Question

There are four market structures - perfect competition, monopolistic competition, oligopoly, and monopoly. 1. Visit a retailer that you feel has the characteristics that are most close to the monopolistic competitive market structure.

a. Provide the name and location of the retailer (You can use online retailers. If you do, provide the website).

b. Describe its characteristics and how they differ from a perfect competition market structure. 2. Visit a retailer or business that you feel has the characteristics that are most close to an oligopoly market structure.

a. Provide the name and location of the retailer or business (If you use online organizations, provide the website).

b. Describe its characteristics and how these differ from the characteristics of a monopoly.

Answer 1

A market is a place where households get products and services to satisfy their needs and wants. There are different market according to the features of the products and services such as perfect competition, monopolistic, oligopoly and monopoly.

1. An example of a monopolistic competitive market structure is the fast-food industry as monopolistic market explains the competition among the firms with differentiated products.

A fast-food shop named as Chinese food corner near the central market and its characteristics are different from the perfect competition as:

• It provides a variety of Chinese dishes with providing an additional finishing touch of its chefs, which makes it different from other food shops in the market.
• Seller of fast-food dishes can charge different price from other sellers in the market that is not the case in perfect competition.
• Buyers in this market have elastic demand as any change in the price level will shift the consumer preferences to other alternatives, and so on.

2. An example of oligopolistic competitive market structure is the pharma-industry as oligopolistic market explains that the few sellers serve the market.

A pharma retail company named as netmed that serve online and its characteristics are different from monopoly as:

• There are few more sellers sell the medicines in the market such as Onemg, Amgen, and so on.
• There are barriers to entry in this industry as the government provide a license to a limited number of firms to manufacture medicines and drugs that are used in medical treatment.
• Demand for such products depends on their advertisement as such companies face difficulties to manage the direct relationship with the buyers.
• The decision of one firm affects the demand and price of other firms in this industry that is not the case in monopoly, and so on.