CSEC Principles of Business  /  Logistics and the supply chain  /  The chain of distribution

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The chain of distribution

Goods rarely go straight from the people who make them to the people who use them. The chain of distribution is the route they take: manufacturer, wholesaler, retailer, consumer. Paper 1 asks about the order of the chain and who does which job.

By the end of this page you can

  • Explain what a wholesaler and a retailer each add
  • Tell a wholesaler’s jobs from a retailer’s
  • Put the links of the chain in order
  • Define breaking bulk, wholesaler, retailer and channel of distribution
  • Explain how a wholesaler helps a retailer

Goals tick themselves off as you try the activities below.

An aerial view of the fishing port at Otaheite Bay, Trinidad: small boats moored in the river beside the fish market building and the town.

Photo: Grueslayer, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Cropped, resized, JPEG q72.

Some fishers sell their catch straight to customers at the market; most goods pass through several hands first.

How often it shows up in past papers

All papers20 of 23 papers
Last 55 of 5 · 2023–2026

Paper 1 counts come from our past-paper bank of CSEC Principles of Business Paper 1s. The last-5 row shows how often it came up in the five most recent papers.

Inside this topic

  1. The middle linksLocked
  2. Who does whatLocked
  3. Put it in ordergameLocked
  4. Key termsLocked
  5. Test yourselfmarkedLocked
  6. Practise for real · 15 past questionsLocked