Jobber, in

merchandising Merchandising is any practice which contributes to the sale of products to a retail consumer. At a retail in-store level, merchandising refers to displaying products that are for sale in a creative way that entices customers to purchase more ...

, can be synonymous with "

wholesaler Wholesaling or distributing is the sale of goods or merchandise to retailers; to industrial, commercial, institutional or other professional business users; or to other wholesalers (wholesale businesses) and related subordinated services. In ...

", "distributor", or "intermediary". A business which buys goods and bulk products from importers, other wholesalers, or manufacturers, and then sells to retailers, was historically called a jobbing house (or jobbing center). A jobber is a merchant—e.g., (i) a wholesaler or (ii)

reseller A reseller is a company or individual (merchant) that purchases goods or services with the intention of selling them rather than consuming or using them. This is usually done for profit (but can be done at a loss). One example can be found in th ...

or (iii) independent distributor operating on

consignment Consignment involves selling one's personal goods (clothing, furniture, etc.) through a third-party vendor such as a consignment store or online thrift store. The owner of the goods pays the third-party a portion of the sale for facilitating t ...

—who takes goods in quantity from manufacturers or importers and sells or resells or distributes them to retail chains and

syndicates A syndicate is a self-organizing group of individuals, companies, corporations or entities formed to transact some specific business, to pursue or promote a shared interest. Etymology The word ''syndicate'' comes from the French word ''syndica ...

, particularly supermarkets,

department stores A department store is a retail establishment offering a wide range of consumer goods in different areas of the store, each area ("department") specializing in a product category. In modern major cities, the department store made a dramatic appea ...

, drug chains, and the like. One objective is to distribute goods at lower costs through

economies of scale In microeconomics, economies of scale are the cost advantages that enterprises obtain due to their scale of operation, and are typically measured by the amount of output produced per unit of time. A decrease in cost per unit of output enables a ...

, which, in sophisticated operations, typically uses complex transportation models. In competitive markets, the practice is an integral part of

supply chain management In commerce, supply chain management (SCM) is the management of the flow of goods and services including all processes that transform raw materials into final products between businesses and locations. This can include the movement and sto ...

—one that might incorporate, among other things,

operations research Operations research ( en-GB, operational research) (U.S. Air Force Specialty Code: Operations Analysis), often shortened to the initialism OR, is a discipline that deals with the development and application of analytical methods to improve dec ...

in areas of logistics involving supply chain networking, and supply chain optimization. A jobber is very different from a broker. A broker transacts on behalf of a merchandiser while a jobber supplies inventory at a merchandiser's site for consumers to purchase.

Usage and etymology

The word "jobber" is sometimes dismissed as colloquial or obsolete. As of 2016, it is used in the industry sciences,

trade press A trade magazine, also called a trade journal or trade paper (colloquially or disparagingly a trade rag), is a magazine or newspaper whose target audience is people who work in a particular trade or industry. The collective term for th ...

, popular media, and scholarly journals. The current meaning of jobber has been in existence since the introduction of the

factory system The factory system is a method of manufacturing using machinery and division of labor. Because of the high capital cost of machinery and factory buildings, factories are typically privately owned by wealthy individuals or corporations who empl ...

, and earlier in cases with respect to importing goods. The word has a longstanding history in merchandising and can be found in print around the mid-19th century. and variations, such as "pig jobber", date back to the 18th century. Jobbing was the subject of legislation in England in 1670 when a special act was enacted to prevent fraud in the buying and selling of cattle at

Smithfield Market Smithfield, properly known as West Smithfield, is a district located in Central London, part of Farringdon Without, the most westerly ward of the City of London, England. Smithfield is home to a number of City institutions, such as St Barth ...

, London. CRC jobber see M George.

Used in the following contexts

* Car lot jobber (as in fruits and vegetables) (1914) * Fuel jobber *

Rack jobber A rack jobber (also known as a rack merchandiser) is a company or trader that has an agreement with a retailer to display and sell products in a store. The outlets for the products would be ones that traditionally do not stock such products such as ...

* Jobbing house * Stockjobber * Record jobber * Pig jobber * Land jobber (1800) * Jobber (1719) CRC Jobber (2004)

References

Notes

Citations

{{Reflist, 30em, refs= "Present Day Jobbing," by James H. Ritter, ''

The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science The American Academy of Political and Social Science (AAPSS) was founded in 1889 to promote progress in the social sciences. Sparked by Professor Edmund J. James and drawing from members of the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania, Swarthmore ...

,'' Vol. 22, November 1903, pps. pp. 39–46
JSTOR link
/ref> "Debt for the Mexican War," ''Advocate of Peace (1847–1884),'' Vol. 7, No. 17/18, May & June 1848, pps. 210–211 (reprinted by the World Affairs Institute)
JSTOR link
/ref> "Jobber,"
''Dictionary.com'', Unabridged,

Random House, Inc. Random House is an American book publisher and the largest general-interest paperback publisher in the world. The company has several independently managed subsidiaries around the world. It is part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by Germ ...

(retrieved 14 January 2016)
Middlemen in English Business: Particularly Between 1660 and 1760
'' by Ray Bert Westerfield, PhD,

Yale University Press Yale University Press is the university press of Yale University. It was founded in 1908 by George Parmly Day, and became an official department of Yale University in 1961, but it remains financially and operationally autonomous. , Yale Univer ...

, Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences pg. 197 (1915)
An Act to Prevent Fraudes in the Buying and Selling of Cattell in Smithfeild and Elsewhere
'
Charles II, 1670 & 1671
9th Session of

Cavalier Parliament The Cavalier Parliament of England lasted from 8 May 1661 until 24 January 1679. It was the longest English Parliament, and longer than any Great British or UK Parliament to date, enduring for nearly 18 years of the quarter-century reign of ...

, 22 & 23
Chap. 19;

Chancery Chancery may refer to: Offices and administration * Chancery (diplomacy), the principal office that houses a diplomatic mission or an embassy * Chancery (medieval office), responsible for the production of official documents * Chancery (Scotlan ...

Roll p. 2, I. 7; original Act 39

''
Statutes of the Realm ''The Statutes of the Realm'' is an authoritative collection of Acts of the Parliament of England from the earliest times to the Union of the Parliaments in 1707, and Acts of the Parliament of Great Britain passed up to the death of Queen Anne i ...
1628–80'' (Vol. 5 of 11)
John Raithby John Raithby (1766–1826), lawyer, born in 1766, was eldest son of Edmund Raithby of Edenham, Lincolnshire. On 26 January 1795 he was admitted a member of Lincoln's Inn, and was subsequently called to the bar. He practised in the Court of Chanc ...
(ed.)
Great Britain,
Record Commission The Record Commissions were a series of six Royal Commissions of Great Britain and (from 1801) the United Kingdom which sat between 1800 and 1837 to inquire into the custody and public accessibility of the state archives. The Commissioners' work ...
('' s.l.'' 1819)
pps. 733–734

External links