Merchant Wholesalers
Separately owned businesses that take title to the merchandise they handle. In different type of trades they are called distributors, jobbers or mill supply houses. Include full-service wholesalers and restricted- service wholesalers:
Provide a full line of services: maintaining a sales force, carrying stock, providing management assistance, making deliveries and offering credit. There are two kinds:
Wholesale merchants: Sell primarily to retailers and provide a full range of services. Common- merchandise wholesalers carry numerous merchandise lines, whilst general-line wholesalers carry one or two lines in larger depth. Specialty wholesalers specialize in carrying just part of a line. (Examples include health food wholesalers, seafood wholesalers.)
Industrial distributors: Sell to manufacturers instead of retailers. Provide several services, like offering credit, carrying stock and providing delivery. May carry a broad range of merchandise, a specialty line or a general line.
- Limited-service wholesalers
Offer lesser services than full-service wholesalers. Limited-service wholesalers are of numerous types: Cash-and-carry wholesalers: Carry a limited line of quick-moving goods and sell to small retailers for cash. In general do not deliver. Example include a small fish store retailer can drive to a cash-and- carry fish wholesaler, buy fish for cash, and bring the merchandise back to the store.
Truck wholesalers (or truck jobbers): Perform mainly a selling and delivery function. Carry a limited line of semi perishable merchandise (e.g. milk, bread, snack foods), which they sell for cash as they make their rounds to small groceries, supermarkets, restaurants, factory cafeterias, hospitals and hotels.
Drop shippers: Do not carry inventory or handle the product. On retaining an order, they choose a manufacturer, who ships the merchandise to the customer directly. The drop shipper supposes title and risk from the time the order is accepted to its delivery to the customer. They operate in bulkiness industries, for example lumber, coal and heavy equipment.
Rack jobbers: Serve grocery and drug retailers, mainly in non food items. They send delivery trucks to stores, while the delivery people set up paperbacks, toys, hardware items, health and beauty aids, or other items. They worth the goods, remain them fresh, set up point-of-purchase displays, and have inventory records. Rack jobbers attain title to the goods and bill the retailers just for the goods sold to consumers.
Producers' cooperatives: Owned by farmer members and assemble farm manufacture to sell in local markets. The co-op's profits are distributed to members at the end of the year. They frequently attempt to improve product quality and promote a co-op brand name, for instance Sunkist oranges, Sun Maid raisins or Diamond walnuts.
Mail-order wholesalers: Transmit catalos to industrial, retail and institutional customers featuring cosmetics, jewellery, specialty foods, and other small items. Maintain no outside sales force. Mainly customers are businesses in small outlying areas. Orders are filled and sent by truck, mail or other transportation.