Thursday, April 3, 2014
PepsiCo
This was probably one of my favorite lessons in the wonderful class of Economics! We discussed the differences of monopoly, oligopoly, perfect competition and monopolistic competition. We talked about the number of buyers and sellers, the types of products, control of prices and freedom to enter or exit for each of these and found out the most competitive is perfect competition with monopoly being the least competitive. I did not fully understand what a monopoly was until we watched a video on Pepsi Co! In this video, we discovered that Pepsi Co is not only in charge of the second most popular soft drink but also owns large brand names, including Frito Lay and Quaker! It was really fascinating to learn that all of my favorite snack and breakfast foods are all owned by the same company! A monopoly is defined as only having one seller and controls the prices and Pepsi Co is a perfect example of this! We also learned that in different countries the same company produces the same product but in different flavors, for example, the curry flavored Lays chips! I was so happy to watch this video and really learn what exactly a monopoly was and how it worked and this really helped me understand it. Because it had to do with food, something we all know and love so very dearly, it really made it exciting and interesting and easy to focus on! If anyone asked what a monopoly was I would definitely show them this video to have a full understanding of this type of competition! What a fun lesson!
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This definitely was an exciting week! I think it is a little scary how much influence some food companies have in the market, often without the consumer knowing it. Since Pepsico has so much influence, how can anyone be sure that they are using their power for the good of the consumer? This week has given us a lot to think about.
ReplyDeleteIt was surprising to find out that Pepsico owns so many of the products that we see on the shelves in the grocery store. They probably do have a lot of control over the prices of the snack food market. However, I do not think they are a monopoly. A monopoly is when there is only one seller in a market. For Pepsico there are more than just them as sellers. You have sellers like Coke and Utz chips. Pepsico may be a big corporation but they do have some competition in their markets.
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