Channels of Distribution

The term ‘channel of distribution’ generally requires supplemen-tation in order to limit the meaning of the word to the type of activity or item being considered. In a commercial sense, the term ‘distribution’ covers the act and process of disposing, or sharing, commodities, so that they may yield benefits, or be made ready to yield benefits to those who give value for them. The salesman uses the term to refer to the wholesaler or the retailer who sells the type of merchandise he has to offer. The economist is concerned with ‘the distribution of the National Income among the various agents of production, in accordance with the quantity of each several agent, and the services which it renders’1. In his examination of distribution in this sense, Marshall linked the process of distribution with the act of exchange which brings together these ‘agents of production’. This act of exchange is central to the distribution process.