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Definition | Data from the Economic Census | Annual, quarterly, monthly data | ||||
Employers | Nonemployers | Compare to '97 | States | Products, Size, etc. |
Indus- try Detail |
NAICS code |
Description |
Estab- lish- ments |
Sales
($1,000) |
Annual payroll ($1,000) |
Paid employees |
|
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
42 | Wholesale trade | 435,521 | 4,634,755,112 | 259,653,080 | 5,878,405 | ||
423 | Durable goods merchant wholesalers | 260,445 | 2,171,265,591 | 157,156,665 | 3,356,985 | ||
424 | Nondurable goods merchant wholesalers | 142,661 | 1,980,329,666 | 92,564,262 | 2,272,823 | ||
425 | Wholesale electronic markets and agents and brokers | 32,415 | 483,159,855 | 9,932,153 | 248,597 |
NAICS code |
NAICS Title |
All firms | Nonemployers | Employers | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Establish- ments |
Receipts ($1,000) | Establishments | Receipts |
Establish- ments |
Sales ($1,000) | |||||
Number | % of all | $1,000 | % of all | |||||||
42 | Wholesale trade | 799,302 | 4,664,777,063 | 363,781 | 45.5 | 30,021,951 | 0.6 | 435,521 | 4,634,755,112 | |
423 | Durable goods merchant wholesalers | 454,362 | 2,188,221,869 | 193,917 | 42.7 | 16,956,278 | 0.8 | 260,445 | 2,171,265,591 | |
424 | Nondurable goods merchant wholesalers | 288,507 | 1,992,346,677 | 145,846 | 50.6 | 12,017,011 | 0.6 | 142,661 | 1,980,329,666 | |
425 | Wholesale electronic markets and agents and brokers | 56,433 | 484,208,517 | 24,018 | 42.6 | 1,048,662 | 0.2 | 32,415 | 483,159,855 |
The Wholesale Trade sector comprises establishments engaged in wholesaling merchandise, generally without transformation, and rendering services incidental to the sale of merchandise. The merchandise described in this sector includes the outputs of agriculture, mining, manufacturing, and certain information industries, such as publishing.
The wholesaling process is an intermediate step in the distribution of merchandise. Wholesalers are organized to sell or arrange the purchase or sale of (a) goods for resale (i.e., goods sold to other wholesalers or retailers), (b) capital or durable nonconsumer goods, and (c) raw and intermediate materials and supplies used in production.
Wholesalers sell merchandise to other businesses and normally operate from a warehouse or office. These warehouses and offices are characterized by having little or no display of merchandise. In addition, neither the design nor the location of the premises is intended to solicit walk-in traffic. Wholesalers do not normally use advertising directed to the general public. Customers are generally reached initially via telephone, in-person marketing, or by specialized advertising that may include Internet and other electronic means. Follow-up orders are either vendor-initiated or client-initiated, generally based on previous sales, and typically exhibit strong ties between sellers and buyers. In fact, transactions are often conducted between wholesalers and clients that have long-standing business relationships.
This sector comprises two main types of wholesalers: merchant wholesalers that sell goods on their own account and business to business electronic markets, agents, and brokers that arrange sales and purchases for others generally for a commission or fee.
(1) Establishments that sell goods on their own account are known as wholesale merchants, distributors, jobbers, drop shippers, and import/export merchants. Also included as wholesale merchants are sales offices and sales branches (but not retail stores) maintained by manufacturing, refining, or mining enterprises apart from their plants or mines for the purpose of marketing their products. Merchant wholesale establishments typically maintain their own warehouse, where they receive and handle goods for their customers. Goods are generally sold without transformation, but may include integral functions, such as sorting, packaging, labeling, and other marketing services.
(2) Establishments arranging for the purchase or sale of goods owned by others or purchasing goods, generally on a commission basis are known as business to business electronic markets, agents and brokers, commission merchants, import/export agents and brokers, auction companies, and manufacturers' representatives. These establishments operate from offices and generally do not own or handle the goods they sell.
