Variety store

A variety store (also pound shop, dollar store, and other names) is a retail store that sells a wide range of inexpensive household goods.

Variety stores often have product lines including food and drink, personal hygiene products, small home and garden tools, office supplies, decorations, electronics, garden plants, toys, pet supplies, remaindered books, recorded media, and motor and bike consumables. Larger stores may sell frozen foods and fresh produce.

Variety stores arose in the early 20th century, with Woolworth's model to reduce store overheads by simplifying the duties of sales clerks. They may now be found all over the world.

A variety store often sells all goods at a single price, in which case it may be called a price-point retailer. The name of the store often reflects this, and in different markets it may be called a dollar store, pound shop, euro store and so on.

Economics

Some items are offered at a considerable discount over other retailers, whereas others are at much the same price point as conventional retail establishments. There are two ways variety stores make a profit:

100-yen shop

100-yen shops (百円ショップ, hyaku-en shoppu) are common Japanese shops in the vein of American dollar stores. Stocking a variety of items from clothing to stationery, housewares to food, each item is priced at precisely 100 yen. Some examples are Daiso, Seria and Cando. A recent variation of the 100-yen shops are 99-yen shops. Daiei also operates 88-yen stores. Some shops, such as SHOP99, specialize in certain items, such as groceries or natural goods, but this is less common than the variety store model. The current Japanese sales tax of 8% is also added, making a 100-yen purchase actually cost 108 yen.

One supporter of 100-yen shops is Hirotake Yano, the founder of Daiso Industries Co. Ltd., which runs "The Daiso" chain. The first store opened in 1991, and there are now around 1,300 stores throughout Japan. This number is increasing by around 40 stores per month. One of the largest 100-yen Shops is the Daiso in the Harajuku neighborhood of Tokyo. It spans four stories and over 10,500 square feet (980 m²). Larger still is the five story Daiso Giga Machida in front of Machida Station, Tokyo.

Bio

Bio may refer to:

Media and entertainment

Organizations

Places

Other

See also

Bio (Australian TV channel)

Bio (stylised as bio., formerly The Biography Channel) was an Australian general entertainment channel available on Australia's Foxtel, Austar and Optus Television pay television services.

In 2014, the channel rebranded with a new on-air look, logo and programming. In addition, the channel moved from channel 117 to channel 133.

On 1 November 2015, the channel closed, ceasing transmission at 4am, with selected titles moved to other Foxtel-owned channels.

Series Programming

See also

References

The Biography Channel (UK and Ireland)

The Biography Channel (also known as Bio.) was an English speaking general entertainment channel available in some European countries. The channel was launched in October 2000 by a joint-venture between A+E Networks and British Sky Broadcasting in the United Kingdom. It later became available in Ireland, the Netherlands and Belgium. The channel's programming, as the name suggests, is made up of the biographies of famous people, including bands, politicians and criminals. The channel ceased broadcasting at 6am on 4 November 2013 and was replaced by Lifetime.

Availability

In the United Kingdom the channel was available on Sky, Smallworld Cable and Virgin Media. In Ireland it was available on Sky and UPC Ireland. In Belgium it was available on Telenet.

Bio. HD

A high definition version launched on Sky on 5 November 2008, it was also available on UPC Ireland from October 2009. Bio. HD operated on a separate schedule to the standard definition channel and timeshared with CI HD. The channel closed on 3 July 2012 to allow CI HD to broadcast 24 hours a day.

Digital

Digital usually refers to something using digits, particularly binary digits.

Technology, the Internet, and computing

People

Digital (Joy Division song)

"Digital" is a song by the band Joy Division, originally released on the 1978 double 7" EP entitled A Factory Sample. It was later featured on the compilation albums Heart and Soul and Still.

The track was recorded in the band's first session with Martin Hannett as producer. Recording took place at Cargo Studios in Rochdale, Lancashire on 11 October 1978.

It was the last song ever performed by Joy Division, as it was the final song of the last gig recorded on 2nd May 1980 at Birmingham University, just before the suicide of the band's singer Ian Curtis. The entire concert was released on the Still album in 1981, and is also notable for including one of only three known recordings of Ceremony.

The song features in the films 24 Hour Party People and Control, where Tony Wilson sees the band play for the first time.

The song was used prominently by the BBC during their coverage of the 2005 Six Nations rugby tournament. Not only was it used in the 2005 Six Nations championships, but it is still used in the BBC's coverage of all international rugby. It is also used for Sky's coverage of the UEFA Champions League, as well as being used in the video game FIFA 06.