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Wholesale trade may be defined as selling in large quantities for reselling it to consumers. It involves selling goods/merchandize to varied groups/persons such as retailers or other professional business users or to other related subordinated services. The scope and type of wholesale trade industry varies to a great extent. The wholesale trade firms purchase goods so as to covert them into some other finished products. In other words the products bought under whole sale category forms an integral part of some other manufactured goods. For e.g. in the manufacturing of a car products like engine, Body, tyres, paint are used. Wholesalers may sell a narrow range of products or a wide variety of products.
Wholesale trade firms are much required component of an economy. They constitute an intermediary between the manufactures and the targeted customer by simplifying basic acts like product, payment and flow of information. They also fill goods that are of interest neither to the manufacturer nor to the retailer and thus fill several places in economy. They are in a way a help to manufacturer as well as the customer by sufficing their ways to attain their target.
Types of Wholesalers
Merchant wholesalers: these types of wholesalers retain the ownership of the goods they sell in other words whatever they buy or sell they do it in their account. It also comprises of individual sales offices and sales branches. They deal in following type of goods-
- Durable Goods These goods have a life span of about three years or more for e.g. Furniture, construction materials.
- Non Durable Goods These have life span of less than three years such as paper, chemical etc.
Wholesale Electronic Markets agents and brokers: They generally work on a commission basis awnd thus does not take the ownership of the products they are selling. It includes Internet or Electronic Data Interchange.
The Physical demands and working conditions of wholesale trade jobs may vary from moving stock and heavy equipment to using computer controlled storage and retrieval systems Wholesale trade comprised of over 6 million wage and salary jobs in 2004.Although some large wholesale firms employs thousands of employees but this industry is generally characterized by small establishments The education required for the wholesale industry generally is not beyond high school but may vary up to a graduate degree. The technological advancement is rapidly altering this industry. Due to this reason a significant number of wholesale firms give importance to Training aspect also.
The job in the industry that involves non supervision nature averages to about $700 a week. Earnings may vary greatly from the skilled to the unskilled labor.
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