Going to the Marketplace

Alex sees people making things at the marketplace. A producer is someone who makes something. A producer creates something they can sell. Many different things can be created to sell in the marketplace. Think about the different jobs that are in the community. What kinds of goods do those jobs make? Click on an image to see what goods that person produces.

She makes jewelry.

He grows food to eat.

He makes clothes to wear.

A person who creates something is a producer. A producer is part of the marketplace.

Alex sees many people buying things at the marketplace. A consumer is someone who buys things. A consumer is part of the marketplace. The marketplace needs consumers. Producers need someone to buy their goods and services. Everyone is a consumer. Everyone needs to buy something from the marketplace. People buy things they cannot make for themselves.

Think about the things you need every day. You have to buy these things to use them. Click on an image to see what goods you have to buy. Those goods make you a consumer!

You need to buy food.

You need to buy colored pencils.

You need to buy shoes.

Alex sees a lot of buying and selling going on at the marketplace. This is called economics. Economics is everything that is happening in the marketplace. It is also known as the economy. That is when you buy or sell things using money. When goods are bought and sold, that is economics. When people give money for services, that is economics. When someone decides to sell their bikes for a cheaper price, that is economics. When someone opens a new business, that is economics.

Telling people about the things that you sell is part of economics, too. You want people to know about all the things you are selling. What is the name of the thing you are selling? How many people like your items? Where do they need to go to buy your items? People want to know where to go buy things, so that is important information to put in ads.

Alex sees competition at the marketplace. Competition in the marketplace is great. Competition is when you try to do your very best to be the winner. Competition allows people to find the best prices for the things they want to get. People who are selling things decide on what price they want to sell their goods and services for. The person with the best item or the lowest price can be the winner. Consumers look for the best items. They look for low prices. This helps keep good competition in the marketplace. If there were no competition, then producers could sell their goods and services for any price they wanted. That is because people would still need to buy these things.

Let’s look at these examples.

ONE BAKER

Let’s say you need to buy a loaf of bread. If there is only one baker in town, he could sell his bread for whatever price he wanted because there is no one else to buy bread from. You have to go to this one place to buy your bread. You would have to pay his price or go without bread.

TWO BAKERS

But, if there are two bakers in the town, then there is competition. Both bakers want to be the best. They both want people to buy their bread. They both want their bread to taste the best. They both want their bread to sell at a low price so that people can afford to buy their bread. Competition helps the marketplace!

Sales are things that are happening in the marketplace. Sales are when someone buys a good. Let’s look at the example of the baker again. When someone buys bread from the bakery, that is a sale! The baker has sold his goods. You can also buy or sell services. Walking dogs is a service. You can pay someone to walk your dog. That would be a sale! All producers want to make sales.

When people are making sales, they are making money. Money is an important part of the marketplace. It helps to keep the economy going. Remember that the economy is when you buy or sell goods with money.

Alex is ready to buy something. He needs to buy some vegetables for a salad for dinner tonight. Alex decides to buy tomatoes. He really loves tomatoes. There are enough tomatoes to buy. There is plenty of lettuce and cucumbers, too. He gets both of those.

Alex finds some fresh fruit in the marketplace. His favorite are strawberries. There are no strawberries available. They are all sold out. There are no more. That means strawberries are scarce. Alex will have to choose a different fruit or go home without any fruit. He decides to wait for his strawberries. When things are scarce, you have to be patient. The thing that you want will come back to the marketplace again. You just have to wait. Or you can choose something else.

Alex buys his vegetables. He decides to get black olives and feta cheese, too. This will be a great salad! Now, he is ready to go home to prepare salad for his family’s dinner.