Blog 6: Supply Chain

This week, one of the topics discussed in my marketing class is on the supply chain of business. We may not realize it everytime we walk into a department store or pick up a candy bar at the nearest gas station, but there is a very divine process that takes place in order to give us the customer the ease and benefit of being able to go out and buy the necessities of life without having to travel too far to get them. I recently went shopping to pick up a case for my laptop at Best Buy. I was offered a few different options, each with its own special features. Not thinking twice, I picked up the one that best suited my needs. After reading the chapter on the supply chain, I realized a few things, that I was a victim of indirect retailing and that Best Buy was just the middle man in the sale. The product itself had been handed down through different marketing channels. From the resources it took to manufacture the different parts, to the company whose name is branded on, to Best Buy the retailer who sold it to me the consumer. There are so many factors that go into a sale that we normally don't think about, but all play an important part in the business supply chain process.