Daily AncestorDry goods merchant
A dry goods merchant kept a store selling cloth, thread, clothing and similar goods; in American usage dry goods meant textiles, not food.
In the United States dry goods were textiles, ready-made clothing, blankets and some grocery items that held no liquid, while in Britain the phrase meant dry foods. Dry goods stores spread from the mid-1700s, bringing cloth and supplies to settlements and homesteads.
The 1870 and 1880 instructions used dry goods merchant as the model entry for a merchant whose line took more than one word, and from 1910 enumerators were to write retail or wholesale merchant, dry goods.
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Daily Ancestor. "Dry goods merchant." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/occupations/dry-goods-merchant. Last checked 2026-10-10.