Saturday, May 28, 2016

Fairest of their mall

The largest shopping malls in the world [Wikipedia]

  1. Great Mall of China
  2. Abraj Al Bait Mall
  3. New South China Mall
  4. Golden Resources Mall
  5. SM City North EDSA
  6. SM Megamall
  7. Isfahan City Centre
  8. 1 Utama
  9. Persian Gulf Complex
  10. SM Seaside City Cebu

The largest shopping malls in the world [list25.com]

  1. New South China Mall
  2. Golden Resources Mall
  3. SM City North EDSA
  4. 1 Utama
  5. Fars Shopping Complex (aka Persian Gulf Complex)
  6. CentralWorld
  7. Isfahan City Center
  8. Mid Valley Megamall
  9. Istanbul Cevahir
  10. Sunway Pyramid

Tuesday, May 24, 2016

Warehouses are bigger


  1. D.B. Schenker's Warehouse in Germany
  2. National Archives in Winsford, Cheshire
  3. Bank of England's Vault beneath London
  4. Amazon Warehouse
  5. Meyer Werft, Papenburg, Germany
  6. Google Data Centre, Georgia
  7. Champagne Warehouse, France
  8. M & S Warehouse, Castle Donington
  9. Constellation Europe, UK
  10. The Abandoned Soviet Space Centre
This is an abridged list from Go Supply Chain - I haven't included the factories that I covered in the last post.

II

A lot of the sites I landed on were stingy in the number of warehouses they list and mix factories with warehouses. Even these lists manage to have Target Import Warehouse, which I understand is big, in the list of large factories; despite the idea of importing something that has already been processed as not a feature of factories but very much one of warehouses. It's even in the name. Only it doesn't appear in this second list.

The staff compiling the second list take 'warehouse' to mean a place where things are stored. They can house items that will be sold to retailers or direct or, equally, they can store data or records. Artefacts with never an intent to disperse.
It's different to the common notion I had of what a warehouse looked like once the conversation strayed from champagne and Marks and Spencer but the hundred mile saltmine as repository because of its stable conditions is irresistible to this records manager of yore, and Amazon and Google don't just exist in cyberspace.

The sheer scale in commercial warehouses suggests Boeing manufacturing plant, NASA and the Soviet Space Centre. Go Supply Chain's inclusion of a bank vault is acceptable here because of the wider brief and it makes for a fascinating account. All that hoarded gold.
Image result for db schenker






Monday, May 23, 2016

Factor in factories




If I can hyperlink ambush by foisting a National Front site on our national neighbours then I should think nothing of choosing a particularly good article from an otherwise dodgy site, right? The Richest, the otherwise e-equivalent of a scandal sheet, lists the fifteen largest factories in the world and I recommend hieing over there to see the full list, especially as number fifteen is the largest single-story building in the world.


  1. Volkswagen Wolfsburg Plant
  2. Hyundai Motor Company's Ulsan Factory
  3. Aalsmeer Flower Auction Building
  4. Tesla Factory
  5. Boeing Factory in Everett
  6. Mitsubishi Motors North America
  7. Belvidere Assembly Plant
  8. Target Import Warehouse
  9. Jean-Luc Lagardère Plant
  10. Lauma Fabrics
Image result for volkswagen wolfsburg factory

Saturday, May 21, 2016

Trade blows

It stands to reason that retail would mirror wholesale, otherwise who are those large distributors supplying? The retail giants are mainly from the US, Germany and France.
And then we have the UK, Japan, Australia, Netherlands, Canada, Belgium, Switzerland, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Hong Kong, Russia, Chile, China (making its first appearance at #57), Portugal, Italy, Finland, Austria, Thailand, Norway, South Africa, Denmark, Mexico, Turkey, Taiwan, UAE, Bermuda, New Zealand, Croatia and the Philippines.

The industries, too, are familiar: the size of the retailer does not necessarily reflect the size of their stores as there is plain old supermarket nestled next to 'hypermarket/supercenter/superstore', 'cash & carry/warehouse club' recalls those cash & carry's appearing on the distributor list, 'discount store' 'home improvement' and 'department store' are self-explanatory, while 'non-store' reminds us that it's not all bricks and mortar, 'drug store/pharmacy' and 'electronics specialty' are again among the top suppliers, 'convenience/forecourt store' reminds us that corner shops still exist, only now as "7-11s" and 'apparel/footwear specialty' justifies our focus on shoes in the previous post. Despite all this, 'other specialty' appears a number of times.

