Consumer electronics or home electronics are electronic equipment intended for everyday use, typically in private homes. Consumer electronics include devices used for entertainment, communications and recreation. These products are usually referred to as black goods due to many products being housed in black or dark casings. This term is used to distinguish them from "white goods" which are meant for housekeeping tasks, such as washing machines and refrigerators, although nowadays, these would be considered black goods, some of these being connected to the Internet. In British English, they are often called brown goods by producers and sellers. In the 2010s, this distinction is absent in large big box consumer electronics stores, which sell entertainment, communication and home office devices, light fixtures and appliances, including the bathroom type.
A crowd of shoppers in the flatscreen TV section of the big box consumer electronics store Best Buy
A Radio Shack consumer electronics store in a mall
A radio and TV store in 1961
A typical CoCo 3 computer system, from the 1980s
A big-box store is a physically large retail establishment, usually part of a chain of stores. The term sometimes also refers, by extension, to the company that operates the store. The term "big-box" references the typical appearance of buildings occupied by such stores.
Walmart, a general merchandise big-box store
Barnes & Noble, a specialty big-box store
A big-box shopping center in Paramus, New Jersey, that includes an IKEA (not pictured), a Christmas Tree Shops store, and a Bed Bath & Beyond store. It is located across from Westfield Garden State Plaza shopping mall.
Interior of Mitre 10 MEGA, a big-box hardware store in Australia