No-frills or no frills is a term used to describe any service or product for which the non-essential features have been removed to keep the price low. The use of the term "frills In sewing and dressmaking, a ruffle, frill, or furbelow is a strip of fabric, lace or ribbon tightly gathered or pleated on one edge and applied to a garment, bedding, or other textile as a form of trimming. A ruffle without gathers or pleats may also be made by cutting a curved strip of fabric and applying the inner or shorter edge to the garment" refers to a style of fabric decoration. Something offered to customers for no additional charge may be designated as a "frill" - for example, free drinks on airline An airline provides air transport services for passengers or freight, generally with a recognized operating certificate or license. Airlines lease or own their aircraft with which to supply these services and may form partnerships or alliances with other airlines for mutual benefit journeys, or a radio installed in a rental car.[1] No-frills businesses operate on the principle that by removing luxurious additions, customers may be offered lower prices.[2] Frills or tassles on a carpet are not necessary but make the rug look fancy. Frills on any goods are not necessary but are a luxury. No frills means to live without certain luxuries.
Common products and services for which no-frills brands exist include airlines An airline provides air transport services for passengers or freight, generally with a recognized operating certificate or license. Airlines lease or own their aircraft with which to supply these services and may form partnerships or alliances with other airlines for mutual benefit, supermarkets A supermarket, a form of grocery store, is a self-service store offering a wide variety of food and household merchandise, organized into departments. It is larger in size and has a wider selection than a traditional grocery store and it is smaller than a hypermarket or superstore, vacations Tourism is travel for recreational, leisure or business purposes. The World Tourism Organization defines tourists as people who "travel to and stay in places outside their usual environment for more than twenty-four hours and not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes not related to the exercise of an activity and automobiles An automobile, motor car or car is a wheeled motor vehicle used for transporting passengers, which also carries its own engine or motor. Most definitions of the term specify that automobiles are designed to run primarily on roads, to have seating for one to eight people, to typically have four wheels, and to be constructed principally for the.
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No-frills airlines
Interior of a no-frills aircraft Main article: Low-cost carrier A low-cost carrier or low-cost airline is an airline that generally has lower fares. To make up for revenue lost in decreased ticket sales, the airline may charge for extras like food, priority boarding, seat allocating, and baggage etcNo-frills airlines are airlines that offer low fares but eliminate all unnecessary services, such as complimentary drinks and business-class seating. A no-frills airline will typically cut overheads In business, overhead, overhead cost or overhead expense refers to an ongoing expense of operating a business . The term overhead is usually used to group expenses that are necessary to the continued functioning of the business, but cannot be immediately associated with the products/services being offered (e.g. do not directly generate profits) by flying from more remote airports (with lower access charges) and by using one type of aircraft.[2] Aircraft cabin interiors may be fitted out with minimum comforts, dispensing with luxuries such as seat-back video screens, reclining seats and blinds; some airlines choose to carry advertising inside the cabin to increase revenue.[3]
Some airlines also extend the definition of "frills" to include standard services and conveniences; for example, a no-frills airline may charge passengers an additional fee for carrying luggage,[4] using the airport check-in Check-in is the process of announcing your arrival at a hotel, airport or sea port desk,[5] using wheelchairs A wheelchair is a chair with wheels, designed to be a replacement for walking. The device comes in variations where it's propelled by motors or by the seated occupant turning the rear wheels by hand. Often there are handles behind the seat for someone else to do the pushing. Wheelchairs are used by people for whom walking is difficult or[6] or even for using the toilet A toilet is a plumbing fixture primarily intended for the disposal of human excreta: urine and fecal matter. Additionally, vomit and menstrual waste are sometimes disposed of in toilets in some societies. The word toilet describes the fixture and, especially in British English, the room containing the fixture. In American English, the latter is.[7]
No-frills holiday
No-frills holidays (vacations in American English American English is a set of dialects of the English language used mostly in the United States. Approximately two thirds of native speakers of English live in the United States) are holidays which, like no-frills airlines, do not include unnecessary services such as:
- in-flight meals
- travel representatives A union steward or shop steward is an official within the organizational hierarchy of a labor union. Rank-and-file members of the union hold this position voluntarily while maintaining their role as an employee of the firm. As a result, the Union Steward becomes a significant link and conduit of information between the union leadership and rank-
- transfers between the airport and the hotel
- entertainment
- luxury accommodation
Such holidays usually have a simple fare scheme, in which fares typically increase during peak seasons, and also as more people sign up for the holiday. This rewards early reservations, and is known as "yield management Yield management, also known as revenue management, is the process of understanding, anticipating and influencing consumer behavior in order to maximize revenue or profits from a fixed, perishable resource".
