Fund Supermarkets
See: Financial Supermarkets.
Fund supermarkets are like the Piggly Wiggly of mutual funds: they’re a one-stop shop where customers can look over and evaluate all different types of mutual funds and decide which ones they want. Then, when we’re done making our selections, we only have to deal with one investment platform, even if our fund choices are varied. Plus, in the same way that we only get one receipt from Piggly Wiggly no matter how many different food items we buy, fund supermarkets allow us to just get one statement with all our fund info on it.
If we’re looking for something really specific—the Sichuan peppercorn of the mutual fund world—then we might have to go somewhere other than a fund supermarket. They just might not have that specific item. But by and large, fund supermarkets are popular among investors because they have such a nice variety of products…and because they’ve added so much convenience to our mutual fund investment experience.