Comparative Examination of Conventional Markets in Cities with Different Functions

Kiss, Konrád

Keywords: producer, trader, customer, rural development, trade, Q13, Q18

The current typical tendency of food commerce is market concentration. In concentrated markets, the biggest share of trade is generally owned by the great chain stores. The concomitant of this process is the decline of certain traditional sales channels, for example conventional markets. ‘Short food supply chains’ (SFSCs) can offer sales opportunities for small-scale agricultural producers. The literature often views SFSCs as potential instruments of rural development, as they can conditionally be used to solve some problems of the undeveloped rural areas. This idea is the main basis 97 of the present study, the principal aim of which is to present the differences between five markets chosen according to settlement type. These types have been determined on the basis of the population numbers. Trading at marketplaces is one of the most common and widespread ways in which producers (and also retailers) sell their products. From the viewpoint of rural development, it is notable that the respondent consumers of the primary survey assessed the marketplace of Füzesabony negatively. This market represents the ‘local market of a smaller rural town’ in the examined sample. Furthermore, the vendors described the decline of this market. In the spite of this, some features of the markets in the middle-sized and big cities have positive assessments and customers generally liked shopping in them. However, markets appear as additional rather than primary places of shopping. On the basis of this, it is not surprising that according to the GfK’s press release from 2016, the market share of these sales channels is decreasing, the main reason being fewer rural consumers.

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