Examples of no-frills holiday companies are:
- Just, part of the Thomson/TUI TUI AG (ISIN: DE000TUAG000) is a German based company. Until 2001 it was an industrial and transportation company named Preussag AG, which in the mid-1990s decided to reinvent itself as a tourism, shipping, and logistics company. It sold off many of its industrial concerns and purchased several major travel and transportation firms group
- Qbic Low Cost Design Hotels
No-frills supermarkets
The aisles of a no-frills supermarket in GermanyNo-frills supermarkets are recognisable by their store design and business model.
- They do not decorate aisles or even fill shelves. Instead, pallets of the products on offer are simply parked alongside the aisles, and customers picking up products will gradually empty them. When all items on a pallet have been sold, they are replaced. Prices are given on plain labels.
- Queueing Queue areas are places in which people in line wait for goods or services. Examples include checking out groceries or other goods that have been collected in a self service shop, in a shop without self service, at an ATM, at a ticket desk, a city bus, or in a taxi stand at the checkout is relatively common, as staffing levels reflect average demand rather than peak demand. At actual peak times, customers often have to wait.
- Shopping bags Shopping bags are medium sized bags, typically around 10-20 litres in volume (though much larger versions exist, especially for non-grocery shopping), that are often used by grocery shoppers to carry home their purchases. They can be single-use (disposable), used for other purposes (storage, can liners, etc) or designed as reusable shopping bags are charged for, as they are seen as a frill. Thus many shoppers put their shopping in the old cardboard boxes Cardboard boxes are industrially prefabricated boxes, primarily used for packaging goods and materials. Specialists in industry seldom use the term cardboard because it does not denote a specific material that the products came in, put it directly in their trolleys A shopping cart is a cart supplied by a shop, especially a supermarket, for use by customers inside the shop for transport of merchandise to the check-out counter during shopping, and often to the customer's car after paying as well. Often, customers are allowed to leave the carts in the parking lot, and store personnel return the carts to the, re use old bags, or buy shopping bags at a low fee e.g. 3p A penny is a coin or a type of currency (pl. pence) used in several English-speaking countries. It is often the smallest denomination within a currency system/5¢ In many national currencies, the cent is a monetary unit that equals 1⁄100 of the basic monetary unit. The word also refers to the coin which is worth one cent. Some low cost stores (such as Kwik Save Kwik Save was a discount supermarket chain in the United Kingdom until 2007. Its stores were small to medium sized high street supermarkets, mainly located in areas with below average incomes. It struggled to make profits in its final years as superstore operators such as Tesco and Sainsbury's introduced their own budget brands, and other in the United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland[note 7] is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of the island of Ireland, and many small islands. Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK with a land) have abandoned this policy due to complaints from customers.
- They work on the principle that in most supermarkets, 20% of products on sale account for 80% of what people buy. Therefore, they only stock the most commonly sold products.
- They only take cash Cash refers to money in the physical form of currency, such as banknotes and coins. The word has various claims for sources. Some claim that the word comes from the modern French word caisse, which means "money box", coming from Provençal word caissa, from the Italian cassa, from the Latin capsa which means "box". In the 18th and debit cards A debit card is a plastic card that provides an alternative payment method to cash when making purchases. Functionally, it can be called an electronic cheque, as the funds are withdrawn directly from either the bank account, or from the remaining balance on the card. In some cases, the cards are designed exclusively for use on the Internet, and so (although this has changed in many stores over the years due to the high usage of credit cards).
- They only open at peak times i.e. 9 am to 6 pm Monday to Saturday, although a few stores are 24hrs.
