Review of Professional Management
issue front

Arati Basu, NDIM1

First Published 30 Jun 2008. https://doi.org/10.1177/rpm.2008.6.1.3
Article Information Volume 6, Issue 1 Jan-June-2008

{An Extract from the author's Research Report prepared for NDIM)1

Abstract

Retailers are intermediaries between the producers/ suppliers and final consumers. They are physically closest to the final users of goods and services. At a stage when the exchange in the economy is simple and localized, retailing is not seen as major economic activity that adds value. Rather it is looked upon as the part of production through which the value of the commodity created through production is realized by the act of delivering it to the consumer. With economic growth and technological progress, scale of production turns large as well as dispersed in different locations. Production is no more carried out for local markets. Products move from the place of origin to distant market places and distance is created between location of production and the consumer. Consequently, trading activates (wholesale and retailing) gains importance for reaching out to the consumer. As Local fragmented markets get connected with distant places, retail business gets complex and transforms from simple act of vending to visible economic activities through transportation, warehousing, and merchandising. Gradually, urban city centers become the hub of trade - buying and selling of a range of commodities of daily necessities as well as luxury goods. Demand pulls for goods and services are created through these markets. Cities become retail centres due to density of population, connectivity, urban life style being more market dependent.


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