Economics- Recession guru

Tip#1-- A convenient way for consumers to cut cost and increase productivity is to buy their goods online in Blog shops. This is not only because products bought at these online shops are priced reasonably but also because of the fact that consumers can easily browse and purchase their goods online. When thinking about buying online, people may be worried about mailing fees and other issues. However in recent blog shops like ( http://atfashion.blogspot.com/ and http://thisirony.livejournal.com/), consumers can always arrange to meet at a certain locations to collect their goods and in most cases no delivery charge is involved.. A simple search online can also find you local forums where u can easily find and browse products from various websites. www.blogshopsg.com is an example of such online forums with different categories that help consumers narrow down on specific types of products they might want. Even if blog shops don’t seem safe to you, you can always check out prices of goods at more famous online shopping sites like amazon.com before you purchase anything . Because sites that are overseas often sell goods at cheaper prices (before shipment fees) Thus if you purchase numerous products at once, the shipping fees would become less significant.
Tip#2—During recessions like these producers seek to lower their cost and increase their productivity. I asked a few adults for their opinion on how to save cost as a producer and they agreed that rental and electricity are some of the major costs in running a business. Thus, producers should always look out for a few things especially the fact of whether the warehouse or shop space too big. People often stick to a single warehouse after they are satisfied with the price and location, unaware that prices are always changing , producers should always look out for more reasonable prices for rental in order to minimize the cost of running the business, having too much extra space around might also turn out to be very costly. Big scale firms could also look to switching to more energy efficient electrical goods (light bulbs ,etc) in order to cut costs for unnecessary things. Lastly, producers can turn to reducing prices of their goods to increase sales and in turn cause an overall increase in profit.

Darren Low 5w

Tips for Producers and Consumers

During these hard times of recession, consumers as well as producers are facing lots of difficulties. In my opinion,the most important thing they have to do is to allocate money and resources wisely at the right time.I will present some specific ways for consumers and producers in this posting.
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Consumers:
Even thought consumers' incomes are affected during these hard times, recession is the time to buy.We can see that during this time, there are lots of sale campaign to stimulate buying power. Consumers have wonderful opportunities to buy undervalued goods. However, consumers have to allocate their spending wisely.I mean even the goods are on sale at attractive prices, consumers ought to plan ahead. They should only buy those necessities, can not waste money. Furthermore, they have to reduce their spending on those things such as clothes, utilities bills, entertainment... They could also save money in the bank so that they can earn a little more through interests. For instance, one thing consumers can to is that everytime they go shopping, they should only bring a particular amount of money and think about what they want to buy before that.
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Producers:
As a result of the price mechanism, when the demand falls, the producers then have to reduce their supply as well as the cost in order to ensure that their goods will be consumed. Producers suffer more than consumers during the recession. They have to thing how to decrease production costs, how to invest money to avoid bankruptcy. To ensure the efficiency in production, producers should not fire workers.It will make they are worried for their position in the company, hence they can not work at maximum capacity. I think that they can reduce their wages a little bit, but they have to gurantee jobs for workers. Workers would understand that during the recession, cutting cost is really necessary and they won't complain because they still have a stable income. Moreover, producers should also be more aware of customer services. This will enhance the satisfaction of customers and they will come to you during this time instead of your rivals. Producers can also offer some discounts to attract more consumers.For example, the Vietnam Airlines is offering a special price for the trip Hanoi-Singapore at US$100 instead of US$300,hence the seats are always fully booked.

Pham Duy Vu - 5Y

Tips to cut cost and increase productivity for Consumers and producers

Consumers:
In my opinion the most important thing that consumers or customers should do is learn how to allocate their money wisely. They should first and foremost know how to prioritize what they would like to purchase so they will be able properly decide what they should spend their money on. If they do not prioritize what they want to buy, money will be at risk of being spent on less important things. Another thing they could do is to have a budget. With a budget, it will help consumers closely moniter their money expenditure. Of course the budget has to be of a realistic range, it cannot be too big and it cannot be too small either. Budget's will ensure that consumers do not use up all the money that they have on a certain product and so they will have money to use for a whole range of products.

Producers:
For producers I have decided to take an example from my father. My father runs his own clinic in Gleneagles hospital here in Singapore. Right now, he has two nurses working for his clinic, he could afford to hire a third nurse but instead he just hires two nurses to save cost. For those two nurses, although they will work harder compared to a situation where there are three nurses, the nurses are still never worked at one hundred percent capacity, therefore efficiency is increased. Another way to save cost and increase productivity is when he has to purchase drugs from various drug companies, various drug companies will compete with each other to sell the drugs to the clinic, he simply buys the drugs which comes at the best selling price.

RECESSION GURU 1-01 (:

Friday, 10 April 09

Prices are rising. More and more people are losing their jobs. Queus at shops which were once really long, are now much shorter. Admist this current recession, just how on earth is it ever possible to reduce costs?

As a consumer, here is one way to reduce costs: where the distance is small and the place you need to go to is near by, walk instead of driving. Some of us just LOVE to drive out to even the places which are closest to our homes, when its within walking distance. But why on earth do that and spend money on things like petrol bills when you drive? Why not exercise a little, get some fresh air and just walk? Because it sure saves a lot of money!

A SUBSTITUTE is a good or service that replaces another good or service for a particular same purpose. In this case, walking is a substitute for driving.

By walking, you get good exercise and you don't have to pay any money at all to walk to a certain place or venue. But by driving there are things that you need for pay for, for instance, petrol bills at the petrol stations you go to whenever your car runs out of petrol which might make it impossible to drive.