- They often do not serve branded A brand is the identity of a specific product, service, or business[page needed]. A brand can take many forms, including a name, sign, symbol, color combination or slogan. The word brand began simply as a way to tell one person's cattle from another by means of a hot iron stamp. A legally protected brand name is called a trademark. The word brand items. Instead, they sell generic Generic brands of consumer products are distinguished by the absence of a brand name. It is often inaccurate to describe these products as "lacking a brand name", as they usually are branded, albeit with either the brand of the store in which they are sold or a lesser-known brand name which may not be aggressively advertised to the or private label Private label products or services are typically those manufactured or provided by one company for offer under another company's brand. Private label goods and services are available in a wide range of industries from food to cosmetics to web hosting. They are often positioned as lower cost alternatives to regional, national or international products.
- The shopping carts A shopping cart is a cart supplied by a shop, especially a supermarket, for use by customers inside the shop for transport of merchandise to the check-out counter during shopping, and often to the customer's car after paying as well. Often, customers are allowed to leave the carts in the parking lot, and store personnel return the carts to the have a coin-operated slot, to ensure that the trolleys are kept on site.
- They usually lack butcher A butcher is a person who may slaughter animals, dress their flesh, sell their meat or any combination of these three tasks. They may prepare standard cuts of meat, poultry, fish and shellfish for sale in retail or wholesale food establishments. A butcher may be employed by supermarkets, grocery stores, butcher shops and fish markets or may be, bakery A bakery is an establishment which produces or/and sells baked goods from an oven such as: bread, pies, bagels, pastries, cakes and cupcakes, biscuits, cookies, crackers, muffins, rolls, pretzels, doughnuts, and other items prepared by bakers. Some retail bakeries and many new bakeries are also cafés, serving coffee and tea to customers who wish and deli counters.
- Staff (or even the managers) sometimes do the cleaning.
- Must bag your own groceries
- No in-store background music, although some use Satellite Radio A satellite radio or subscription radio is a digital radio signal that is broadcast by a communications satellite, which covers a much wider geographical range than terrestrial radio signals.
Examples of no-frills supermarkets are:
- Bottom Dollar Food (United States ^ b. English is the de facto language of American government and the sole language spoken at home by 80% of Americans age five and older. Spanish is the second most commonly spoken language).
- Save-A-Lot Save-A-Lot is a discount supermarket chain headquartered in Earth City, Missouri, near St. Louis The subsidiary of Supervalu comprises approximately 1,200 stores in the United States with over $4 billion in annual sales.[citation needed] (United States ^ b. English is the de facto language of American government and the sole language spoken at home by 80% of Americans age five and older. Spanish is the second most commonly spoken language).
- Lidl Lidl is a German discount supermarket chain that operates about 8,000 stores worldwide. The company's full name is Lidl Stiftung & Co. KG. It belongs to the holding company Schwarz, which also owns the store chains Handelshof and Kaufland. Lidl is the chief competitor of the similar German discount chain Aldi (Austria Austria /ˈɒstriə/ or /ˈɔːstriə/ (German: Österreich (help·info)), officially the Republic of Austria (German: Republik Österreich), is a landlocked country of roughly 8.3 million people in Central Europe. It borders Germany and the Czech Republic to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and, Belgium Belgium (pronounced /ˈbɛldʒəm/ , BEL-jəm), officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a state in northwest Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, as well as those of several other major international organizations such as NATO. Belgium covers an area of 30,528 square kilometres (11,787 sq mi), and it, Croatia Croatia (pronounced /kroʊˈeɪʃə/ , kroe-AY-shə; Croatian: Hrvatska pronounced [xř̩ʋaːtskaː]), officially the Republic of Croatia (Croatian: Republika Hrvatska listen (help·info)), is a country in Central Europe and Southeastern Europe at the crossroads of the Pannonian Plain, the Balkans, and the Adriatic Sea. Its capital and largest, Czech Republic The Czech Republic (pronounced /ˈtʃɛk/ chek; Czech: Česká republika, pronounced [ˈtʃɛskaː ˈrɛpuˌblɪka] ( listen), short form Česko [ˈtʃɛskɔ]) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country borders Poland to the northeast, Germany