Wholesale Trade : Germany

Wholesalers sell commercial goods from manufacturers or foreign markets to retailers, processors or commercial users. They buy large quantities of goods and sell them in smaller amounts. Especially retailers obtain consumer durables and nondurables from them. The wholesale trade’s turnover in 1949 was approximately DM 50 billion; in the year 1996 it was more than DM1 trillion. The 118,000 German wholesalers - including 10,000 domiciled in the new states - employ 1.5 million people.