Off to Market
Objective
As a result of this lesson, students will be able to:
- Compare and contrast the retail market of the United States to the open market of Brazil.
- Analyze the process of bargaining as conducted in the Brazilian marketplace.
Material
Activities
- Ask the students if they have ever heard of or been to an “open market”.
- Discuss with the students that in Brazil people can buy various products such as fruit, clothing, jewelry, and toys from individual markets in large buildings and/or outside.
- Explain that an open market is much like a garage sale found here in the United States. As found at garage sales, there are no designated prices, all prices can be negotiated.
- As a class try to come up with a definition of an “open market” and write it on the board.
- Discuss with the class where and how people in the United States buy many of the same products.
- Explain to the students that in the United States instead of an open market our economy is based on a retail market, where all of the items are priced accordingly and prices are non-negotiable.
- As a class try to come up with a definition of a “retail market” and write it on the board.
- Write the word “Brazil” on the board underneath the definition of “open market”. Write the word “United States” underneath the definition of “retail market”.
- Place the materials on a desk in the front of the room.
- Have the students decide which items were purchased in the open market and which were purchased in a retail market.
- Write the names of the items under the correct market.
- If there are items that cannot be placed into a specific market (such as fruit) write the name of the item in the middle of the board.
- Discuss with the students the prices of each of the products.
- Have the students identify a price for each of the products in both the open and retail market.
- Discuss with the students that many of the open market prices may be lower than discussed in class.
- Practice bartering with the students for some of the products discussed in the open market. Put emphasis on the fact that in a retail market unless marked down you cannot change the price of a product.
- Have the class begin to think of items they would want to try to sell if they were a part of the open market of Brazil.
- Tell the students that in the future they will be in charge of creating their own market.
- Ask the students why they chose this items
- Would selling an item like this be enough to support your family?
