Wholesale & Retail Services
Description OES Code:00016
When consumers purchase goods, they usually buy them from a retail establishment such as a supermarket, department store, gas station, or cybershop. When retail establishments, other businesses, governments, or institutions—such as universities or hospitals—need to purchase goods for resale, equipment, office supplies, or any other items, they normally buy them from wholesale trade establishments.

Wholesale and retail sales and services include such diverse things as the marketing of a mansion or the sale of a manicure. Anyone with a thing or a service to sell is a part of this industry. So are the people who plan sales and figure out how much to buy on behalf of a company or manufacturer. Many people in sales work for themselves or as agents receiving a commission. Some represent companies by selling door-to-door. In fact, this form of sales is as old as civilization, and is still a great opportunity for someone that wants to have a flexible schedule.

Categories Within This Industry
Wholesale trade firms are essential to the economy. They buy large lots of goods, usually from manufacturers, and sell them in smaller quantities to businesses, governments, other wholesalers, or institutional customers. They simplify product, payment, and information flows by acting as intermediaries between the manufacturer and the final customer. They store goods that neither manufacturers nor retailers can store until consumers require them. In so doing, they fill several roles in the economy. They provide businesses a nearby source of goods made by many different manufacturers; they provide manufacturers with a manageable number of customers, while allowing their products to reach a large number of users; and they allow manufacturers, businesses, institutions, and governments to devote minimal time and resources to transactions by taking on some sales and marketing functions—such as customer service, sales contact, order processing, and technical support—that manufacturers otherwise would have to perform.

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Categories Within This Industry (Cont'd)
There are three types of wholesale trade firms. Wholesaler-distributors, sometimes known as merchant wholesalers, purchase goods from manufacturers in large quantities, store them, and then sell them to retailers, manufacturers, other wholesalers, or other customers. They are by far the most common type of wholesaling business. Wholesalers are companies that resell products to another intermediary; distributors resell to the final customer.

Sales branches and offices of manufacturing operations are local offices of manufacturers. They market their own products and coordinate distribution directly from the producer to the buyer. They rarely handle stock during a sale.

Wholesale agents or brokers coordinate the sale of goods from one party to another—usually from manufacturers to retailers. This category includes auction companies and commission merchants. They seldom take title to or handle goods in the process.