So if the distance is near, why not give some of your energy and time to walk rather than driving? In fact sometimes driving could possibly slow you down as well since its possibly to get caught in traffic jams.

I live about 5 mins away from my primary school (Henry Park Primary School). As a kid i would walk to school relatively a lot, compared to how many rides my parents would give me. I had a neighbour living opposite me that went to HPPS too and sometimes, i would walk to school with her too. HPPS is so near that its worth walking, rather than having my parents fetch me there every day and their petrol being used up at a faster rate, resulting in more petrol bills to be paid.

As producers, a tip to reduce costs is to negotiate for a lower rent of the building.

Rent is a fixed cost- a cost of production that does not vary with output at all. It is a cost you must pay for even if more workers are employed, even if more people leave the company etc. Bascially, it is a cost you must be accountable for no matter what happens.

If rent is high, you going to have to pay that same amount of high rent throughout, despite whatever circumstances that may come your way! It would increase your costs, as you have to pay a high cost for say, the rent of the building.

However, if rent decreases by say 20%, it means it is lowered by 20%. Now, you still have to pay rent, but you are paying less rent since rent decreases by 20%, and that would definitely help producers to reduce costs!

sources:

1. small interview with my dad (for the producers tip)
2. economics textbook (current one and GCSE ones)
3. consumers tips: http://freesamplesdirect.com/blog/top-50-tips-to-reduce-costs-in-tough-economic-times/

:D

Alisa

:D

Recession Guru Assignment- Sarah Chan

Tip 1:


As a consumer, there are many ways one can reduce cost. Obviously things like swithing from taking taxis everywhere to using public transport. For me, a taxi ride home from school amounts to $10 on average whereas the bus fare is about $0.50(I think. See, in other words, in comparison to a taxi fare, the bus fare is so small, i do not even know what the exact figure is). There are alot of small things you can do to make a big change. Saving $2 a day means $64 saved a month. So here are a few examples of ways to save money during the recession as well as what i think could be done to save a bit more for the very rainy days that are to come...I hope the examples are can give you an idea of what the GURU thinks YOU should do to save money in this down turn

Fassler smoked salmon- Yes I love smoked salmon. No wait, i adore it. Usually, we are allowed 2 large packets a month. This means $15.40 a month. Now we get 1 packet a month. That is $15.40 already saved a month. The good thing about this is that you are not completely depriving your self, so you do not feel too lousy about it, because you are just getting a smaller portion.

Fresh milk-a luxury we no longer indulge in! We now stick to the UHT stuff. 1 packet of of Fairprice UHT milk costs $1.75 whereas one packet of fresh milk is $5.70. The price difference is $3.95. If you go through 2 packets a week, that is $31.60 saved a month.
All these things are elastic goods. There are other alternatives for smoked salmon and it is not essential for survival. Smoked salmon can be considered a luxury good which makes it an elastic good. Therefore, when it comes to the crunch these items such as fresh milk and smolked salmon can be forgone.
These are examples of small things you can do that amount to big changes. There are also many other things you can do to help save money.

Tip 2:
Like it or not, the biggest cost is the work force. However, I think that instead of decreasing the number of workers, the number of hours can be decreased instead. This way, costs are lowered, but people are still kept in their jobs and have an income though it might be lowered. This is what the company my father works for did. Since the demand is lowered, (for example, Hyundai has had demand in korea fall by 60%) there is no point in producing more. I think the first step would be to reduce the number of working hours. The second step would be to cut workers. For example, Hyundai in Korea has plans to cut 10% of its workforce by the end of the month. This helps cut losses and maximise profits in this economic climate. (news.bbc.co.uk)

Tips for Producers and Consumers

Consumers

Budgets can help cut costs and save money. The best way to do this is to start allocating money to certain areas of spending for a certain period of time. For example, you can allocate $50 to grocery shopping every month. The main aim is to spend in what you allocate. A good way to make sure you keep to the budget is to only bring $50 whenever you shop. This way you know that you cannot spend more as you do not have more. Another way is to bring an envelope, having a shopping list and your money inside. Spend only what is in your envelope and what is written on your list. Reducing spending on unecassary things is a good way to start with this new budget. This way you are also to save abit more here and there.

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Producers

Tip #1 [cutting costs]

Saving the earth is a brilliant way to cut costs as well as think about the environment. Participating in things like Earth Day helps cut costs for electricity and helps heal the environment as well. By saving electricity and water, you cut costs as a company. Having automated lights and taps help cut costs. This ensures that lights are only on when there is someone in the room and electricity will not be wasted. Automated taps also makes sure that water is not wasted. This does not only cut costs but also saves the environment. Recycling also helps cut costs and further saves our environment.

Tip #2 [increasing production]

The promise of job security can help increase production. A company can make the workers work harder to increase production without paying for their overtime. Although this sounds horrible, this does help increase production. In addition, you are exchanging this with the promise of job security. They will not lose their jobs but they will have to work harder for their income.

Recession Guru Assignment

The Assignment

1. Write ONE tip on how to reduce cost OR increase productivity as a CONSUMER
2. Write another ONE tip on how to reduce cost OR increase productivity as a PRODUCER/ BUSINESS OWNER
   Note: Give the resource (website/ name of shop/ place etc) not just general comment e.g. cut down work force)

The Grading

You will be graded a maximum of 10 marks
•6 points for resourcefulness & creativity
•4 points for relevance to economic concepts (a consumer or business owner, elasticity price, total revenue, bulk buying, low fixed costs etc)
•Total 0 for non-submission by due date
SUNDAY, 12 APRIL, 5PM