Thursday, May 19, 2016

Retail wagging

Smaller resellers play a part. Small retailers have to scale to their clientele but are handy for those not wishing to get lost in the supermarket.

II

When talking about livestock or natural product resale, the search engine asks if perhaps you mean sellers not resellers. Similarly, it seems wrong to talk about pig retailers but perhaps pork retailers (?) though I think the retail of the hock or speck comes when you're in Coles or Woolies

And amethyst retailers doesn't sound sufficiently new age.

III

If you light on a certain product then the use of 'retail' and 'resale' could be seen as interchangeable; even if usage is generally uncommon.

Retail to tell

We're using the National Retail Association list, just for full disclosure

1 Wal-Mart Stores Inc. U.S. $485,651,000,000 Hypermarket/Supercenter/Superstore
2 Costco Wholesale Corporation U.S. $112,640,000,000 Cash & Carry/Warehouse Club
3 The Kroger Co. U.S. $108,465,000,000 Supermarket
4 Schwarz Unternehmenstreuhand KG Germany $102,694,000,000 Discount Store
5 Tesco PLC U.K. $99,713,000,000 Hypermarket/Supercenter/Superstore
6 Carrefour S.A.  France $98,497,000,000 Hypermarket/Supercenter/Superstore
7 Aldi Einkauf GmbH & Co. oHG Germany $86,470,000,000 Discount Store 17
8 Metro Ag  Germany $85,570,000,000 Cash & Carry/Warehouse Club
9 The Home Depot Inc. U.S. $83,176,000,000 Home Improvement
10 Walgreen Co. (now Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc.) U.S. $76,392,000,000 Drug Store/Pharmacy

Just how formidable is this? Well, Target and Amazon fall just outside the Top Ten.

Image result for wal-mart stores inc

Recent Resellers

As with our previous synonyms - seller, vendor, supplier - there is a shade of difference between resale and retail, and resellers and retailers.

The website I've chosen to show this is one that lists the biggest resellers in the UK, regardless of company headquarters.

Image result for computacenter
  1. Computacenter
  2. SCC
  3. Softcat
  4. BT
  5. Kelway
  6. Capita
  7. Insight
  8. XMA
  9. Misco
  10. Dimension Data
  11. Kcom*
[*dropped out of the previous year's top ten]

Now, apart from learning about VaR, or Value at Risk, as we newly learneds like to say, I did wonder whether the slant of this list meant that software and supplies were the biggest resellers of any description, or whether I had missed the distinction.
Certainly they seem officebound

II

Could you speak of reselling cows or their milk? Who is the quartz reseller or does it go straight to the jeweller or interior designer?
It's topical so I'll milk it for all it's worth: Milk suppliers and distributors are different from dairy farmers mostly; except where the companies whose milk products appear on the shelves have a combination of dairies they own and supplies they source from other outlets - farmers.




Sunday, May 15, 2016

Damp sellers

Image result for zoverstocks

Amazon

A call from your agent

The Australian Trade Commission - which is where I need to take advice from when considering such ventures - goes to pains to explain the difference between an agent and a distributor. It's a very helpful site; managing to explain that whole Redback/Altronics thing, that distributors deal with other wholesalers and sell theirs and their own goods.

So what about agents? They're the ones who promote your wares but don't take carriage of the goods like distributors do. Try going large with agents and you end up with advertising agencies

  1. WPP Group
  2. Omnicom Group
  3. Publicis Groupe
  4. Interpublic Group
  5. Dentsu
which, though promotional in nature, is not the same thing as an agent acting for an exporter. 

Then there are travel agencies and talent agencies and model agencies

but we're not getting closer to the agents of trade

Saturday, May 14, 2016

Vendor time comes

If you're really that interested, you could research suppliers of every stripe, vendors of a whole division. It depends what your intention is. Mine has been for the last five years but really a great deal longer, to start an enterprise.

I could use suppliers if it transpires that there are goods to be shipped (or drop shipped as the case may be) or, if I want to promote my wares, contract vendors to do the work. So this leaves the faster/greater/longer world I generally blog in and touches on something I've wanted to get started.

