From erik-engheim.medium.com:
'People who do any kind of packaging have learned early that basing units on 12 makes sense. It is easier to pack that way, which is why things historically have been sold by the dozen. A grocer is simply somebody who sells goods by the gross.'
Has it been ruled out completely that 'grocer' comes in part from 'gross' meaning 144?
And from www.etymonline.com:
early 15c. (mid-13c. as a surname), "wholesale dealer, one who buys and sells in gross," corrupted spelling of Anglo-French grosser, Old French grossier, from Medieval Latin grossarius "wholesaler," literally "dealer in quantity" (source also of Spanish grosero, Italian grossista), from Late Latin grossus "coarse (of food), great, gross" (see gross (adj.)). Sense of "a merchant selling individual items of food" is 16c.; in Middle English this was a spicer.
No ruling out there of the senses of 'gross' meaning disgusting, nor '144'.