Monday 14 December 2015

Consumer goods and consumer services

(I) Consumer goods:-
Those goods which directly satisfy human wants are called consumer goods. It will include all purchases made for direct satisfaction of wants like the food items, clothes, shoes, books, furnitures, scooters, etc. We buy these goods for ourselves and for other family members.
Consumer goods can be classified into two categories:-
(a) single use consumer goods
(b) durable use consumer goods
As is clear from the term itself, a unit of single use consumer goods can be used only once. Food items like milk, sugar, vegetables, etc. and other goods like soap, oil, ink, paper etc. are all single use consumer goods. Durable use consumer goods, on the other hand, are those goods which can be used by the consumers again and again like furniture, clothes, shoes, refrigerator, television, radio etc.
(II) Consumer services:-
As consumers we require not only goods but also services. For example, we need the services of a barber for hair-cut, the services of a tailor for stitching our clothes, the services of schools and colleges, services of doctors, services of banks and postal and transport services etc. All these services are called consumer services as they directly satisfy the wants of the consumers. However, unlike goods, all services can only be single use services. The production of a service and the consumption of it takes place at the same time. Thus a service produced and consumed cannot be used again. Hence all services are only single use.


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