Learn with steem||The debate on the elimination of the Middlemen from the chain of distributive trade.

Good day steemians,

This debate has driven people into deep thoughts. We can't have a better understanding about this if we don't know what or who the middle men are, how they came into existence and what they do while they exist.

The Middlemen are the wholesaler and retailer in the chain of distribution or distributive trade.

Before we proceed proper into the debate we have to establish a foundational knowledge of;

• Distributive trade
• Chain of distribution
• The Middlemen
• Should the middle men be eliminated?

DISTRIBUTIVE TRADE

Distributive trade means the process or medium through which goods are passed from the manufacturer to the final consumer. It is in various stages and involves some number of persons or a chain before it gets to the final consumers.

This chain of distribution is:

from
Manufacturer
to
Wholesaler
to
Retailer
to
Final Consumer

Now, looking at the above chains of Distributive trade, you will agree with me that the Middlemen are the Wholesaler and retailer.

THE MIDDLEMEN

The Middlemen are the two men between the manufacturer and final consumers. These men makes the goods or services available with out stress but with a little increase in the said price placed by the manufacturer on the goods or service.

RETAILER

This can be defined as a trader who buys goods in small quantity from the wholesaler or manufacturer and sell in smaller units to the final consumers. The retailer is the second middle man in the chain of distributive trade seen above.

There are different types of retailers that exist in the market today, some are allow in both the rural and urban areas while some of them aren't. Example of these retailers are; hawkers, market place retailing, street retailing, small stores, department stores, self-service stores, supermarket etc.

_{Example of a retail shop}

FUNCTIONS OF RETAILER

• They sell goods in smaller unit to get final consumers

• They store different types of goods

• They give feed back to the wholesaler and manufacturer on which products are always purchased by the final consumers

• They advise the manufacturer and wholesaler on the market

• They advertises goods for the manufacturer, thereby promotes their products.

• They sometimes packages the goods on the producers

WHOLESALER

This man is the major person in the Middlemen. He is the trader that buys goods or services in large quantity from the producers or manufacturers and in turn sells to the retailer or the final consumers in small quantity.

_{Example of a wholesale shop}

FUNCTIONS OF WHOLESALER

• They make large purchase of goods.

•They provide warehouse for the storing of goods by buying in large quantity from the producers, clearing them out to their warehouse thereby making more space for more production.

•They find the tight market for supply of goods.

• They also help in finishing the production process by packaging goods.

• They bear the risk for both the producers and retailers, this is because this man buys and stores in quantity as such can be affected by the rise and fall in price.

• They sell goods on credit to the retailers.

• They also promote new products in the market.

SHOULD THE MIDDLEMEN BE ELIMINATED?

On establishing a foundational understanding on who the Middlemen are and their functions, this brings us to the debate proper. Having known what these men does which are their functions, I will share my view on the debate.

Note that this is my own thought about the debate and anyone can come up with their own ideology about this topic; Should the Middlemen be eliminated from the Distributive trade?

MY THOUGHT AND ANSWER TO THE QUESTION

The Middlemen plays a very important role in the chain of distribution. In as much as some persons may think that the middlemen causes some problems in the markets today, which may be true and justifiable, I haven't seen reasons to believe them.

These people believes that the middlemen contributes to the high prices of goods and services in the market. So far, this has been the only reason why they want the middlemen to be eliminated.

My answer to this question is no, the middlemen should not be eliminated with the following reasons:

• The middlemen make goods available to consumer. It will be of great stress if consumers are to go to the producers directly to get these goods, some of the companies or factories where these goods are produced are situated in the outskirts areas of the city. This may be due to the high volume of noises from the machines used by these factories. They are built far away from where people resides or leave.

The wholesaler goes to this places(the producers) to get the goods in large quantity, come to the cities where people resides and distribute them in smaller quantities therebybsaving them from stress.

• The retailers buy varieties of goods and store them in their shops for sale such that you have different options when you come to buy things from them. For instance, a customer may want to buy indomie noodles and wouldn't get it in the retailers shop but will have the other options of Tummy Tummy noodles, Chikki Chikki noodles, dangote noodles, etc.

• If we eliminate the wholesalers, we will be subjected to only one type of product directly from a producer, remember the wholesalers and retailers helps in advertising products that are new in the market, and also helps in advising consumers on products to purchase based on their effectiveness or originality. For instance, if we have to buy products directly from the producer,we may buy the wrong product because every manufacturer or producer wants to promote his or her product not minding if he is producing an original product or not, they just want to make sales.

• The Middlemen help people purchase products in smaller units. The manufacturers cannot sell products in smaller unit. For example, the indomie company will not sell a pack of indomie to a consumer, they will want to sell in cartoon.

CONCLUSION

Everyone has a justifiable answer to this question, one that can be backed up with very good reasons. I believe I have been able to explain and give reasons why I wouldn't want the middlemen to be eliminated. I will like to know your thoughts or answers to this question, I will be in the comment box waiting for your reply.

Thanks for visiting my post

Cc:@reminiscence01

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