Results of the 1992 Census of Wholesale Trade show that out of 495,457 establishments, 445,438 operated the entire year and had sales totaling $3,176 billion. Of this number, 19.6 percent or 87,390 had sales of $5 million or more and accounted for 85.5 percent of the total sales. In 1987, 17.1 percent or 72,820 establishments that operated the entire year had sales of $5 million or more and accounted for 82.8 percent of total sales.

Only 14.2 percent of wholesale establishments with paid employees had 20 employees or more, but they accounted for 64.3 percent of total sales. Groceries and related products wholesalers had 8,744 establishments with 20 employees or more followed by machinery, equipment, and supplies wholesalers with 7,618 establishments and professional and commercial equipment and supplies wholesalers with 6,963 establishments. Out of 69 kind-ofbusiness groups these three accounted for 36.9 percent of all wholesale establishments with 20 employees or more.

In 1992, there were 386,609 firms operating 495,457 wholesale establishments. Over 89.9 percent of these firms operated only one establishment (single units) and they accounted for 30.8 percent of the total sales. Multiestablishment firms operated 10.2 percent of these establishments and accounted for 69.2 percent of the total

sales. Multiestablishment firms averaged $15.1 million in sales at each location while firms operating only a single establishment averaged $2.9 million. There were 114 multiestablishment firms that operated more than 100 wholesale establishments (.029 percent of all wholesale firms). Although small in number, their sales were $425.1 billion and they operated 4.6 percent of the Nation's wholesale establishments with 13.1 percent of the total sales.

There was a decrease in the percent of sales attributed to the 4, 8, 20, and 50 largest firms between the 1987 and 1992 censuses. For example, the four largest firms accounted for 5.5 percent of the total sales in 1992, compared to 6.3 percent in 1987 and the eight largest firms had 7.7 percent in 1992 compared to 9.0 percent in 1987. Photographic equipment and supplies wholesalers had the highest sales concentration with the four largest firms accounting for 64.3 percent of the sales followed by automobiles and other motor vehicles wholesalers with 57.4 percent. The most diversified industry was used motor vehicle parts wholesalers with the top four firms accounting for only 2.5 percent of the total sales and the top 50 firms accounting for 13.0 percent.