social and political life 2 - Prashanth...

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UNITFIVE

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Markets

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These two chapters focus on aspects oflife and commercial cycles associated withmarkets. While some of these processesmay be visible and, therefore, easilyobservable, there are also others that arerelatively unfamiliar.

Chapter 8 discusses ‘Markets AroundUs’. At one level, we study different marketsites: a weekly market, neighbourhoodshops, a shopping complex, etc. At anotherlevel, we explore the intricate question,‘how do goods reach these markets?’ Weexamine how a chain of markets operatesand the role of wholesale markets withinthis, through the case study of a wholesalevegetable market. We usually associate‘market’ with marketplaces, but buying andselling takes place in diverse ways and thechapter discusses how all of this fallswithin a larger understanding of markets.

Chapter 9 looks at how markets offerpeople different opportunities. This is donethrough the ‘story of a shirt’, and the chain

of markets involved in the process.Together with understanding each step ofthe manufacture and circulation of a shirt,we realise that some people stand to gainin the market transaction whereas othersdo not gain as much, or none at all. Theopportunities are highly unequal. Ways doexist, such as those of cooperativemarketing, which can provide a betterreturn to the producers. However, we needto find many more viable avenues forequitable distribution.

These chapters offer an opportunity ofbringing in the experience of local marketsfor discussion in the classroom. A visit toa wholesale market would be of interest,and would allow the learner to find out theprofit margins and details of daily earningsso that those inequalities can be directlyexamined. The experiences of markets arevaried and also quite rich. Hence, oneshould allocate time for some questions,not addressed in the text, which studentsmay wish to discuss.

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Markets Around UsWe go to the market to buy many things – vegetables, soap, toothpaste, masala,bread, rice, dal, clothes, notebooks, biscuits, etc. If we make a list of the goodsthat we purchase, it would be really long. There are many kinds of markets thatwe may visit for our everyday needs: these can include shops, hawker’s stalls inour neighbourhood, a weekly market, a large shopping complex, perhaps even amall. In this chapter, we look at some of these markets and try to understandhow the goods that are sold there reach buyers, who these buyers are, who thesesellers are, and the sorts of problems they face.

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96 Social and Political LifeSocial and Political LifeSocial and Political LifeSocial and Political LifeSocial and Political Life

Why do people go to a weeklymarket? Give three reasons.

Who are the sellers in a weeklymarket? Why don’t we find bigbusiness persons in thesemarkets?

Why are things cheap in theweekly market?

Explain with an example howpeople bargain in the market. Canyou think of a situation where thebargain would be unfair?

Sameer is a small trader in the weeklymarket. He buys clothes from a largetrader in the town and sells them in sixdifferent markets in a week. He andother cloth sellers move in groups. Theyhire a mini van for this. His customersare from villages that are near themarketplace. At festival times, such asduring Deepavali or Pongal, he doesgood business.

Sameer: Seller of clothes

Weekly marketWeekly marketWeekly marketWeekly marketWeekly market

A weekly market is so called because it is held on aspecific day of the week. Weekly markets do not havepermanent shops. Traders set up shops for the dayand then close them up in the evening. Then theymay set up at a different place the next day. Thereare thousands of such markets in India. People comehere for their everyday requirements.

Many things in weekly markets are available atcheaper rates. This is because when shops are inpermanent buildings, they incur a lot of expenditure– they have to pay rent, electricity, fees to thegovernment. They also have to pay wages to theirworkers. In weekly markets, these shop owners storethe things they sell at home. Most of them are helpedby their family members and, hence, do not need tohire workers. Weekly markets also have a largenumber of shops selling the same goods which meansthere is competition among them. If some trader wereto charge a high price, people would move to anothershop where the same thing may be available morecheaply or where the buyer can bargain and bringthe price down.

One of the advantages of weekly markets is thatmost things you need are available at one place.Whether you want vegetables, groceries or clothitems, utensils – all of them can be found here. Youdo not have to go to different areas to buy differentthings. People also prefer going to a market wherethey have a choice and a variety of goods.

Shops in the neighbourhoodShops in the neighbourhoodShops in the neighbourhoodShops in the neighbourhoodShops in the neighbourhood

We have seen that the weekly markets offer a varietyof goods. However, we also buy things from otherkinds of markets. There are many shops that sellgoods and services in our neighbourhoods. We maybuy milk from the dairy, groceries from departmentalstores, stationery, eatables or medicines from other

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Sujata and Kavita were sent to buygroceries from their neighbourhoodshop. This was the shop they usuallywent to. It was crowded today. Theshop owner managed the shopherself with two helpers. When theymanaged to get into the shop, Sujatadictated a list to her. She in turnbegan asking her helpers to weighand pack the items. MeanwhileKavita looked around…

On the top left shelf there weredifferent brands of detergent cakes.Another shelf had toothpastes,talcum powder, shampoo, hair oil.The different brands and differentcolours looked so attractive. On thefloor lay a few sacks.

