The retail sector includes two main types of retailers store and non store retailers.

The distribution sector includes commission agents, wholesalers and retailers who act as enablers of trade.

Informal retailers could become the suppliers or the customers of formal retailers, or their franchises.

Eventually, they themselves become formal retailers.

The dominant market position of large retailers has been strengthened through cross border buying alliances among nominally independent retailers.

For those of you who are retailers, you may want to look away before I show this slide.

Retailers are distributors selling to end consumers.

And it's not just caterers, it's hoteliers, it's retailers, it's anyone who provides services to the public or businesses.

And other retailers followed by opening their stores.

Retailers have integrated backwards into wholesale operations, and producers have integrated forward, performing wholesale functions by distributing their products directly to retailers.

That s exciting news to retailers looking for new markets.

The retailers have kind of quashed this notion though.

Retailers operating internationally can also resort to so called transfer pricing.

Retailers could exercise their power in setting prices at the local level.

By 2002, the world's top 30 retailers were active in 88 countries, nearly 70 per cent more than in 1997, and the overseas expansion of major retailers is constantly increasing.

On the contrary, most European top retailers have operations outside the home country.

Other initiatives included granting duty free concessions to retailers of popular tourism items.

Further, the Commission's investigation established that Panamco Tica was lending refrigerators to retailers and attaching exclusivity clauses to the contracts, which required retailers to use the refrigerator for Coca Cola products exclusively.

Opponents point to how big retailers decimated the traditional retail segment in the West.

Foreign sales represent a significant share in total sales of the main European retailers.

I'd put out feelers to retailers, to auctioneers, and it was coming up empty.

Retailers and mass merchants often, though not always, get their products supplied through distributors.

Some products enter the market through wholesalers who in turn distribute the products to a variety of retailers, while in other cases the producer sells directly to the retailer.

Small retailers can, however, find niche markets, such as serving convenience needs and local tastes.

The Euro Retailer Produce Working Group (EUREP) is a European based trade organization for retailers.

Its membership consists of growers, product marketing organizations and growers' cooperatives, food manufacturers and retailers.

Producers are also engaging in direct sales to consumers through on line retailing, bypassing retailers.

Exporters of textiles and clothing in developing countries often face uneconomical demands by these retailers.

It employs more than 90 of the workforce and is home to 75 of the retailers.

In 2000, 70 per cent of the global top retailers already operated a transactional web site.

The top 100 retailers (see table 3) account for 25 per cent of worldwide retailing sales.

Most of the food reaches consumers, especially in urbanized societies, through processors, distributors, packers and retailers.

In the case of Greece and Portugal, for example, the tourism industry might absorb some unemployed retailers.

Growing use by retailers of own brands and discount retailing have also been driving prices down significantly.

Retailers are able to access and tap different cost structures in different countries and are becoming global.

These goods are sold to local consumers via car dealers and a whole chain of traders and retailers.

This affected all the producers, distributors, and retailers whose plans and contracts were based on now obsolete expectations.

Other experts stressed that modern retailers usually integrated backwards and could then help improve manufacturing processes and packaging.

The concentration of the textiles and clothing market in the major importing countries is making retailers very powerful.

In India, for example, there is fear that small mom and pop retailers will be crushed when Wal Mart enters the market in the next few months. But policymakers must recognize that there are ways to protect small retailers without stifling competition.

While the first operates fixed point of sale locations, non store retailers or retailers away from a fixed location reach customers and market merchandise with methods such as broadcasting infomercials , paper and electronic catalogues, door to door solicitation and selling from portable stalls.

Those who would aim to emulate US productivity trends must come to grips with how they feel about big box stores sprouting across their countryside s, driving down wages and plowing under smaller scale retailers.

So India s political debate over the entry of foreign retailers into the market, while heated, is probably already outdated.

In the Colombian market large scale retailers coexist with SMEs, each one serving a different segment of the market.

The Government has implemented a special programme (PYMECO) to support small retailers through training in management and distribution processes.