Bethany Works for a Luggage Retailer

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Examlex · Accepted Answer

The Answer is Even within a particular product category, the variety and assortment of products carried by retailers can be very different.Variety is the number of product categories offered by a retailer and is referred to as breadth of merchandise.Assortment is the number of different product items within a product category and is referred to as the depth of merchandise.
It is possible, for example, to purchase a briefcase from a department store, warehouse club or superstore, or luggage store.Wilson's Leather Stores is a specialty clothing and accessories retailer specializing in leather products.Its primary product lines include women and men's clothing as well as travel and business-related leather merchandise.The company carries an extensive line of leather briefcases.Costco, the successful warehouse club, also carries briefcases.However, Wilson's Leather has less variety across product lines but more assortment within a few product lines focused on leather products than Costco, which has a large variety of product categories but very little assortment within each product category.Despite the fact they both carry briefcases, target market differences as well distinct variations in the products offered suggest the two companies do not compete directly (see Exhibit 16.5).

Bethany Works for a Luggage Retailer

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