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Retail vs Grocery - What's the difference?

retail | grocery |

As nouns the difference between retail and grocery

is that retail is the sale of goods directly to the consumer; encompassing the storefronts, mail-order, websites, etc., and the corporate mechanisms, branding, advertising, etc. that support them, which are involved in the business of selling and point-of-sale marketing retail goods to the public while grocery is retail foodstuffs and other household supplies.

As an adjective retail

is of, or relating to the (actual or figurative) sale of goods or services directly to individuals.

As an adverb retail

is direct to consumers, in retail quantities, or at retail prices.

As a verb retail

is to sell at retail, or in small quantities directly to customers.

retail

English

(wikipedia retail)

Noun

(-)
  • The sale of goods directly to the consumer; encompassing the storefronts, mail-order, websites, etc., and the corporate mechanisms, branding, advertising, etc. that support them, which are involved in the business of selling and point-of-sale marketing retail goods to the public.
    • She works in retail .
  • (colloquial) Retail price; full price; an abbreviated expression, meaning the full suggested price of a particular good or service, before any sale, discount, or other deal.
    • I never pay retail for clothes.

    Derived terms

    * retailer

    Adjective

    (-)
  • Of, or relating to the (actual or figurative) sale of goods or services directly to individuals.
  • *
  • *
  • *

    • Adverb

    (head)
  • Direct to consumers, in retail quantities, or at retail prices.
    • ''We've shut shown our reseller unit. We're only selling retail now.

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To sell at retail, or in small quantities directly to customers.
  • * 2005 , .
    • a half part of this purveying is carried on within the city and is called retailing .
  • To repeat or circulate (news or rumours) to others.
  • * 1982 , (Lawrence Durrell), Constance'', Faber & Faber 2004 (''Avignon Quintet ), p. 762:
    • He became quite pale as he retailed these stories to Constance.
  • * {{quote-news
    • , year=1998 , author= , title=Hot Spots (review of The Warrior's Honor: Ethnic War and the Modern Conscience by Michael Ignatieff) , work= , date=February 1 citation , passage=The fantasies of blood libel that Bosnian Serbs retailed' about Bosnian Muslims were the fantasies that Rhinelanders had centuries earlier ' retailed about the Jews they had murdered.}}

    Anagrams

    *

    grocery

    English

    (wikipedia grocery)

    Noun

    (groceries)
  • (usually groceries) retail foodstuffs and other household supplies.
  • * 1776:
    • Where ten thousand pounds can be employed in the grocery trade, the wages of the grocer's labour make but a very trifling addition...
  • * 1850 , '', ''The present time
    • Did not cotton spin itself, beef grow, and groceries and spiceries come in from the East and the West, quite comfortably by the side of shams?
  • A shop or store that sells groceries; a grocery store.
  • * 1854:
    • I observed that the vitals of the village were the grocery , the bar-room, the post-office, and the bank...

    Usage notes

    When referring to goods, the singular form is primarily used attributively, as in a grocery bill, a grocery list, etc. The plural form, groceries, is much more frequently used to refer to actual goods, especially in the US.

    Synonyms

    * (retail foodstuffs and household supplies) commodities, general goods, groceries, packaged goods * (store that sells groceries) general store, grocery store, market, supermarket

    Related terms

    * greengrocer * grocer * groceries

    References