tma 02- outline the view that supermarkets both provide and limit choice.

by emma1980 (student)

University Degree Business and Administrative studies

Introduction- Brief description on what a consumer society is?

Topics being discussed

Main points- The seduced

The repressed- Concepts by Zygmunt Bauman

Rich and the poor- social exclusion.

Campaigns against Tesco

STOP- Stop Tesco Owning Patrick

Market Power- Advantages and disadvantages

Buying Power- Cost-Prices

Anti-Supermarket lobby

Pro-Supermarket lobby

Zero-sum game- Dennis Wrong

Positive-sum game

Power of the supermarket

Conclusion- Summary of the above

Divided opinion

TMA 2- Outline who are the winners and losers in a consumer society.

This essay will show how a consumer society contains both winners and losers based on concepts by Zygmunt Bauman. It will also show the difference between the repressed and the seduced, it will look at claims and counterclaims and finally the power of the large supermarkets using the concepts of Dennis Wrong.

A consumer society is the society in which we all live, what we buy and why we buy them is what a lot of social scientists would call a ‘consumer society’. We fall into two categories, the seduced and the repressed according to the social scientist (Zygmunt Bauman, pg 25, making social lives. 2009). The seduced is by Bauman’s claims; the wealthier side of the consumer society, wearing the right brand of clothing or sporting the right logo identifies someone as belonging to a certain social group. For people to fit into that category they must have a high standing in the community or be able to show that they have sufficient income. Most of the seduced will be employed full-time with a wealthy lifestyle giving them the opportunity to purchase goods and services as they want them not just as they need them. If you are in the seduced category it gives you a higher social standing in the consumer society. Seduced consumers could be doctors, lawyers, businessmen, anyone with a positive identity. They are most likely to all live in a higher class area, have the luxuries of cars, laptops and mobile phones to list just a few. Failure in having those items would mean they may face social exclusion.

The repressed are the opposite of the seduced. Bauman classes them as the lower class, probably non-working whether due to disabilities or lack of employment making social divisions. They cannot effectively participate. Also in this category would be low income families or part-time workers on temporary work placements.

The presence of a big new Tesco or Asda superstore for example has often been linked to the closure of the old family butcher or greengrocers shop. The losers in this battle are not only the smaller shops but also the people who would prefer to buy there meat or fresh ...

This is a preview of the whole essay

It is safe to assume that the power a supermarket has over smaller retailers has been around for some time. Since the 1960’s when supermarket chains started to expand through to the modern day where you are now likely to see a Tesco store on every corner in some towns. For most this has been a convenient way to shop, not only for locality, but for most, especially families the fact you can access almost anything all under one roof. However this isn’t the case for all. In certain areas there have been local residents who have set up campaigns one of which is STOP (Stop Tesco owning Patrick, pg. 62), which was set up in 2007 by the local residents of Patrick a town in Glasgow West of Scotland, they claim that a corporate superstore will erode the liveliness of their neighbourhood as well as destroying the smaller retailers. Also across the UK smaller retailers can’t compete with the buying power of supermarkets and therefore cant survive not only through the larger stores but with the vast amount of tesco metro’s being built due to planning permissions repeatedly being accepted, making the competition too great for them to stay in business. This is classed as market power.

Market power refers to the ability of supermarkets to act in the marketplace in ways that their rivals can do little or nothing about. It gives them advantages over smaller retailers for example they could charge different prices depending if the competition is strong or not. However the buying power in the larger chains have an advantage over smaller suppliers as there in favour to buy in bulk and therefore can gain discounts when buying from clothing subcontractors, farmers and food manufacturers.

Supermarket chains see that the consumers, workers, suppliers and the communities are being benefited by the supermarket now that cost prices are lower than before. They see it as helping others out of poverty for factory owners and workers abroad as there on better wages due to the raised standards for suppliers, also the vast amount of supermarkets being built such as Tesco’s creates hundreds of jobs for the unemployed what with far more 24 hour stores now being produced.

So does the power of supermarkets widen or narrow shopping choices? In the argument for anti-supermarket lobby it is claimed in (chapter 2, Allen, page 93, making social lives, 2009) that supermarkets restrict our choice over where we shop and also that the cost of low prices is Bourne by suppliers and their workforces, the assumption for this is a Zero-sum game (Wrong, D, 1997, pg. 70) because supermarkets flourish at the expense of local high-street stores, and also that cheap shopping is at the expense of vulnerable workers at home and abroad. The evidence for these claims could be the falling number of independently owned shops, local market statistics, factory surveys and local case studies to highlight poverty and hardship.

In the argument for Pro-supermarket lobby it is claimed that supermarkets provide a wide choice of cheap goods at convenient locations, also that exploiting workers to supply cheap goods has led to an improvement in living standards. The assumption for this is a positive-sum game because both consumers and local communities benefit from affordable goods and supermarket led regeneration and also the shared exploitation of cheap labour benefits all parties involved, even sweatshop labour. The evidence for this could be the local regeneration studies and national market statistics, factory visits and local wage level comparisons to highlight improved living standards.

Another claim is that supermarkets can restrict choice by having roads made to bypass other shops and access to a town centre to direct straight to a supermarket, the evidence for this would be the deteriation of that particular town. The counterclaim is that nobody can make us shop at a supermarket, but do the supermarkets use their economic power to make it difficult for us not to fall into line with their interests. This could be classed as domination, or it could be seduction, (Allen, 2009, pg. 67), where you are pulled towards what is on offer at a particular supermarket simply because the range of goods is more enticing. The evidence for this could be local surveys or advertisements for certain products on offer.

So opinion is divided when it comes to choice, as everyone does have a choice over where they shop or would ‘like’ to shop, but also as discussed above, the corporate supermarkets do both provide and limit choice, they provide 1000’s of jobs for the unemployed, they have the lowest prices on offer in years making it ideal for families with their vast range of goods on offer, plus the convenience of these stores is undeniable. However these stores do affect a lot of local retailer’s livelihoods and also

the people who would prefer to shop at their local market or greengrocers, this would almost put all in the long run out of business which in effect leaves most without a choice over where they can purchase their goods.

Word Count- 1238

References-

Bauman, Z. Hetherington, K., ‘One-stop shopping: the power of supermarkets’, in Taylor, S., Hinchcliffe, S.,Clarke,J, and Bromley, S. (eds) Making Social Lives, Milton Keynes, The Open University.

Stop Tesco Owning Patrick (STOP) (undated) [online], (Accessed 19 November 2008).

Wrong. D (1997) Power: Its forms, Bases and Uses, New Brunswick, NJ, and London, Transaction Publishers.

Allen. J (2009) ‘One-stop shopping: the power of supermarkets’, in Taylor,S.,Hinchcliffe,S.,Clarke,J, and Bromley,S. (Eds) Making Social Lives, Milton Keynes, The Open University.