No frills

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No-frills or no frills is the term used to describe any service or product for which the non-essential features (called frills) have been removed. An example is free drinks on airline journeys. Common products and services for which no-frills brands exist include airlines, supermarkets, holidays and automobiles. They operate on the principle that if you take away the frills, you get lower prices.

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[edit] No-frills supermarkets

No-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 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 are charged for, as they are seen as a frill. Thus many shoppers put their shopping in the old cardboard boxes that the products came in, put it directly in their trolleys, re use old bags, or buy shopping bags at a low fee e.g. 3p/5c. Some low cost stores (such as Kwik Save in the United Kingdom) have aborted 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 and debit cards (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.
  • They often do not serve branded items. Instead, they sell generic or private label products.
  • The shopping carts have a coin-operated slot, to ensure that the trolleys are kept on site.
  • They usually lack butcher, bakery and deli counters.
  • Staff (or even the managers) sometimes do the cleaning.
  • Sub-par customer service and inexperienced managers that run the store

Examples of no-frills supermarkets are:

[edit] No frills airlines

No-frills airlines are airlines that offer low fares but eliminate all unnecessary services.

See low-cost carrier for further details.

[edit] No-frills holiday

No-frills holidays (vacations in American English) are holidays which, like no-frills airlines, do not include unnecessary services such as:

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".

Examples of no-frills holiday companies are:

  • Just, part of the Thomson/TUI group.

[edit] No-frills automobiles

In the United States, a no-frills automobile model typically has a minimum of convenience equipment, a less powerful engine and spartan trim.

Frequently, these models represent the lowest-priced version of a larger selection of more lavishly equipped and trimmed models of that same car. Often, the less-expensive models are sold with a manual transmission and have a shorter options list.

One of the more famous no-frills cars was the Studebaker Scotsman, which was on sale from 1957 to 1958. These cars came with a low-grade cloth-trimmed front seat and contained only a driver's side sunvisor, no door armrests and painted trim (in lieu of chrome trim); even routine convenience items, such as a cigarette lighter and dome light were deleted. Buyers were allowed to buy only a low-cost heater and a few other trim and convenience items from a short options list; a radio was not offered as an option on this model (unlike Studebaker's more expensive models).

Other examples of American no-frills cars include the Chevrolet Biscayne, Ford Custom 500, and Plymouth Fury I.

During the gasoline crisis of the 1970s, many American automakers began offering no-frills models on their compact lines of cars (such as the Ford Pinto MPG, and Plymouth Duster "Feather Duster"). As before, these models usually had spartan trim (vinyl seats with rubber floor covering); fewer convenience items than the more expensive models (i.e. no cigarette lighter); lighter-weight components (such as aluminum on various engine, body and suspension components); and a manual transmission.

Most no-frills cars are sold to fleet buyers (such as taxi companies or police departments), although anyone can buy one if price, fuel economy, and basic low-cost transportation are the primary objectives.

The concept of a no-frills car in the European market has only just been beginning with the Dacia Logan and the Volkswagen Fox.

[edit] Other no-frills companies

Other examples of no-frills companies include cinemas (easyCinema), bus companies (easyBus, Megabus), food ranges (Tesco Value, Wal-mart/Asda SmartPrice), mobile phone companies (easyMobile, Telmore) and hotels (easyHotel, Hotel Formule 1, Holiday Inn, Motel 6).

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