Street Markets : Small Business & Farmers' Perceptions in Australia & New Zealand

This study is an investigation of alternate markets from the viewpoint of traders and follows the previously published „Consumers’ Attitudes towards Weekend, Night & Street Markets“, Josef Eul Verlag, Köln – Lohmar 2002.

The study examines the current responses of small producers and retailers to a culmination of reactions to changes over the late 20th and early 21st Century to the post war emergence of agglomeration of retailing and standardisation of products. The international trend of globalisation has been matched domestically with the rise of the mega store concept of retailing. Large supermarkets as well as warehouses have their selling policies based on „anytime, everywhere, everything the same“, which means their procurement policies are centrally driven; they demand bulk orders from specific price competitive producers and farmers nor do these retail giants acknowledge local peculiarities. This has been detrimental for small producers and retailers, as well as the discerning consumer. It has forced small local traders and producers to search for other methods of distribution. A re-emergence of traditional alternate retailing solutions is seen as the market forces’ response to these phenomena. Future trends are analysed through empirical studies of street and farmers’ markets in Australia and New Zealand along with giving some thoughts on theories that can explain this phenomenon.

Wolfgang Chr. Fischer, born 1942, studied Economics, History and Law from 1962 to 1968 at the Universität des Saarlandes, Saarbrücken, and at the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn, Germany. He was awarded Dipl.-Volkswirt (MEc) in 1968 and Dr. rer. pol. (Doctorate in Economics) in 1971 from the Faculty of Law & Economics, University of Bonn, where he had been Academic Assistant at the Institute of Economic Policy. From 1975 until his retirement in 2000 he had been Professor in Economics, specialised in Consumer Affairs, at the University of Bremen, Germany. He was Visiting Professor among other universities at the University of San Francisco and the University of Guelph, Canada. Currently he is Adjunct Professor of Economics in the School of Law at James Cook University, Australia.