retail

/ˌriˈteɪl/

/ˈriteɪl/

Other forms: retailed; retails

If you buy a pair of jeans at your neighborhood Chique Boutique, you’re buying retail, but if you go to China and buy a boatload of jeans directly from the manufacturer, you’re buying wholesale, which is the opposite of retail.

If you make your living growing flowers, you may have a retail shop where you sell to people buying flowers for themselves, and you may also have a wholesale business, where you sell flowers to florists and supermarkets who sell your flowers to their customers. As you have probably figured out, the retail shops — the florists and supermarkets — add their own markup to the wholesale price you charge them, so they can make a profit, too.

Definitions of retail

1. noun

   the selling of goods to consumers; usually in small quantities and not for resale
   antonyms:

   wholesale

   the selling of goods to merchants; usually in large quantities for resale to consumers

   type of:

   marketing, merchandising, selling

   the exchange of goods for an agreed sum of money
2. adverb

   at a retail price
   “I'll sell it to you retail only”

   antonyms:

   wholesale

   at a wholesale price
3. verb

   be sold at the retail level
   “These gems retail at thousands of dollars each”

   type of:

   sell

   be sold at a certain price or in a certain way
4. verb

   sell on the retail market
   antonyms:

   wholesale

   sell in large quantities

   type of:

   sell

   exchange or deliver for money or its equivalent