Rubric – MT459_Unit6_Assignment.pdf
Follow Rubric guidelines. APA format. 1-2 pages.
Case Study 1
Finland, like the United States,
is a wealthy country. Its economy is open—providing consumers a wide variety of
choices when it comes to consumer products. What sets Finland apart, though, is
that the country keeps very detailed records about its citizens—including
everything from the ages, sex, and incomes of people living in the same
household, the amount they spend annually on commuting, and vehicle purchases.
Consider this:
Researchers have determined that when a Finnish household buys a new car, the odds
that one of that household’s nearest 10 neighbors will purchase the same brand
of vehicle during the next week and a half increases by 86 percent!
Question 1:
What factors
contained in Chapter 10 might be used to explain this phenomenon?
Case Study 2
Costco Wholesale, the warehouse
membership outlet, is the fifth largest retailer in the United States. Founded
in Seattle in 1983, and merged with Price Club in 1993, the company now runs
457 stores. While most of its locations are in the United States, the company
operates outlets in Canada, the United Kingdom, Taiwan, South Korea, and Japan.
Its two largest competitors are Sam’s Club (owned by Wal-Mart) and BJ’s
Wholesale Club (started by Zayre’s).
Because it is
a membership club, the 44.6 million Costco consumers each pay $45 a year, and
small businesses pay $100 annually. Each location stocks approximately 4,000
types of items, but only a few brands or versions of each. For example, Costco
may stock only four brands of toothpaste, while a typical Wal-Mart may carry 60
brands and sizes of toothpaste, and over 100,000 different types of items.
Costco
attempts to keep prices low, to make it impossible for another retailer to
offer the same merchandise for less. Their cardinal rule is that no branded
item can be marked up more than 14 percent, and no private-label item by more
than 15 percent. As a comparison, supermarkets often use a 25 percent markup,
and department stores typically mark up merchandise by 50 percent or more.
Question 2:
From what you
already know about Costco (if you are already a Costco customer), and/or from
what you can gather from the company’s Web site (www.costco.com), what social classes in America
would you consider to be Costco customers?
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