Final answer:
Kids.com operates as an independent off-price retailer because it buys clothing at less-than-regular wholesale prices and sells them for less than retail, different from the traditional models of specialty, department, full-service retailers, or category killers.
Step-by-step explanation:
Kids.com purchases clothing from brand name manufacturers at less-than-regular wholesale prices and then sells them for less than retail. This business model does not fit specialty retailers, departmental retailers, full-service retailers, or category killers. Instead, Kids.com is an example of a independent off-price retailer, which offers various brand name products at discounted prices. This type of retailing contrasts with models such as the monopolistically competitive market of the Mall of America, which features a wide array of competing retailers and brands.
Furthermore, the history of retailing has seen considerable shifts, from the personal bargaining of family-run shops and peddlers to the fixed-price, wide variety seen in department stores and mail-order catalogs like those of Sears. These advances expanded consumer access to a variety of products, including those from mail-order houses like L.L. Bean, which offers a money-back guarantee to address the issue of imperfect information that customers face when they cannot directly experience the products before purchase.