It took almost 20 minutes to weighand pack all the groceries. ThenSujata showed her “notebook.” Thewoman noted the amount ofRs.1550 in the notebook and gaveit back. She also noted the amountin her big register. Then Sujata took the heavy bags out of the shop. Her family will pay for thepurchases in the first week of next month.

Why did Sujata carry a notebook?Do you think this system isuseful? Can there be problems?

What are the different kinds ofshops that you find in yourneighbourhood? What do youpurchase from them?

Why are goods sold in permanentshops costlier than those sold inthe weekly markets or by roadsidehawkers?

Chapter 8: Markets Around Us Markets Around Us Markets Around Us Markets Around Us Markets Around Us

shops. Many of these are permanent shops, whileothers are roadside stalls such as that of thevegetable hawker, the fruit vendor, the mechanic,etc.

Shops in the neighbourhood are useful in manyways. They are near our home and we can go thereon any day of the week. Usually, the buyer and sellerknow each other and these shops also provide goodson credit. This means that you can pay for thepurchases later, as we saw in Sujata’s case, forexample.


Why do you think the guardwanted to stop Kavita and Sujatafrom entering the shop? Whatwould you say if someone stopsyou from entering a shop in amarket?

You might have noticed that there are differentkinds of sellers even in the neighbourhood markets.Some of them have permanent shops and others selltheir goods on the roadside.

Anzal Mall is a five-floor shoppingcomplex. Kavita and Sujata wereenjoying going up and down inthe lift. It seemed as if it wasmade of glass and they were ableto see outside as they went up.It was fascinating to see so manydifferent kinds of shops such asthe ice-cream, burger, pizza andother food shops; shops full ofhome appliances; footwear andleather items as well asbookshops.

While wandering about on thethird floor they entered a shopthat was selling branded ready-made clothes.The security guardlooked at them as if he wantedto stop them but he did not sayanything. They looked at somedresses and then looked at theprice tag. None of them was lessthan Rs 2,000, almost five times the weekly market price! Sujata whispered to Kavita, “I’ll take you toanother shop which has good quality ready-made clothes at more reasonable prices”.

Shopping complexes and mallsShopping complexes and mallsShopping complexes and mallsShopping complexes and mallsShopping complexes and malls

So far we have seen two kinds of marketplaces –weekly markets and markets in our neighbourhood.There are other markets in the urban area that havemany shops, popularly called shopping complexes.These days, in many urban areas, you also have largemulti-storeyed air-conditioned buildings with shopson different floors, known as malls. In these urbanmarkets, you get both branded and non-brandedgoods. As you have read in the chapter on advertising,

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How do you think yourneighbourhood shop gets itsgoods? Find out and explain withsome examples.

Why is a wholesale tradernecessary?

branded goods are expensive, often promoted byadvertising and claims of better quality. Thecompanies producing these products sell themthrough shops in large urban markets and, at times,through special showrooms. As compared to non-branded goods, fewer people can afford to buybranded ones.

Chain of marketsChain of marketsChain of marketsChain of marketsChain of markets

In the previous sections, you have read aboutdifferent markets from where we buy goods. Fromwhere do you think shop-owners procure their goods?Goods are produced in factories, on farms and inhomes. However, we don’t buy directly from thefactory or from the farm. Nor would the producersbe interested in selling us small quantities such asone kilo of vegetables or one plastic mug.

The people in between the producer and the finalconsumer are the traders. The wholesale trader firstbuys goods in large quantities. For example, thevegetable wholesale trader will not buy a few kilos ofvegetables, but will buy in large lots of 25 to 100kilos. These will then be sold to other traders. Inthese markets, buying and selling takes placebetween traders. It is through these links of tradersthat goods reach faraway places. The trader whofinally sells this to the consumer, is the retailer. Thiscould be a trader in a weekly market, a hawker inthe neighbourhood or a shop in a shopping complex.

We can understand this with the help of thefollowing examples –

Every city has areas for wholesale markets. Thisis where goods first reach and are then supplied toother traders. The roadside hawker whom you readabout earlier would have purchased a large quantityof plastic items from a wholesale trader in the town.He, in turn, might have bought these from another,even bigger wholesale trader in the city. The city


Why do people not bargain inshops located in malls whereasthey bargain in weekly markets?

