BUYER, one who purchases or acquires by barter. The individual buyer purchases commodities for himself through the expenditure of his own money, or its equivalent. As commonly used, however, the term refers to the authorized purchasing agent for some other individual, firm or institution. On the stock ex change, the buyer or broker is an individual or a firm legally invested with the power of buying stocks and bonds upon order from the purchaser.
The term "buyer" in business parlance, refers usually to an individual buying for the retail and wholesale trade. Large depart ment stores are of a great number of departments, each specializing in a given line of commodities. Each of these depart ments is headed by a buyer, that is, a man or woman employed by the store owner, to buy on the market such articles as are required to keep the department running. The department store buyer differs from a stock exchange broker in that all the buying of the former is done on the department store's credit, the buyer serving as an intermediary between the manufacturer and the store-keeper. Invested with the right of buying what he considers his store's clientele demands, he selects his goods and instructs the manu facturer from whom he buys to submit the bill directly to the store owner. He is responsible for seeing that the merchandise he buys is fresh and strong in selling appeal. It is his duty to select the best quality at the lowest possible price, and to undersell corre sponding departments in other stores, whenever possible. In the highly organized systems of operation recently adopted by the larger and more progressive department stores a merchandise man ager is put in charge of three or four kindred departments. Such a manager is responsible for the profit and loss figures of the de partments under his control. The buyer, however, is still the active purchasing agent for his particular department, and his relationship to the merchandise manager is one of co-worker, rather than subordinate.