page_title: Dry goods
section_title: US usage
hierarchical_section_title: Dry goods / US usage
caption_attribution_description: English: Dry Goods Store materials of cloth and thread
context_page_description: Dry goods is a historic term describing the type of product line a store carries, which differs by region. The term comes from the textile trade, and the shops appear to have spread with the mercantile trade across the British colonial territories as a means of bringing supplies and manufactured goods to far-flung settlements and homesteads that were spreading globally. Starting in the mid-18th century, these stores began by selling supplies and textile goods to remote communities, and many customized the products they carried to the area's needs. This continued to be the trend well into the early 20th century. With the rise of department stores and catalog sales, the decline of dry goods stores began, and the term has largely fallen out of use. Some dry goods stores became department stores especially around the turn of the 20th century.
context_section_description: In the United States, dry goods are products such as textiles, ready-to-wear clothing, sundries,, and "grocery items (such as tobacco, sugar, flour, and coffee) that do not contain liquid". In US retailing, a dry-goods store carries consumer goods that are distinct from those carried by hardware stores and grocery stores.
  Dry goods as a term for textiles dates back to 1742 in England or even a century earlier. Dry goods can be carried by stores specializing only in those products (a type of specialty store), or may be carried by a general store or a department store.
  Beginning in the early 20th century, many dry goods stores expanded into other lines of merchandise, and the term largely disappeared from both everyday usage and the official names of the businesses concerned.
caption: Dry Goods Store materials
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