Chapter 7 — Markets Around Us

A weekly market is held on a specific day of the week at a particular place. Traders set up shops for the day and close them in the evening; they may move to a different location the next day. There are thousands of such markets across India, where people come for their everyday requirements.

Sellers in weekly markets store goods at home and rely on family members instead of hired workers, so they avoid costs like rent, electricity, government fees, and wages. Competition among the many sellers offering the same goods also pushes prices down, and buyers can bargain further.

Most things a household needs — vegetables, groceries, cloth, utensils — are available at one place, so buyers do not have to travel to different areas for different goods. The variety and choice also attract shoppers.

Neighbourhood shops are permanent shops or roadside stalls such as vegetable hawkers, fruit vendors, and mechanics located close to homes. They are open every day of the week, the buyer and seller usually know each other, and these shops often provide goods on credit, meaning payment can be made later.

Permanent shops pay rent, electricity charges, government fees, and worker wages. These costs are added to the price of goods, making them more expensive than those sold in weekly markets or by roadside hawkers.

Shopping complexes are urban markets with many shops. Malls are large multi-storeyed air-conditioned buildings with shops on different floors. They sell both branded and non-branded goods. Branded goods are promoted through advertising and claimed to be of better quality, but are expensive and fewer people can afford them.

The chapter contrasts the two: in malls, prices are fixed and branded goods are sold at set rates, while in weekly markets the large number of competing sellers allows buyers to move to another stall or bargain to bring the price down.

Goods produced in factories, farms, or homes do not reach consumers directly. Wholesale traders first buy in large quantities and sell to other traders. Eventually, the retailer — a weekly market trader, a hawker, or a shop in a complex — sells to the final consumer. This series of connected markets is called the chain of markets.

A wholesale trader buys goods in large quantities — for example, 25 to 100 kilos of vegetables — from producers or larger traders. Every city has wholesale market areas where goods first arrive and are then supplied to smaller traders. Wholesale traders make it possible for goods to reach faraway places.

The retailer is the trader who finally sells goods directly to the consumer. This could be a trader in a weekly market, a hawker in the neighbourhood, or a shop in a shopping complex.

Yes. You can order goods by phone or through the internet and have them delivered home. Sales representatives also visit clinics and nursing homes to sell goods. So buying and selling can take place in many ways without going to a market.

No. Small weekly market traders earn very little compared to large shop owners in shopping complexes. Among buyers, some cannot afford even the cheapest goods while others shop in malls. Whether a person can be a buyer or seller in different markets depends largely on the money they have.

Yes — the official NCERT PDF of Social and Political Life II Chapter 7 is free and available without any sign-up or payment on this site.