What does a Wholesale and Retail Buyers, Except Farm Product
actually do all day?
top skill Negotiationcore tasks 6
Wholesale and Retail Buyers, Except Farm Products is deadline-driven, desk-bound, people-heavy work.
What this job actually does all day
The representative tasks O*NET analysts recorded for this role — not a glossy job ad, the real work.
- Buy merchandise or commodities for resale to wholesale or retail consumers.
- Negotiate prices, discount terms, or transportation arrangements with suppliers.
- Examine, select, order, or purchase merchandise consistent with quality, quantity, specification requirements, or other factors, such as environmental soundness.
- Recommend mark-up rates, mark-down rates, or merchandise selling prices.
- Obtain information about customer needs or preferences by conferring with sales or purchasing personnel.
- Authorize payment of invoices or return of merchandise.
Skills & environment
Bars are O*NET importance/intensity ratings, scaled 0–100 so you can compare at a glance.
The skills it demands most
What the environment feels like
Deadline pressure: constant deadline pressureConflict & friction: moderateNeed to be exact: precision is criticalTime spent sitting: mostly sitting at a deskContact with people: constantly dealing with people
How this is built. Tasks, skills, and work-environment ratings come from the
U.S. Department of Labor's O*NET occupational analysis — job analysts survey real workers, so this is the
closest thing to "what the job is actually like" in public data. Skill scores are O*NET Importance
ratings (0–5) and environment measures are Context ratings (0–5), both rescaled to 0–100 here for
easy reading. This task-and-skill detail comes straight from the O*NET database — it's
pulled straight from the survey, not invented. Figures describe the typical role, not any one person's job.
