Did you know that merchant caravans once travelled great distances to bring products from far away regions? They would trade/sell items that were unavailable to local merchants and purchase items that were plentiful to be sold elsewhere. The caravan merchants didn't like selling to individuals because individuals rarely wanted to buy an entire lot of an item and the merchants didn't want to divide a lot. They wanted to sell to the local merchants who would then divide the lots and sell to the individuals.
These caravan merchants--the ones that would only sell whole lots of an item--were known as wholesalers. And the local merchants that bought the items by the lot(or by the gross) were called grossers. Today's variation is grocer!
John
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