The above map of Delhi shows four of the10 wholesale markets in the city.

Keshopur

Azadpur

Daryaganj

Okhla


Aftab is one of the wholesale traders who purchases in bulk. Hisbusiness starts around 2 o’clock in the morning when vegetablesreach the market. This is the time when the vegetable market ormandi starts buzzing with activity. The vegetables come in trucks,matadors, tractor trolleys from farms both near and far. Soon theprocess of auctions begins. Aftab participates in this auction anddecides what he will buy. Today, for example, he bought 5 quintals ofcauliflower, 10 quintals of onions. He has a shop in the market wherehe stores the vegetables that he has bought. From here he sells tohawkers and shopkeepers who start coming to the market aroundsix in the morning. They have to organise their purchases so thatthey can start their shop for the day around ten in the morning.

Aftab –The wholesaler in the city

wholesale trader would have bought a large quantityof plastic items from the factory and stored them ina godown. In this way, a chain of markets is set up.When we purchase, we may not be aware of the chainof markets through which these goods travel beforethey reach us.

Markets everywhereMarkets everywhereMarkets everywhereMarkets everywhereMarkets everywhere

So far we have seen different marketplaces wherepeople buy and sell a variety of goods and services.All these markets are in a specific locality and workin a particular manner and time. However, it is notalways necessary that one has to go to the market topurchase goods. You can place orders for a varietyof things through the phone and these days throughthe Internet, and the goods are delivered at yourhome. In clinics and nursing homes, you may havenoticed sales representatives waiting for doctors.Such persons are also engaged in the selling of goods.Thus, buying and selling takes place in differentways, not necessarily through shops in the market.

The markets that we looked at above are the onesthat we recognise easily. However, there are marketsthat we may not be so aware of. This is because a

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People in urban areas can enter marketswithout stepping out of their homes viathe Internet. They use their credit cards tomake ‘online purchases’.

large number of goods are bought and sold that wedon’t use directly. For example, a farmer usesfertilisers to grow crops that he purchases fromspecial shops in the city and they, in turn get themfrom factories. A car factory purchases engine, gears,petrol tanks, axles, wheels, etc. from various otherfactories. We don’t usually see all the buying andselling, but only the final product – the car in theshowroom. The story is similar for any other good.

Markets and equalityMarkets and equalityMarkets and equalityMarkets and equalityMarkets and equality

In this chapter, we have looked at shop owners in aweekly market and those in a shopping complex.They are very different people. One is a small traderwith little money to run the shop whereas the otheris able to spend a lot of money to set up the shop.They also earn unequal amounts. The weekly markettrader earns little compared to the profit of a regularshop owner in a shopping complex. Similarly, buyersare differently placed. There are many who are notable to afford the cheapest of goods while others arebusy shopping in malls. Thus, whether we can bebuyers or sellers in these different markets depends,among other things, on the money that we have.

We have also examined the chain of markets thatis formed before goods can reach us. It is through

A car being put together in a factory.



Malls, like the one above, sell expensiveand branded goods.

this chain that what is produced in one place reachespeople everywhere. When things are sold, itencourages production and new opportunities arecreated for people to earn. However, do they offerequal opportunities? We will try to understand thisthrough the story of a shirt in the next chapter.

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EXERCISESEXERCISESEXERCISESEXERCISESEXERCISES

1. In what ways is a hawker different from a shop owner?

2. Compare and contrast a weekly market and a shopping

complex on the following:

Market Kind of goods sold Prices of goods Sellers Buyers

Weekly market

Shopping complex

GlossaryGlossaryGlossaryGlossaryGlossary

Weekly market: These markets are not daily markets but are to be found at a particular place on

one or maybe two days of the week. These markets most often sell everything that a household

needs ranging from vegetables to clothes to utensils.

Mall: This is an enclosed shopping space. This is usually a large building with many floors that has

shops, restaurants and, at times, even a cinema theatre. These shops most often sell branded

products.

Wholesale: This refers to buying and selling in large quantities. Most products, including vegetables,

fruits and flowers have special wholesale markets.

Chain of markets: A series of markets that are connected like links in a chain because products

pass from one market to another.

3. Explain how a chain of markets is formed. What purpose

does it serve?

4. ‘All persons have equal rights to visit any shop in a

marketplace.’ Do you think this is true of shops with

expensive products? Explain with examples.

5. ‘Buying and selling can take place without going to a

marketplace.’ Explain this statement with the help of

examples.


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