A

1. What is the significance of producing for the market?

2. When is a product finished ?

3. How did markets arise?

4. What determined their location ?

5. What kinds of goods were first produced for the market?

6. Just how important is the place of the retailer in marketing ?

7. What did the Great War teach about marketing?

8. What is the difference between a retailer and a middleman?

9. Why are there so many different kinds of middlemen in marketing?

10. Of what value is the wholesaler or commission merchant?

11. What are some of the wastes in indirect marketing?

12. How far would direct marketing eliminate these wastes ?

13. Why do department stores maintain free rest-rooms?

14. Who pays the expense of maintaining them?

15. How does credit lead to waste, particularly in retailing?

16. What groups of individuals might object to more direct methods of marketing?

17. How valid are the claims of department stores that they sell goods cheaper than their competitors in special lines ?

18. What effect has variety of stock on volume of trade ?

19. What is the chief objection urged against the mail-order house ?

20. How valid is this objection?

21. What is a "chain store"?

22. Why can a variety store usually offer goods at excessively low prices ?

23. What lines of goods are best adapted to sell directly to consumers ?

B

1. Trace a quantity of iron ore through its different processes of production, pointing out the different markets in which it is offered for sale. Do the same with corn, wheat, and cotton.

2. Mention any articles of your own production which you have consumed.

3. Imagine yourself in an early English market place.

a. Where was it located?

b. What kinds of goods were offered for exchange ?

c. What difficulties were encountered in making exchanges?

d. Was bargaining characterized by "higgling"? Explain.

e. How important was the part played by money ?

4. Suppose you decide to follow the "cash and carry" plan of buying groceries and meats.

a. How much time would you consume each day in going to the markets ?

b. Would these trips involve wear and tear on shoes and clothing ?

c. Can goods be carried more cheaply than they can be hauled ?

d. Is your time worth more or less than that of a delivery boy?

e. Would you be more likely to buy with greater care than if you telephoned your orders ?

f. Weigh the advantages and disadvantages of marketing in person, i. Which has the greater weight ? ii. Is the weight as great as is sometimes thought?

5. Give some instances from your own experience or observation, of attempts to bring producers and consumers closer together.

a. How well did these attempts succeed? b. Did any one oppose them? Who? Why?

6. A merchant requests you to draw up plans for the establishment of a chain of stores.

a. What kind of business would you suggest? Why?

b. In what cities would you establish stores?

c. What sort of sites would you desire to utilize ?

d. How would the choice of cities and sites be influenced by the character of the business?

C

1. "The greatest need in the modern industrial world is to bring the producer and the consumer together." a. Is this a universal opinion ? Why, or why not ?

b. Who would be likely to hold an opposite opinion ?

c. What steps would be necessary in making such a change ?

d. Who would profit most?

e. Who would suffer ?

2. During the past decade two or three men have made millions of dollars in operating chains of restaurants.

a. What particular advantage has the chain store in the restaurant business?

b. Which types of restaurants still predominate in the cities ?

c. What is the present tendency?

d. How does a rise in the prices of foodstuffs affect the different types of restaurants?

3. The chief argument advanced by retailers against mail-order houses is that the people would profit by spending their money at home.

a. Do mail-order houses undersell local merchants ? Discuss.

b. Just how far is this argument valid?

c. To what extent is advertising a factor in the success of the mail-order house?

d. Can local merchants use to advantage the methods employed by mail-order houses? How?

e. How may local newspapers be used to advantage by local merchants in their competition with mail-order houses? 4. Discuss with a live local merchant the economies claimed by mail-order houses. Ask him to compare prices and quality. Which offers the best value ?

Supplementary Reading Ely, Outlines of Economics, 3d ed., page 154.