what is wholesale trade 
wholesale trade is an economic indicator that measures the value in u s dollars of all merchant wholesalers sales and inventories wholesale trade is one component of business sales and inventories only those firms that sell to governments institutions and other businesses are considered part of wholesale trade understanding wholesale tradeaccording to the bureau of labor statistics bls the wholesale trade sector includes the sale of merchandise that is outputted from manufacturing agriculture mining publishing and some other information industries wholesaling is considered to be an intermediate step in the overall distribution of merchandise and goods a wholesaler sells or organizes the transaction for the resale of goods to other wholesalers or retailers they might also arrange the sale or purchase of raw materials supplies for production or durable consumer goods typically wholesalers operate from a warehouse or office facility and sell goods to other businesses such transactions are rarely done through walk in business as the operation is not established nor advertised for that type of activity traditionally wholesalers do not market their services to the general public they conduct business with vendors or retailers who are part of the overall supply and sales chain while wholesale trade is separate from consumer sales transactions wholesalers are part of the channel that feeds consumer trade the relationships between wholesalers and their customers may be long standing with new orders and follow ups coming in as those retailers and vendors need more merchandise the united states census bureau furnishes monthly and annual wholesale trade reports 