Census of Wholesale and Retail Trade, 1972

The Census of Wholesale and Retail Trade combines two parts of the Economic Census conducted by the United States Census Bureau. These censuses were designed to measure the economic activity of several types of businesses within the United States. The retail and wholesale censuses conducted in 1972 recorded the number of establishments, sales, payroll, and number of paid employees for a wide variety of business categories, including general merchandise, food, automotive, gasoline, apparel, furniture, restaurants, and drug retailers. Additionally, the wholesale census logged number of establishments, sales, inventories, and payroll for merchant wholesalers, manufacturer sales branches, and merchandise agents and brokers. Both the retail and wholesale censuses provide statistics organized by type of business or operation and by city size.