Lord Tree

What is the difference between Wholesale and retail?

With regards to consumables or any other product I always heard about Retail and wholesale, what are these things? For example if I buy a blank CD from a particular shop( presuming wholesale) it costs me much lesser than if I buy it from a shop near to my house. Does wholesale mean at lesser rate?

Public Comments

1. the difference is the markup the retailer has to charge to make a profit
2. Wholsalers normally sell directly to Retailers (stores) in large quantities and at reduced prices so that the Retailers can sell the items individually at a higher price in order to make a profit - which is why they're in business. Some Wholesalers will sell directly to the public but they normally have "warehouse" type facilities rather than nice "stores" to shop in and they normally don't sell in individual or small quantities.
3. wholesale means sold item quantity are larger then retail & retail wendor or shopkeeper buy it from wholesaler & sale to retail customer. due to larger quantity it's price are lesser.
4. when u buy one or two pieces from a shop it is retail. but when the shopekeep buys in bulk from some other place, to sell the goods, it is called wholesale.
5. In retail shops the shopkeeper sells a variety(different) of goods.Generally the price is higher compared to wholesale shops.In wholesale shops the shopkeeper sells a large quantity of a particular product at cheaper rates.
6. Some good answers already. But another difference in some states (like my state, Washington) is that wholesale transactions are not subject to sales tax (8.9%!). For instance, Costco is both a wholesaler and a retailer. They sell in large quantities to everyone at the same price. But if you have a business license and purchase the goods for re-sale, you don't pay sales tax, but must charge sales tax when you sell the merchandise.
7. Wholesale means selling larger quantities(normallly at lower prices). It is usually sold by traders. The products produced at company goes to traders(wholesellers) who further sell it to retailers(shopkeepers). The company sell it at lower price than the traders sell it to retailers and then retailers sell it on MRP(usually) to make their profit. buying in bulk also means wholeselling. take the example of such big stores like walmart. they buy very very very large quantities thats why they get them for very cheap and sell it at a bit lower price than MRP to make their profit.
8. No.. Wholesale is not the thing u r thinking of. U just cannot buy a product from a wholesale shop. I will try and explain the terms by giving an example. A factory produces items which it sells to a wholesale shop dealer. These items are of less cost. The retail shopkeeper ( that's next door shop) buys some amount of the items from the wholesale shop and then adds the service tax, octroi, etc and yes his profit in its cost and then sales it item to the customers.
9. No, wholeseller sale in large quantities to retailers. Regular people cannot buy from real wholesale businesses. Some retail businesses advertise themselves as having "wholesale prices" but this is just an advertising scheme - they mean to say that they have very low prices. See: http://www.google.com/custom?hl=en&client=pub-2977208566521185&cof=FORID%3A1%3BGL%3A1%3BLBGC%3A336699%3BLC%3A%230000ff%3BVLC%3A%23663399%3BGFNT%3A%230000ff%3BGIMP%3A%230000ff%3BDIV%3A%23336699%3B&domains=villagefull.blogspot.com&ie=ISO-8859-1&oe=ISO-8859-1&q=wholesale+what+is+&btnG=Search&sitesearch=
10. Wholesaler is the intermediary between the retailer and the manufacturer. While the retailer sells his product/s to the end user, the wholesaler sells his goods to the retailers. Thus a wholesaler is a vital cog in the supply chain. Typically the supply chain is - Manufacturer=>Stockist=>Wholesaler=>Retailer=>Consumer It varies slightly between each industry to industry but on a whole the above stands good. A typical departmental store retailer stores about 15000 items - he can't deal with all the manufacturer directly, so he goes through several wholesalers to buy the items he wants. Also a manufacturer cannot reach the thousands of retailers directly, they have to go through the local wholesaler to move their goods. National, international chains like Walmart, Tesco, Reliance buy-pass the typical supply chain and deal directly with the manufacturers to bargain (arm twist ?) on the prices .......