Account for the rise and subsequent decline of consumer industries in MEDC's

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a)      Outline the main characteristics of consumer industries (5)

b)      Account for the rise and subsequent decline of consumer industries in MEDC’s (20)

A) Consumer industries are those that produce goods that are demanded by the market for consumption, the kind of goods produced relate strongly to market trends and fashions. The majority of consumer industries gain economies of scale, this is where the cost of a product is lowered in the long run by producing a large number of the same product. Having a large output, making use of automation, locating manufacturing in NIC's (newly industrialising countries) and having a standard design for a product are all common characteristics shared by consumer industries.

B) In the UK the rise of consumer industries began for the middle class in the 1920s with white goods such as fridges. However consumer industries have not been steadily growing since then.

There have been growth spurts, and several depressions: mainly due to wars or economic disasters  such as the 1973 oil crisis – in the 1980s the consumer industries began to weaken in terms of employment.

The 1960s, or the “age of mass consumption”, was the period of time in which, consumer industries saw their greatest growth. This was largely due to an increase of technology and a higher disposable income, meaning goods could be produced for a lower cost and that more people could afford to buy things in addition to necessities. People in MEDCs had a larger disposable income because everyday goods like food and clothes were being manufactured (or grown) abroad in LEDCs and could be transported to MEDCs for much cheaper than before, therefore people could buy these goods for less money (relatively), in addition to this wages in general were rising because of a strong economies in MEDCs.

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The automobile industry is one of the biggest success stories of the consumer industries. In 1943, E.B White said “Everything in life is somewhere else, and you get there in a car.” This has become more and more true since then (with out of town shopping centres and motorways).

The rise of the automobile industry began with a demand for motorised personal transport, this led to the production and supply of cars. Initially each car would be made by a few workers building one car at a time, making car ownership prohibitively expensive.

However Henry Ford observed that ...

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