the.com/wholesale
Where the price tag whispers what the retail shelf will later scream.
means Selling goods in large quantities, usually to retailers rather than the public, at lower per-unit prices — or, more loosely, doing something on a sweeping, indiscriminate scale.
from A plain compound of "whole" and "sale," surfacing in late Middle English as "whole sale" — meaning a sale of goods in their whole, undivided lot, rather than split up and parceled out piecemeal ("retail," from a French word for cutting into pieces). The merchant who bought the whole batch paid less; the sense of "in bulk" naturally stretched into "in sweeping quantity," giving us phrases like "wholesale slaughter."
- origin
- Old English meant selling in large quantity, not retail
- markup math
- Retail often doubles wholesale or more
- club model
- Costco charges membership just to buy wholesale
- middle cut
- Wholesalers profit by sitting between maker and store
- figurative use
- Means done massively, as in wholesale destruction
costco — membership warehouse chain with 868 locations globally, $250b+ annual revenue
sam's club — walmart-owned wholesale club operating 600+ stores across north america
alibaba — chinese b2b wholesale marketplace founded 1999, connects manufacturers to bulk buyers