Some wholesale establishments may be connected with a single manufacturer and promote and sell the particular manufacturers' products to a wide range of other wholesalers or retailers. Other wholesalers may be connected to a retail chain, or limited number of retail chains, and only provide a variety of products needed by that particular retail operation(s). These wholesalers may obtain the products from a wide range of manufacturers. Still other wholesalers may not take title to the goods, but act as agents and brokers for a commission.
Although, in general, wholesaling normally denotes sales in large volumes, durable nonconsumer goods may be sold in single units. Sales of capital or durable nonconsumer goods used in the production of goods and services, such as farm machinery, medium and heavy duty trucks, and industrial machinery, are always included in wholesale trade.
NAICS 42, Wholesale trade, is close, but not quite comparable between 2002 and 1997. See the Bridge Between 2002 NAICS and 1997 NAICS for changes to constituent industries.
For comparisons with data before 1997, see the Bridge Between 1997 NAICS and 1987 SIC.
1997 NAICS code |
1997 NAICS Description | Year | Establishments | Sales ($1,000) | Annual payroll ($1,000) | Paid employees | ||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
42 | Wholesale trade | 2002 | 439,175 | 4,637,494,486 | 260,246,207 | 5,902,852 | ||||||||
1997 | 453,470 | 4,059,657,778 | 214,915,405 | 5,796,557 | ||||||||||
% change | -3.2 | 14.2 | 21.1 | 1.8 |
See maps in Industry Snapshot |
Data for the Wholesale trade sector are published for the U.S., states, metropolitan areas, counties, and places.
Product code | Product description | Sales of this line ($000) |
Percent of industry sales (%) |
Graph |
---|---|---|---|---|
10000 | Industry total | 4,634,755, | 100.00 | |
10100 | New and used automobiles, motorcycles, and trailers | 398,254,30 | 8.59 | |
13500 | Pharmaceuticals | 380,839,72 | 8.22 | |
15400 | Refined petroleum products | 253,713,68 | 5.47 | |
-Other | 3,601,947, | 77.72 |
For more product detail, see the AFF links below for Product Lines
Down arrows link to tables in "drill-down" format for easy navigation. | AFF icons link to tables in American FactFinder, which supports further manipulation and downloading. | PDF symbols link to reports in Portable Document Format (PDF). In order to view these files, you will need the Adobe(R) Acrobat(R) Reader which is available free from the Adobe web site. |
Hypertext Tables | Title (with link to data) | Frequency | Contents | Geography |
---|---|---|---|---|
Annual Benchmark Report for Wholesale Trade | Annual | Monthly sales and inventories back to 1992 | US | |
Annual Capital Expenditures Survey | Annual | Capital expenditures for structures and equipment for companies with paid employees | US | |
County Business Patterns | Annual | Employees; payroll; number of establishments by employment size of establishment | US, states, metro areas, counties | |
E-Commerce Statistics | Annual | Total sales and e-commerce sales, receipts or value of shipments | US | |
Monthly Trade Inventory and Sales | Monthly | Sales, inventories, and inventory/sales ratios | US | |
Monthly Wholesale Trade | Monthly | Monthly sales, inventories, and inventory/sales ratios for merchant wholesalers | US | |
Nonemployer Statistics | Annual | Number of establishments and sales of firms with no paid employees | US, states, metro areas, counties | |
Profile of U.S. Exporting Companies | Annual | Number of exporters and value of exports by employment size of company for the U.S.; number of exporting companies by state | U.S., states | |
Quarterly Financial Report | Quarterly | Income, retained earnings, balance sheets, and related financial and operating ratios for the domestic operations of manufacturing corporations with assets over $250,000, and corporations in the mining and trade areas with over $50 million. | US | |
Statistics of U.S. Businesses | Annual | Number of firms, employees, payroll, (and revenue, for 2002 only) by employment-size of the enterprise | US, states, metro areas |
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