In the present era of globalization the whole world has turned into one village. It is not difficult to get things of your choice from various parts of the world at your doorstep. Most of the recognized brands operate globally and they maintain same quality and related aspects across the globe. If we take example of any product or service, we find that companies have set of standards so that they provide same quality, same look and feel of the product even if the product is manufactured in multiple locations around the world. One interesting category is food, in food industry there are various brands operating globally. These companies maintain same standards and provide same quality & test around all the outlets irrespective of cooked food or raw material. This paper discusses how globalization is contributing towards our daily diet and further it examines that how the items which were earlier available only in limited locations are available even in local markets.
1. In this paper, I would like to discuss the components of my today’s breakfast and lunch, two major meals of the day. I started my day with a cup of white tea and after two hours I had breakfast. My breakfast consisted small quantity of cornflakes with skimmed milk, one sandwich and some fresh fruits like apple, banana and strawberry. In my lunch I had a pizza and one diet coke.
A. list of components I had in my meals and country they originated from are as follow:
White Tea – North East, India
Cornflakes – Manchester, United Kingdom
Milk – United States of America
Bread – United States of America
Cheese – United States of America
Pizza crust – United States of America
Sauces – United States of America
Mushrooms - United States of America
Olives – United States of America
Onion – United States of America
Garlic – United States of America
Cottage Cheese – United States of America
Salt – United States of America
Tomato – United States of America
Lettuce – United States of America
Butter – United States of America
Vegetable oil – United States of America
B. in present scenario big retailers provides solution to all your daily needs at one stop shop. People are not required to go to different places for variety of daily use products. Big retailers signed contract with multiple brands in different categories and sell their products from the outlets. Wal-Mart is one of the biggest names in retail industry. Wal-Mart provides all the things required for day to day life at one place. I purchased all my grocery from Wal-Mart. All the items mentioned in above list were purchased from nearby Wal-Mart store.
C. product mentioned in the above list came from the farm to consumer after passing through various processes and traveling. For example milk and dairy products after production come to laboratories for testing thereafter they get packed in different sizes and then transported to various distributors. Distributors supply to retail stores and consumer purchase the product from the retail store. Other food items are produced at different parts of the country or world then with the help of supplier and distributors, these products reached to retailers and then to consumers. Each and every product goes through a proper supply chain to reach to end customer.
2. Global market is having various benefits for economy and for consumers.
Developing countries are getting benefits of global market by getting more job opportunities in their countries. Due to the cheap and skilled labor many companies has shifted their operations in developing countries and this is generating good number of jobs in these nations.
Developed countries are also getting benefited by global market because they are establishing their brands in developing and other countries. By providing jobs in developing countries companies are increasing the purchasing power of people in developing nations. When people are having good purchasing power they buy the quality products of imported and foreign brands.
3. Each coin has two faces so that globalization. Global market also has some negative impacts in long run.
Brain Drain: Developing nation are facing problem of brain drain as their intelligent and technically sound people get lucrative offers in foreign countries. They move to other nations to earn good money and to avail other benefits.
Income Disparity: Global market and brain drain is leading towards income disparity as few people are earning great money whereas a good percentage of population is living below the poverty line and do not have even food to eat. Wealthy people are becoming more wealthy and poor are getting more poor.
4. “Think globally, act locally” phase has different meaning in different context. Majorly it convey the message that socio-economic, environment, political and geographical conditions of countries are not similar. These conditions vary from country to country so any company who want to perform in global market need to design its product keeping in mind the conditions of that country. For example favorite food items of an American and British or Chinese cannot be same. Even in pizza, the flavor will be different country to country.
5. The trends in global market vary depending upon the type of goods. Research on global market provided an insight that companies can only succeed in global market if it is considering the local need of population. Different countries have different conditions as mentioned in earlier question and requirements. For example if we want to expand our clothing business in other countries we are required to understand clothing trends, dressing patterns, average sizes of population, lifestyle and climate condition of the country. A burka (traditional Muslim Dress) will not work in western market and party gown or miniskirts will not work in Islamic countries.
References
Bruner, R. F. (2004). Think Globally, Act Locally. Virginia: Trienét P. Coggeshall.
Chavis, J. C. (2010, April 25). Bright Hub. Retrieved December 20, 2011, from www.brighthub.com: http://www.brighthub.com/money/investing/articles/69512.aspx
Louis E. Boone and David L. Kurtz. (2011). Contemporary Marketing. Connecticut: Cengage Learning.
Ram Ganeshan and Terry P. Harrison . (1995, May 22). An Introduction to Supply Chain Management. Retrieved December 20, 2011, from www.lcm.csa.iisc.ernet.in: http://lcm.csa.iisc.ernet.in/scm/supply_chain_intro.html
Waters, M. (1995). Globalization. New York: Routledge.
