The typical chain store resembles the department store in that it attempts to eliminate the middleman. Unlike the department store, however, it deals in one general line, and has many different sites. The greatest advances in this respect have been in such lines as restaurants and drug stores. The large variety-store system also buys direct from manufacturers and retails through its stores directly to the consumer. Its success has rested on the fact that regular stores have never given sufficient attention to what they are likely to consider "trifling trade." This trade for any one store, such as a hardware store or a plumbing shop, is in fact of slight importance. Yet when gathered together it mounts into millions of dollars annually.