Periodic & Sharing Services

Not all consumer services are provided in buildings in fixed locations. In both developing and developed countries, some groceries are sold in periodic markets. The sharing economy has also led to more flexible consumer services.

Periodic Markets

Services at the lower end of the central place hierarchy may be provided at a periodic market. A periodic market is a collection of individual vendors who come together to offer goods and services in a location on specified days. It is typically set up in a street or other public space early in the morning, taken down at the end of the day, and set up in another location the next day.

A periodic market provides goods to residents of developing countries where sparse populations and low incomes produce purchasing power too low to support full-time retailing. A periodic market makes services available in more villages than would otherwise be possible, at least on a part-time basis. In urban areas, periodic markets offer residents fresh food brought in that morning from the countryside.

Many of the vendors in periodic markets are mobile, driving their trucks from farm to market, back to the farm to restock, then to another market. Other vendors, especially local residents who cannot or prefer not to travel to other villages, operate on a part-time basis, perhaps only a few times a year. Other part-time vendors are individuals who are capable of producing only a small quantity of food or handicrafts.

A farmers market is a form of periodic market found in many developed countries. Farmers appear at a specified time and place to sell fresh produce from farms in the surrounding region to consumers living in urban areas.

Periodic Markets, Dordogne, France

Fifteen small towns within 30 kilometers (20 miles) of each other have periodic markets.

The frequency of periodic markets varies by culture. In the United States, a farmers market typically sets up once or twice a week, perhaps Wednesdays and Saturdays. In rural areas of Europe, the same farmers might go from town to town through the week; they all appear in town A on Mondays, town B on Tuesdays, town C on Wednesdays, and so forth.

Farmers Market, Sarlat-La-Canéda, Dordogne, France

The once-or-twice-a-week pattern may also occur in some developing countries. In other cases, the periodic markets may follow a different pattern, related to the lunar cycle.

Pause & Reflect 12.2.4

What are the advantages and the challenges of buying food at a periodic market?

Sharing Services

Services that involve sharing have expanded rapidly, especially in transportation and lodging. These sharing services are challenging the traditional classification of services between consumer and business.

Ride sharing services, such as Uber and Lyft, match people looking for a ride with people who are willing to transport them in their cars. They compete with taxis which are typically summoned through a phone call or a hit- or-miss process of flagging one down on the street. In contrast, ride sharing services are summoned by using a smartphone app. The driver’s smartphone shows the passenger’s current location and desired destination as well as the optimal route. It also confirms that the passenger has already paid for the ride.

Uber claims that its several million drivers are independent contractors, essentially one-person businesses providing transportation business service. Some government regulators have ruled that ridesharing drivers should instead be classified as employees. The classification matters because it is the ridesharing company’s responsibility to screen, train, and insure them if they are consumer service employees, but not if they are independent business service contractors.