/or replaced (the clearer, the better!).

Relocation: When a store moves from one building to another building in the same town or some other nearby area. Typically, if it’s a true relocation, the old store closes one night and the new store opens the next morning (or sometime soon thereafter) with all the same employees; but on occasion, a retailer will open a new store in a more desirable location and use that new store as an excuse to close the old one, sometimes even several months after the fact (creating a “de facto” relocation).

Expansion: When a store adds additional square footage to its existing building. May or may not occur simultaneously with, or result in, a larger-scale storewide remodel.

Soft Opening: When a store opens a few days prior to its grand opening festivities, usually so employees can have a few days’ experience before said festivities.

Anchor Store: In a retail development, the store or stores that serve as the biggest draw for the development; typically well-known big box or department stores with considerable square footage, such as Walmart or Macy’s.

Lifestyle Center: An upscale outdoor mall consisting not only of retail but also of restaurants and other amenities such as movie theaters or fitness centers; usually also incorporate a common style of architecture, fancier than would be found at a more typical mall or shopping complex.

Power Center: A large shopping center consisting primarily of big box stores and “category killers,” or stores that focus specifically on one type of merchandise (such as Toys R Us or Office Depot).

Low-Rise/Monument Sign: A sign for a store or shopping center placed near an access road for said store or shopping center. Low-rise or monument signs are relatively short in height, and are typically installed due to local sign ordinances disallowing taller signs.

High-Rise/Pylon Signs: A sign for a store or shopping center placed near an access road for said store or shopping center. High-rise or pylon signs are medium or tall in height, with the tallest ones typically located along interstates or highways for maximum visibility.

Liquidation: A store closing sale.

Zombie Retailer: A retailer that “comes back from the dead,” usually revived from bankruptcy by a new owner and often, but not always, repurposed for an online store that may or may not correspond with the retailer’s initial brick-and-mortar life. May also be revived as a brand to be sold in other stores, rather than having any storefronts of its own. Examples include Montgomery Ward and The Limited.

Chain: A retail operation that has two or more locations. Chains can be local, regional, national, or international, where each stage generally corresponds to a progressively larger store count.

Franchise: A business model wherein a retail chain (the “franchisor”) licenses its operation to a local businessperson (the “franchisee”). Franchises are operated locally, but with varying degrees of corporate oversight, and franchisees must remit franchise fees and other payments to the franchisor on a regular basis. Franchises are most commonly used in the fast food industry, but may also be found in any retail situation (e.g. Merle Norman stores).

Tenant: The occupant of a building.

Backfill (Retenant, Relet): To find a new tenant for a building after its previous occupant has either closed or moved elsewhere.

Front End: A term used to describe the portion of a store, usually along the front interior wall, where the checkouts, customer service counter, and other in-store services (such as a bank, optical department, or food tenant) are located.