No frills
No-frills or no frills is the term used to describe any service or product for which the non-essential features (or 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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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, or buy shopping bags at a low fee i.e. 3p/5c.
- They work on the principle that in most supermarket, 20% of products on sale account for 80% of what people buy. So they only stock the most commonly sold products.
- They only take cash and debit cards.
- They only open at peak times i.e. 0900-1800 Monday to Saturday.
- They often do not serve branded items.
- The trolleys have a coin-operated slot, to ensure that the trolleys are kept on site.
- Staff (even the managers!) sometimes do the cleaning.
Examples of no-frills supermarkets are:
- Sav-A-Lot (United States).
- Lidl (Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, The Netherlands & United Kingdom).
- Aldi (Australia, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Ireland, Luxembourg, Spain, The Netherlands, USA, & United Kingdom).
- No-Frills (Canada).
- Norma (Germany).
- Bonus (Iceland).
- Netto (Denmark, Germany, United Kingdom, Sweden, Poland).
- Cassa (part of the K-Kauppa chain) (Finland).
- Alepa (part of the S-market chain) (Finland).
- Denner (Switzerland) used to be a no-frills retailer, but has started polishing its image.
No frills airlines
No-frills airlines are airlines that offers low fares but eliminate all unnecessary services. See low-cost carrier for further details.
No-frills holiday
No-frills holidays are holidays which, like no-frills airlines, do not include unnecessary services such as:
- in-flight meals
- travel representatives
- 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".
Examples of no-frills holiday companies are:
- Just, part of the Thomson/TUI group.
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).
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 Pony). As before, these models usually had spartan trim (low-grade cloth with rubber floor covering); less convenience items than more expensive models; lighter-weight components (such as aluminum on various engine, body and suspension components); and a manual transmission.
Most no-frills cars were 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 is the primary objective.