Not that there aren't budding entrepeneurs popping up in all sorts of places. Now there are even pop-up shops. You don't even have to bring your own cart.

II

Presumably I can select any goods or service and there will be a seller or supplier or vendor. Essentially, if it's the same product or service then they will be one and the same.


Who's your supplier?

In my cursory glance at the prime movers, I've yet to separate out the terms. When I go large I get app vendors and - circling back to where it begins, the manufacturer - auto suppliers. While I'm getting an education in the different types of distributor, what sets them apart from vendors and suppliers?

Vendors supply here. Now that we've found Wikipedia dozing in the corner and they came back with this

vendor, or a supplier, is a supply chain management term that means anyone who provides goods or services to a company or individuals. 

So this means we've jumped the gun by mentioning vendors/suppliers as they include more than the wholesalers and manufacturers we've canvassed; indeed it is awfully broad. There are rooters and tooters and a pair of shooters. It was just that the official site explaining terms to fledgling Aus exporters and the like, spoke of the different types of distributors as sourcing from 'manufacturer/vendor' so I felt bound to introduce the term.

As you can deduce, if it is true that suppliers aren't always toppling the divide, it is the example they set that make it a reasonable proposition. The lot of the small supplier is less attractive.

Which is not to say you shouldn't deal with a smaller vendor.


Distributor cap

Not forgetting that, regardless of relative popularity or need to restock, our onyx distributors are also needed.

The trade sites and reseller revues will tell you more about the kind of distribution. How low do they scale and still be viable? Small manufacturers have found ways to operate at their level and vendors are in the same boat.

Distributors leaking

Food distributors


and, to make the point, fruit and vegetable distributors

Thursday, May 12, 2016

Wholesale swipe

I took this list of wholesale entities from ranker.com since Wikipedia - unless they have listed under Distributors - have no list of the largest wholesalers.
I hold no rancour for Ranker but I've been unable to determine whether their list is for the companies who hold the most stock in their warehouse, the ones with the furthest reach or greatest bottom line.

I do know that I like the list because it has a good balance of co-ops and chemists, and any list that leads off with an offering of the Czech Republic deserves some attention. Though it is eccentric to number your biggest wholesale companies when they have been placed in alphabetical order.

They have enough cache (the companies, that is) to consider what this means. Apart from the predictable United States and United Kingdom, the wholesale countries include Australia, Norway, Germany and Japan. Norway is very well represented with about four companies.

II

Now I've had only glancing contact with commerce other than as a customer so any number crunching is for entertainment purpose only. I am interested in the distribution, given the differences: are some things Made in China and then shipped to a warehouse in Norway? I notice that many of these humongous wholesalers are also manufacturers, which makes sense unless you are looking at names or countries on one list that don't also appear on another. Capital Health is the only name common to both.

Speaking of names, there's another clue perhaps. None of these could have been selected for their brand name recognition. No Toyotas or Samsungs here, that's for sure.

Alright so we have these big setups in sometimes unexpected countries who have a starchy and nondescript name because the spotlight falls on the retailers they service. There are even oddities like the Amerisourcebergens who must be related, and the way that Altronics carries equipment by Redback Audio somewhat confusing roles.


Friday, May 06, 2016

We can get it for you Wholesale


  1. Alta Praha s.r.o.
  2. Altronics Australia
  3. AmerisourceBergen
  4. AmerisourceBergen specialty group
  5. Anglia Regional Co-operative Society
  6. Apotekernes Fællesindkjøp
  7. Associated Grocers
  8. Bama Gruppen
  9. Bertel O. Steen
  10. Brown Shoe
  11. Cardinal Health
  12. Cash & Carry
  13. Chemische Fabrik Kalk
  14. DigiCube
  15. Eason & Son
  16. East of England Co-operative Society
  17. Glamajama
  18. Interline Brands
  19. Kirribilla
  20. Kole Imports
  21. Maske Gruppen
  22. Metro Cash and Carry
  23. Musgrave Group
  24. Office 1 Superstore
  25. PSS World Medical
  26. Redback Audio
  27. Sam's Club
  28. United Natural Foods, Inc.
  29. Vivid Imaginations