Category The World Around us

Markets have been around for thousands of years — long before the first shops. They were set up in towns where trading routes crossed. Salesmen, known as pedals, travelled between markets, buying and selling goods. People also sold surplus goods or things that they had made. Goods were often exchanged for other goods, a practice known as bartering, and people always argued, or haggled, over a price.

A market is one of the many varieties of systems, institutions, procedures, social and infrastructures whereby parties engage in exchange. While parties may exchange goods and services by barter, most markets rely on sellers offering their goods or services (including labor power) in exchange for money from buyers. It can be said that a market is the process by which the prices of goods and services are established. Markets facilitate trade and enable the distribution and resource allocation in a society. Markets allow any trade-able item to be evaluated and priced. A market emerges more or less spontaneously or may be constructed deliberately by human interaction in order to enable the exchange of rights (cf. ownership) of services and goods. Markets generally supplant gift economies and are often held in place through rules and customs, such as a booth fee, competitive pricing, and source of goods for sale (local produce or stock registration).

Markets can differ by products (goods, services) or factors (labour and capital) sold, product differentiation, place in which exchanges are carried, buyers targeted, duration, selling process, government regulation, taxes, subsidies, minimum wages, price ceiling, legality of exchange, liquidity, intensity of speculation, size, concentration, exchange asymmetry, relative prices, volatility and geographic extension. The geographic boundaries of a market may vary considerably, for example the food market in a single building, the real estate market in a local city, the consumer market in an entire country, or the economy of an international trade bloc where the same rules apply throughout. Markets can also be worldwide, see for example the global diamond trade. National economies can also be classified as developed markets or developing markets.

In mainstream economics, the concept of a market is any structure that allows buyers and sellers to exchange any type of goods, services and information. The exchange of goods or services, with or without money, is a transaction. Market participants consist of all the buyers and sellers of a good who influence its price, which is a major topic of study of economics and has given rise to several theories and models concerning the basic market forces of supply and demand. A major topic of debate is how much a given market can be considered to be a “free market”, that is free from government intervention. Microeconomics traditionally focuses on the study of market structure and the efficiency of market equilibrium; when the latter (if it exists) is not efficient, then economists say that a market failure has occurred. However, it is not always clear how the allocation of resources can be improved since there is always the possibility of government failure.

Shopping habits have changed enormously in the past 100 years. At one time, goods were mainly purchased from various specialist shops – meat from a butcher and vegetables from a greengrocer, for example. In many countries, it is now more common for households to buy everything from one store and to visit shopping centres, where individual shops are housed under one roof. Also, since the late 1990s, the Internet has allowed more and more people to do their shopping without leaving home.

When I was young most of the shopping was done in traditional shops including the local Butchers, Bakers, Grocers and Newsagents.

Over the years as supermarkets appeared some of those traditional shops closed down and small corner shops selling many of the same things started to appear, often staying open much later than the new supermarkets. As the supermarkets stayed open for longer and longer hours even many of the small corner shops disappeared. As the supermarkets (Hyper markets) have grown larger and more have appeared other areas of shopping which have been affected include Clothing, Hardware, Car Spares and many other areas.

We have created this section hoping to get memories from those who ran and those who shopped at the traditional Butchers, Bakers and greengrocers and your views on what we have lost due to these changes.
As consumers we have gained through better prices often more consistent quality and often better choice but are we really better off.

The concept of a department store goes back in history to late 1800’s but has evolved and changed as has the rest of the shops. Originally most of the department stores were independent and owned locally in the city they traded. This has been the biggest change in the last 50 years where now a single company may own 20 brands trading in City centres and out of town Malls.

Department stores are identified by the fact they sell a wide range of products including clothing, furniture, appliances, toiletries, cosmetics, jewelry, toys, and sporting goods. Two of the best examples of the largest of these Department Stores could be considered as Macy’s in New York and Harrods in London.

In some areas as changes have evolved the distinction between a department store and a supermarket has been eroded a good example of this would be Walmart who originally were considered a discount department store but now could be called (Department Store, Supermarket, Hyper market or a discount department store) as Walmart has moved into food and grocery and have built new superstores that are large enough to sell the traditional products they started with together with a full range of foods and grocery’s . As another example Marks and Spencer in the UK has added large food courts and furniture sales as part of their newer and larger stores so the distinction between supermarket and department store continues to become harder to identify.

The goods or services that one country sells to another are called exports; the things that it buys from abroad are called imports. Imports need to be paid for with the money made from exports — the balance between the two is called the balance of payments. Not all countries can afford to pay for everything that they need, so they borrow money from wealthier countries and large banks. This has led in part to the large gap between the world’s richest and poorest countries. Many so-called “developing countries” need to use all the money they make from trade simply to repay the interest on loans.

Balance of Payment (BOP) is a statement which records all the monetary transactions made between residents of a country and the rest of the world during any given period. This statement includes all the transactions made by/to individuals, corporates and the government and helps in monitoring the flow of funds to develop the economy. When all the elements are correctly included in the BOP, it should sum up to zero in a perfect scenario. This means the inflows and outflows of funds should balance out. However, this does not ideally happen in most cases.

BOP statement of a country indicates whether the country has a surplus or a deficit of funds i.e. when a country’s export is more than its import, its BOP is said to be in surplus. On the other hand, BOP deficit indicates that a country’s imports are more than its exports. Tracking the transactions under BOP is something similar to the double entry system of accounting. This means, all the transaction will have a debit entry and a corresponding credit entry.

Most of the world’s countries trade goods and services between themselves. The transactions that take place make up the World economy. The global marketplace exists partly because countries need things that they cannot produce themselves. Also, richer countries will buy goods from places where the costs of production are low and the goods are cheap. Modern transport and communications have allowed the world economy to develop.

The term world economy refers to all of the economic activity within each country and between countries around the world. It makes sense that as the population of the world has increased, and as technologies such an air travel and the Internet have made communication between people throughout the world easier, that the world economy has grown. It has also become more important and more complex. When one country does well, other countries see a boost in their economies. Conversely, when one country does poorly, other countries can suffer. The countries of the world are now interdependent. Basically, this means that we all have an interest in working together. As a business owner, you have an interest in making sure that Germany is able to meet the demands of its consumers.

This concept of being tied together in order to have free trade, cheaper foreign markets and free trade is known as globalization. Globalization has allowed for trading between countries with less restriction. And thus, business can sell their products all over the world and consumers can have a plethora of products from various countries to choose from.

In order to understand what the world economy is, you must first understand what an economy is. An economy is all the activity that is related to producing and consuming goods and services in a specific area. For example, the city of Chicago has a unique economy. This economy takes into account all of the goods created in the city. These goods are tangible items such as computer screens that are created in a factory, and they are intangible products such as new software and new websites that are created by individuals and companies in Chicago. The Chicago economy also takes into account companies that provide services in Chicago, such as restaurants and city tours. All of the business conducted in the city adds up, and citizens of Chicago find they are either in a good economy or a bad economy. A good economy means that, as a whole, the businesses in Chicago are making a profit–they are growing and making money. A bad economy means that, generally speaking, companies in Chicago are not doing well–they are struggling to find customers and perhaps laying people off or cutting wages in response.

The same principle applies to a country. The United States’ economy is good or bad based on the performance of businesses throughout the country. Each country on earth has an economy and, as you might predict, those businesses and economies interact. The result of that interaction is called the world economy.