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War or Peace Activity

Task 1

Select an item from the following list and check the price in a range of shops.

  • A pint of milk
  • A litre of petrol
  • A tennis racquet of a particular brand and type
  • A pair of jeans of a particular brand and type
  • The latest novel by Terry Pratchett, Iain Banks or other popular author

Task 2

Collate your results with those from the rest of the class in order to

  1. achieve a bigger sample
  2. make comparisons between different products.

You might do this on a spread sheet.

From looking at the data that has been collected, do any patterns emerge?

  • Are there any examples of businesses at war on the price front?
  • Are there any examples of businesses that are at peace?

Try using demand, supply and competition to explain the prices of the products.
Does it always help? Which products do they not seem to explain?
Can you think of any reasons why the prices of some products are the same wherever you go?

Task 3

Free or Fixed ?????????

"Maintain the official recommended price of RockShox forks! Do not discount. You have signed a service aggreement." "Competition has forced prices down to rock bottom. Everyone charges the same now."
"Every shop we visited was selling Newcastle football strips at the same price. You would have thought there would be a bit of competition."
"Just because we are a discount warehouse chain its hard to get supplies - particularly from the big brands." "Shops don't have to sell at the prices we recommend. They are free to charge what they like."
"A retailer can have whatever pricing policy it wants. We would not refuse to deal with them."


Work in groups to discuss the following questions:

Do any of these statements explain the pattern of prices that you have recorded?

Why might a business try to fix the price of its products?

Why can the price be fixed for some products and not others?

How does such a policy affect the consumer?

What would you do to discourage businesses from fixing prices?

Task 4

Investigate how the government tries to stop businesses fixing prices.

From your research, identify a product that has been subject to government control. How successful has the attempt at control been?