Hi there!

I'm wondering where companies like Cash & Carry and Big-box originated from. Can someone shed some light on this please?

Hi Reachsrirambiyer,

Welcome to Wholesale Forum

Cash and carry is used in wholesale and retail, where it represents a type of operation. It's a form of trade in which goods are sold from a warehouse operated either on a self-service basis, on the basis of samples, or a combination of the two.

To give you a real life example, Smart Foodservice is a chain of warehouse grocery stores. The company operates stores in California, Idaho, Oregon and in Washington. After many mergers and expansions the company grew into a cash and carry superstore with at the base of this all the the company Hellman-Haas Grocery, founded in 1871.

Big-box stores, also known as supercenters, superstores, or megastores, are physically large retail establishments. Superstores are usually part of a larger chain. Other examples of large department stores / superstores are Walmart and Target.

These cash & carry and big-box superstores are born out of mergers and expansions of smaller companies with big aspirations. Another way for a superstore to come into existence simply is hard work and success, one successful store after another growing into a successful chain of stores.

Hope this helps