A category killer is a retailer, often a big-box store, that specializes in and carries a large product assortment of a given category.[1]: 109–111 Through their wide merchandise selections, low pricing, deep supply, large buying power, and market penetration, they have a comparative advantage over other, smaller retailers, and can greatly reduce the sales of rival retailers within that category, in the area[2] and beyond it.[1]
Once typically found in power centers, increasingly they are found in or adjacent to (as an outbuilding of) repurposed traditional malls.
Large category killer stores are mostly in mid- and large-sized cities, because a large population is required to be feasible.[1]: 33
Impact
Local merchants in cities with category killers "may suffer a substantial reduction in sales," and stores in a wider radius can be affected by the draw.[1]: 109–111 Between 1983 and 1993, Iowans spent 31% less in hardware stores, translating to a loss of 37% in the same time to those stores as a result of category killer stores.[1]: 67–68, 89
Canadian retailers
Examples of retailers considered to be category killers
Sporting goods stores that are category killers range in footprint from 10,000 to 40,000 square feet (930 to 3,720 m2).[1]: 37 Home Depot carries 30,000 items in 100,000-square-foot (9,300 m2) stores.[4]: 148
Examples of retailers considered to be category killers[1]: 4
^ abcdefghStone, Kenneth E. (1995). Competing With the Retail Giants: How to Survive in the New Retail Landscape. New York: Wiley. ISBN0-471-05440-2. OCLC31901604.
^ abKraft, Manfred; Mantrala, Murali K. (2010). Retailing in the 21st Century: Current and Future Trends (2nd ed.). Berlin: Springer-Verlag. pp. 127, 133. ISBN978-3-540-72003-4. OCLC567361303.
^ abMichman, Ronald D.; Greco, Alan James (1995). Retailing Triumphs and Blunders: Victims of Competition in the New Age of Marketing Management. Alan James Greco. Westport, Conn.: Quorum Books. ISBN978-1-4294-7347-7. OCLC232160862.
