In: Economics
In what way does a mobile supermarket change the distribution channel? Justify your answer. I WILL RATE! (marketing question but that is not a subject choice)
Mobile supermarket is a van which drives in a particular city to sell groceries to customers. A traditional supermarket channel is when retail distributors source groceries either from the farmers or middlemen, and then the groceries are sold to the customers. A mobile supermarket would also function in the similar manner, they would buy from farmers and middlemen who work for the manufacturers, transfer it to their vans and then sell them to the consumer.
Now for products which are manufactured by multinational companies, the marketing channel is manufacturer -> transportation company -> public warehouse -> transportation company -> Bottlers and distributors -> supermarket-> consumers.
Now in a mobile supermarket all this would be the same just the supermarket will be covered by mobile supermarket, as the products will have to be sourced in a similar manner. In an extreme case scenario, it could directly source form the manufacturer, then the distributor channel will be eradicated, but for that one needs bulk orders, for small scale orders distributors would be required.
The number of warehouses would increase which could lead room for advanced efficiency. Human workers would reduce from the supply chain as robotic channels would be used to deliver goods and services.