Cash and carry
type of wholesale
Cash and carry is a wholesale business model in which goods are sold from a warehouse-style premises to business buyers who pay for products immediately at the point of sale and arrange their own transport. The model emphasizes self-service, immediate payment, and reduced service offerings such as credit accounts or delivery, which distinguishes it from traditional full-service wholesalers. It is commonly used in the distribution of fast-moving consumer goods and supplies to independent retailers, food service operators, and other business customers.
Overview
Cash-and-carry wholesalers usually carry a limited line of products, focusing on high-turnover items that appeal to smaller retailers and professional buyers. Because customers are responsible for collecting and transporting their purchases and must pay on the spot, wholesalers can reduce administrative and logistical costs. This often results in lower prices per unit compared with traditional wholesale arrangements that include credit terms and delivery services.
The main features of cash and carry are summarized best by the following definitions:
Cash and carry is a form of trade in which goods are sold from a wholesale warehouse operated either on a self-service basis or on the basis of samples (with the customer selecting from specimen articles using a manual or computerized ordering system but not serving themselves) or a combination of the two.
Customers (retailers, professional users, caterers, institutional buyers, etc.) settle the invoice on the spot in cash and carry the goods away themselves.
There are significant differences between "classical" sales at the wholesale stage and the cash and carry wholesaler: namely, cash and carry customers arrange the transport of the goods themselves and pay for the goods on the spot, rather than on credit.
Access to purchase at a cash and carry is typically limited to operators of bona fide businesses, and the general public are not admitted.
The public source identifies “Cash and carry” as type of wholesale. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Cash, carry and type.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 15, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q320677. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Cash and carry” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.