235 articles
Service Merchandise
Service Merchandise was a Nashville, Tennessee-based catalog showroom chain begun by the Zimmerman family in 1934; at its peak it sold over $4 billion a year before liquidating in 2002.
Sex shop
A sex shop, also called an adult bookstore or porn shop, is a retailer selling sexual products. Beate Uhse opened the first one in Flensburg, Germany, in 1962.
Shakespeare and Company (bookstore)
Shakespeare and Company is a celebrated English-language bookstore opposite Notre-Dame in Paris, opened by George Whitman in 1951 and renamed in 1964 for Sylvia Beach's original 1919 shop.
Sheetz–Wawa rivalry
The Sheetz–Wawa rivalry is the competition between family-owned Pennsylvania convenience store chains Sheetz, of Altoona, and Wawa, of Delaware County, whose once-separate territories increasingly overlap in central Pennsylvania and beyond.
SHEGLAM
SHEGLAM is a Chinese-origin color cosmetics brand founded in 2019 by Sylvia Fu inside Shein, selling $1 to $10 makeup online and in over 14,000 stores worldwide.
Shinsegae (신세계)
Shinsegae (신세계) is a South Korean department store operator whose lineage runs from the 1930 Mitsukoshi Gyeongseong store in Seoul, now part of Shinsegae Group with E-mart.
Shopping
Shopping is the activity of browsing and buying goods through physical stores, e-commerce sites, marketplaces, and social platforms; most shoppers now research in one channel and buy in another.
Singles' Day
Singles' Day, also called Double 11 (双十一), is a Chinese shopping festival held on 11 November that began as a 1990s student joke and became the world's largest retail event.
Sklavenitis (Σκλαβενίτης)
Sklavenitis (Σκλαβενίτης) is a Greek family-owned supermarket group, the country's largest by turnover, founded in 1954 in Athens and operating 545 stores across Greece and Cyprus.
SM Supermalls
SM Supermalls, also known as SM Malls, is the shopping mall chain of SM Prime Holdings, the Philippines' largest mall operator, running 89 Philippine malls and nine in China as of 2025.
Smyths
Smyths, trading as Smyths Toys Superstores, is an Irish family-owned chain of toy and games superstores with 311 outlets across Europe and record revenues of €2.53 billion in 2024.
Søstrene Grene
Søstrene Grene is a Danish family-owned retail chain founded in Aarhus in 1973, selling home interior, hobby, party, and food products at low prices under its own brands.
Specsavers
Specsavers is a Guernsey-headquartered optical retail and hearing care group founded by Doug and Mary Perkins in 1984, with more than 2,500 stores in 11 countries.
Sports Authority
Sports Authority was an American big-box sporting goods retailer that grew from one 1987 store into the country's largest full-line chain before a 2016 bankruptcy liquidated all its stores.
Sports Direct
Sports Direct, also known as SportsDirect.com, is a British discount sportswear retail brand founded by Mike Ashley in Maidenhead in 1982, now a fascia within Frasers Group plc.
Staples Inc.
Staples Inc., also known as Staples Incorporated, is an American office-supply superstore chain founded in 1986, now a B2B company owned by Sycamore Partners since 2017.
Subscription business model
The subscription business model charges customers on a recurring schedule for continued access to a product or service, typically until cancellation, and is used by SaaS, media, and subscription box firms.
Sunday shopping
Sunday shopping, also called Sunday trading, is retail opening on Sundays, restricted by laws like Germany's Ladenschlussgesetz and Poland's 2018 ban, though Scotland and Sweden have none.
Sweet Martha's Cookies
Sweet Martha's Cookie Jar is a Minnesota cookie company founded in 1979 by Martha Rossini Olson, the top-grossing food vendor at the Minnesota State Fair.
Tapestry, Inc.
Tapestry, Inc. is an American accessible-luxury accessories company whose brands are Coach and Kate Spade, with fiscal 2025 net sales of $7,010.7 million across 1,371 stores.
Target Corporation
Target Corporation, formerly the Dayton Hudson Corporation, is an American general-merchandise discount retailer operating 1,978 stores with $106.6 billion in net sales in fiscal 2024.
Temu (marketplace)
Temu, also known as Temu.com, is an online marketplace launched in Boston in September 2022 by the Chinese e-commerce group Pinduoduo, selling mostly unbranded goods at extra-low prices shipped from China.
Tesco Ireland
Tesco Ireland is the operating arm of British retail group Tesco plc, running about 190 stores and holding a 24% market share, making it the country's second-largest grocer.
TGJones
TGJones is a British high street stationery, books, and general merchandise chain formed in 2025 from WHSmith's 464 high street stores, sold to Modella Capital.
That Aquarium
That Aquarium (那间鱼店) is a Singapore aquarium retail chain founded 29 May 2002, with four stores in Yishun, Changi, Clementi, and Tampines selling fish, plants, and equipment; distinct from That Aquarium Place in Spring, Texas.
The Beer Store
The Beer Store, also known as Brewers Retail, is a privately owned chain of beer stores in Ontario, Canada, operated by three major brewing companies.
The Body Shop
The Body Shop is a British cosmetics and skincare retailer founded by Anita Roddick in Brighton in 1976, known for cruelty-free products and later owned by L'Oréal, Natura, and Aurelius.
The Brick
The Brick is a Canadian big-box retailer of furniture, mattresses, appliances, and home electronics, founded in Edmonton in 1971 by Bill Comrie and owned by Leon's Furniture since 2013.
Tiffany & Co.
Tiffany & Co. is an American luxury jewelry house founded in New York City in 1837, known for engagement rings, robin's-egg-blue packaging, and the 1886 Tiffany Setting.
Topshop
Topshop is a British womenswear fashion brand founded in 1964, a defining high-street retailer of the 1990s and 2000s that collapsed with Arcadia in 2020.