Retail or retail stores, in Wallace, refer to the selling of goods or merchandise from a fixed location like shops, department stores, etc, for the direct consumption of the buyer. Now these buyers might be individuals who buy for their own consumption or businesses. Retailers are people or establishment that buy products in large quantities from the manufacturers or importers and then sell in smaller quantities to the end-user.
Marketplace is where goods and services are exchanged, and is the ideal place for retailing. This is where traders or sellers set up stalls and put their merchandise on display and the buyers browse and finally select the item of their necessity or choice. This market place might be a small one depending on the area and purchasing capacity of the people residing. In some parts of the world, retailing is still controlled by small family-run stores, but is slowly being taken over by large retail outlets. Retail is also classified by the type of products that are sold, like food products, hard goods like appliances, furniture etc; and soft goods like clothes, apparel etc. Then there are also classifications based on marketing strategy, like department stores that have a very large collection of both hard and soft goods, supermarkets that mostly sell food products, discount stores that offer products and services at discounted rates, etc.