Every society, community or country, individuals are always in need of a particular goods and services. Such services or products are obtained from the Market, supermarket, shop outlet and so on which is a place where buying and selling of goods and services takes place. A particular supermarket may focus solely on selling just a type of product while another may sell random things mostly needed in that environment with the aim of making profit.
Marketing is a very general term which is the commercial functions involved in transferring goods and services from a producer to a consumer. It is commonly associated with endeavors such as branding, selling but it also contains activities and processes related to production and product development.
However, many market or shop outlets of the same products, most times have their shop very close to another or literally facing each other. It is understandable for shop or business owners in big markets. Consumers or customers can easily decide wherever he/she wants to buy things. But for a shop outlet in the neighborhood it is really a big challenge and a point of discussion.
For example
I reside at Nnamdi Azikiwe Hall of Residence, University of Ibadan. Oyo state, Nigeria. There are these two shop outlets at the B block, these people are not related also, they do not know each other, but they sell the exact same thing. Most times I feel like why is this? At times I wouldn't like to patronize but because of the circumstance of things, I don't buy. Until now, I haven't bought anything from them. Even though they always have what I want or the quality of it, I still work away. Some of my friends will always say to me that I can easily go to one of the shops and buy whatever I want to buy.
The benefit
Having a system likely creates a chance for probably healthy competition in some cases, especially in a school environment . This will make both of the owners to step up their game and will at all times want to render a quality service because students are easily attracted to quality products. Also getting the best price of commodities. The existence of the other shop owners will not allow the counterpart to increase prices in commodities even when there's scarcity or other reasons
They also try to engage their customers, by asking other questions or cracking jokes. This is to bring about familiarization between the seller and buyers, as this will make such customer to come to patronize the seller again the next time
The disadvantages
Out of 100 of this type of setting, only 1 will love each other, therefore, there's always a solid hatred and rivalry in a system like this. Truth be told we're all humans, imagine customers patronizing the other shop owner for so long, the other will never love the one being patronized. Infact, the hatred goes a long way to the extent that some wish death on each other. Some also go to the extent of bring each other's business down either spiritually or by words
The little investigation that I did, I found out that some environments want it like that, such as school environments. This is so because it brings about healthy competition like I have said earlier and so as to give a better service to consumers or customers. Here in the University of Ibadan, especially in the Halls of Residence,you will always see this kind of system where shop owners or traders sells the same thing and literally face each other or be side by side
In conclusion
I would like to ask, if you find yourself in this kind of situation, what will you do?
Would you rather not patronize neither of the two and go elsewhere like myself or still go ahead and patronize either of the two?
