What Are the Subcategories of Retail Trade?

Retail is that sector of the economy focusing on the direct sales of already manufactured goods to the public. For the sake of economic thinking, the different categories and subcategories of the economy are separated out, defined and analyzed. Since the economy is a large and complex concept, it needs to be broken down into different sectors. Retail is significant because this is the real interface between the consumer and the economic system as a whole. The concept of a consumer's wants and needs comes face to face with prices, or the expression of supply and demand.

Retail is that sector of the economy focusing on the direct sales of already manufactured goods to the public. For the sake of economic thinking, the different categories and subcategories of the economy are separated out, defined and analyzed. Since the economy is a large and complex concept, it needs to be broken down into different sectors. Retail is significant because this is the real interface between the consumer and the economic system as a whole. The concept of a consumer's wants and needs comes face to face with prices, or the expression of supply and demand.

Motor vehicles is one major subcategory. This includes both the sales and maintenance of cars and trucks. Another is gasoline and fuel products, that have their own subcategory. Because fuel is so foundational to modern economies --especially oil prices -- gasoline stations and fuel costs in general have their own category.

Furniture, according to the Census Bureau, is its own subcategory, and this includes all home furnishings. This also includes all aspects of home improvement such as hardware stores and all retail outlets that deal primarily with home related projects and maintenance. The fourth category is electronics, which is a very large category taking into considerations all forms of computers, music players and supportive and complimentary retail outlets. This does not include games. Games, sports, hobby and book stores are a fifth subcategory of retail trade and all three areas of retail are considered as a single specialty.

Sixth, food and grocery stores are a category of retail that deals both with buying food that needs to be prepared at home, and food that is already prepared such as in a restaurant or a school cafeteria. This of course, also includes drinks such as alcohol served in bars or sodas that come out of a machine.

Clothing is a separate category, dealing with all retail outlets that specialize in apparel, including shoe stores and anything related to the direct sales of textile products. Health and personal care -- so called health and beauty aids -- have their own category, as does “general merchandise,” which would include all retail outlets that do not have a specific specialty and are large enough to offer a bit of everything.