Retail means selling products directly to regular people who will use them, rather than to other businesses. When you buy a book at a bookstore, a toy at a toy shop, or groceries at the supermarket, you're shopping at retail stores. The price you pay is called the retail price.

Retail is the final step in how products reach you. A company might manufacture thousands of shirts in a factory, sell them in bulk to stores at a lower wholesale price, and then those stores sell individual shirts to customers at retail. The difference between what the store pays and what you pay covers the store's costs: rent, employees, electricity, and hopefully some profit.

The word can also mean “at the regular consumer price,” like when someone jokes that concert tickets are selling at retail for $50 but scalpers are charging twice that. Retailers are the businesses doing this selling: Target, your local hardware store, and even online shops like Amazon all count as retailers. They're the bridge between manufacturers and you.

Some people work in retail, meaning they help customers in stores, stock shelves, or run cash registers. It's demanding work that requires patience and people skills.