Wholesale Trade
Wholesaling is concerned with the activities of those persons or establishments which sell to retailers and other merchants, and/or to industrial institutional and commercial users but who don’t sell in significant amount to ultimate consumers. Wholesale trade is a form of trade in which goods are purchased and stored in large quantities and sold, in batches of a designated quantity, to re sellers, professional users or groups, but not to final consumers.
Wholesalers serve as an important link between manufacturers and retailers. They undertake various activities such as grading of products, packing into smaller lots, storage, transportation, promotion of goods, collection of market information, collection of small and scattered orders of retailers and distribution of supplies to them. They also relieve the retailers of maintaining large stock of articles and extend credit facilities to them. Most of the functions performed by wholesalers are such which cannot be eliminated. If there are no wholesalers, these functions shall have to be performed either by the manufacturers or the retailers.
