There are a number of different alternatives that retailers might consider to be suitable sources of supply. The choice will depend
on factors that are principally associated with the size of the purchasing retail company. For example, a large multiple retailers such as Sainsbury's will require huge quantities of mainstream products such as Heinz tomato ketchup to be delivered on a regular basis and so suppliers must have sufficient production capacity to satisfy the order level required by the retailer. Heinz, on the other hand, would not be interested in supplying a local convenience store with their weekly order of one dozen bottles of ketchup directly, so these products have to be obtained by small retailers via a wholesaler. The challenge for both retailers and producers is to find a suitable match between supply source and distribution channel