to the west and northwest, Austria to the south and Slovakia to the east. The Czech Republic, Denmark Denmark is a constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary system of government. Denmark has a state-level government and local governments in 98 municipalities. Denmark has been a member of the European Union since 1973, although it has not joined the Eurozone. Denmark is a founding member of NATO and the OECD. Denmark is also a member of the, Finland Finland (pronounced /ˈfɪnlənd/ ), officially the Republic of Finland Finnish: Suomi; Swedish: Finland (help·info), is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden on the west, Norway on the north and Russia on the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland, France France is a founding member state of the European Union and is the largest one by area. France has been a major power for several centuries with strong cultural, economic, military and political influence in Europe and in the world. During the 17th and 18th centuries, France colonised great parts of North America; during the 19th and early 20th, Germany A region named Germania, inhabited by several Germanic peoples, has been known and documented before AD 100. Beginning in the 10th century, German territories formed a central part of the Holy Roman Empire, which lasted until 1806. During the 16th century, northern Germany became the centre of the Protestant Reformation. As a modern nation-state,, Greece Greece (English: /ˈɡriːs/ ; Greek: Ελλάδα, Elláda, IPA: /eˈlaða/ ( listen); Ancient Greek: Ἑλλάς, Hellás, IPA: /helːás/), also known as Hellas and officially the Hellenic Republic (Ελληνική Δημοκρατία, Ellīnikī́ Dīmokratía, IPA: /eliniˈci ðimokraˈtia/), is a country in southeastern Europe, situated on, Hungary Hungary /ˈhʌŋɡəri/ (Hungarian: Magyarország [ˈmɒɟɒrorsaːɡ] ( listen)), officially the Republic of Hungary (Magyar Köztársaság listen (help·info)), is a landlocked country in the Carpathian Basin in Central Europe, bordered by Austria, Slovakia, Ukraine, Romania, Serbia, Croatia, and Slovenia. Its capital is Budapest. Hungary is a, Ireland Ireland (pronounced [ˈaɾlənd],; Irish: Éire, pronounced [ˈeːɾʲə] ( listen); Ulster Scots: Airlann) is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island in the world. It lies to the northwest of continental Europe and is surrounded by hundreds of islands and islets. To the east of Ireland is Great Britain, separated from, Italy Italy (pronounced /ˈɪtəli/ ; Italian: Italia [iˈtaːlja]), officially the Italian Republic (Italian: Repubblica italiana), is a country located partly on the European Continent and partly on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares its northern, Alpine, Norway After World War II, Norway experienced rapid economic growth, with the first two decades due to the Norwegian shipping and merchant marine and domestic industrialization, and from the early 1970s, a result of exploiting large oil and natural gas deposits that had been discovered in the North Sea and the Norwegian Sea. Today, Norway ranks as the, Poland Poland /ˈpəʊlənd/ (Polish: Polska), officially the Republic of Poland (Rzeczpospolita Polska), is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north. The total area of, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, The Netherlands & United Kingdom).
- Aldi (Australia, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Luxembourg, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, The Netherlands, USA, & United Kingdom).
- Franklins (also sells the "No Frills" generic product range) (Australia)
- Food Basics, a subsidiary of A&P (USA)
- Food Basics, a subsidiary of A&P Canada, formerly owned by A&P, but sold to Metro Inc. in 2005 (Canada)
- Price Chopper, a subsidiary of Sobeys (Canada)
- Maxi, a subsidiary of Loblaw Companies (Canada)
- No-Frills, a subsidiary of Loblaw Companies (Canada).
- Biedronka, a subsidiary of Jerónimo Martins (Poland)
- Bónus (Iceland).
- Netto (Denmark, France, Germany, United Kingdom, Sweden, Poland, Lanzarote)
- REMA 1000 (Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Slovakia).
- Cassa, a subsidiary of the K-Kauppa chain (Finland).
- Alepa, a subsidiary of the S-market chain) (Finland).
- Denner (Switzerland) used to be a no-frills retailer, but has started polishing its image.
- Pak'n Save (New Zealand)
- Dia* (Spain, Greece, Turkey, Brazil, China, Argentina, Portugal)
- Minipreço* (Portugal)
- Ed* (France)
- Usave, a subsidiary of the Shoprite chain (South Africa, Angola, Ghana, Malawi, Swaziland and Namibia)
- Dia, Minipreço and Ed are all part of the Dia Group, which is in turn part of the Carrefour Group.
- Wilkinson (UK)
- WinCo Foods, an employee owned supermarket in Washington, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, and California in the USA which offers low prices on generic and namebrand products.
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