# Wholesale and Retail Buyers, Except Farm Products

> Buy merchandise or commodities, other than farm products, for resale to consumers at the wholesale or retail level, including both durable and nondurable goods. Analyze past buying trends, sales records, price, and quality of merchandise to determine value and yield. Select, order, and authorize payment for merchandise according to contractual agreements. May conduct meetings with sales personnel and introduce new products. May negotiate contracts. Includes assistant wholesale and retail buyers of nonfarm products.

- **SOC code:** 13-1022.00
- **Canonical URL:** https://singulariki.com/roles/role-13-1022-00
- **Also known as:** Buyer, Grocery Buyer, Procurement Specialist, Trader, Purchaser, Purchasing Coordinator, Retail Buyer, Acquisition Specialist
- **Frame:** "AI exposure" means task overlap (how codifiable the work is), not jobs lost or a forecast. Every figure below is traced to a named public dataset.

## What this work is

**Core tasks** (O*NET):
- Buy merchandise or commodities for resale to wholesale or retail consumers.
- Negotiate prices, discount terms, or transportation arrangements with suppliers.
- Consult with store or merchandise managers about budgets or goods to be purchased.
- Examine, select, order, or purchase merchandise consistent with quality, quantity, specification requirements, or other factors, such as environmental soundness.
- Provide clerks with information to print on price tags, such as price, mark-ups or mark-downs, manufacturer number, season code, or style number.
- 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.
- Monitor and analyze sales records, trends, or economic conditions to anticipate consumer buying patterns, company sales, and needed inventory.
- Collaborate with vendors to obtain or develop desired products.
- Train or supervise sales or clerical staff.
- Inspect merchandise or products to determine quality, value, or yield.

## Skills, tools, capabilities

**Knowledge, skills & abilities** (O*NET, highest importance first):
- Negotiation _(transferable_skill)_
- Oral Comprehension _(ability)_
- Oral Expression _(ability)_
- Sales and Marketing _(knowledge)_
- Active Listening _(essential_skill)_
- Speaking _(essential_skill)_
- Critical Thinking _(essential_skill)_
- Persuasion _(transferable_skill)_
- Written Comprehension _(ability)_
- Deductive Reasoning _(ability)_
- Customer and Personal Service _(knowledge)_
- Problem Sensitivity _(ability)_

**Skills in demand:**
- Negotiation _(Common Skill)_
- Deductive Reasoning _(Common Skill)_
- Critical Thinking _(Common Skill)_
- Active Listening _(Common Skill)_
- English Language _(Common Skill)_
- Mathematics _(Common Skill)_
- Speech Recognition _(Specialized Skill)_
- Microsoft PowerPoint _(Common Skill)_
- Microsoft Outlook _(Common Skill)_
- Microsoft Excel _(Common Skill)_
- Active Learning _(Common Skill)_
- Social Perceptiveness _(Common Skill)_

**Tools & technology:**
- Microsoft Excel _(hot technology, in demand)_
- Microsoft Office software _(hot technology, in demand)_
- Microsoft Outlook _(hot technology, in demand)_
- Microsoft PowerPoint _(hot technology, in demand)_
- SAP software _(hot technology, in demand)_
- Eclipse IDE _(hot technology)_
- Facebook _(hot technology)_
- Intuit QuickBooks _(hot technology)_
- Microsoft Access _(hot technology)_
- Microsoft Project _(hot technology)_
- Microsoft SharePoint _(hot technology)_
- Microsoft Windows _(hot technology)_

## AI exposure & outlook

- **AI task-overlap index:** 74th percentile (High) across all occupations — composite of current-era exposure studies (ai-exposure-index-v1).
- **Overall AI exposure (Felten et al.):** 68th percentile (High) — source: felten_aioe.
- **LLM task exposure, γ (OpenAI / Eloundou):** 78th percentile (High) — source: eloundou_gamma.
- **Frey–Osborne (2013, historical computerization estimate):** 39th percentile — kept separate from current-era studies.
- **Remote-capable (Dingel–Neiman):** yes — task structure, not who actually works remote.

## Sources

- **O*NET** (30.3) — U.S. Department of Labor / National Center for O*NET Development. https://www.onetcenter.org/database.html
- **Anthropic Economic Index** (v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27)) — Anthropic. https://www.anthropic.com/economic-index
- **“GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.)** (arXiv 2303.10130) — OpenAI / academic. https://arxiv.org/abs/2303.10130
- **AI Occupational Exposure (AIOE)** (Felten, Raj & Seamans) — academic. https://github.com/AIOE-Data/AIOE
- **Frey & Osborne (2013)** (frey-osborne-automation) — academic. https://www.oxfordmartin.ox.ac.uk/publications/the-future-of-employment/
- **Dingel & Neiman (2020)** (dingel-neiman-workathome) — academic. https://github.com/jdingel/DingelNeiman-workathome

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_Generated from Singulariki's joined dataset; data snapshot 2026-06-02T21:00:32.945303+00:00. https://singulariki.com/roles/role-13-1022-00_