Ankita Rana
ECON 563
July 8, 2020
Brief History of Retail Industry
Retail business is the sale of diverse products and services to customers with the objective to
create a profit. Retail incorporates selling and buying through channels. Goods and services that
customers purchase in store or online are both part of the retail business. In the modern day
United States, the giant players of the retail industry not only own thousands of stores in the
nation, but around the world. In the United States, the retail sale produced to approximately $2.5
trillion according to the 1997 business census while in 1929 it was only $48 billion. The small,
independent stores shifted to massive general merchandise stores in the twentieth century.
In the United States, the origin of commerce goes back to the time when people used to walk
around selling products, having small shops and merchants importers. In the early days of
Boston, New York, and Philadelphia thousands of men used to sell the goods by carrying them
on their back and walking the countryside. When there was enough profit, they would purchase
animals such as horses or invest in carts, and expand the varieties of commodities. For many
years the late Henry W. Cater also known as the “Merchant Prince” maintained five teams on the
road. Prior to the 1830s, peddlers who came from New England, outfitted with a wagon and a
load of goods on credit hence these merchants were called “Yankee Peddlers”. In the nineteenth
century, many Jewish immigrants spread out all over the United States as peddlers. There were
railroads, roads, and towns development taking place which eventually resulted in stores. These
shopkeepers looked for ways to influence politicians to pass laws that would ban peddlers.
