Exchange in the Modern Jungle

Week 6 Observations

So far, today seems like another typical, chaotic day in the modern jungle. The sun is out and people are interacting like a group of monkeys going crazy over the slightest sight of bananas. It’s a Monday afternoon (about 12:00 PM) and the feeding hole is swarming with all kinds of people of different race, color, gender, and background. I notice a group of Hispanic women sitting at a table a few feet away from the walkway (all look as if they are in their late 50s), several older, white couples (about 60-70 years old) are enjoying each other’s company and eating lunch together, and about four groups of teenagers are huddled together at many different tables. I decide to walk through the hallways this time and observe those outside of the feeding hole for a change.

Immediately I notice there is an immense amount of customers at nearly all the booths centered in the walkways. The interactions between the buyers and sellers become more aware to me when I realize how impersonal the transaction is. The same man from the cosmetics booth who stopped me a few weeks ago to try to convince me to buy his product, bombards an older woman (presumably in her late 50s-60s) walking by. The man lures her to the booth and she politely accepts his offer just as I did when he did the same to me. I observe him testing the skin product on her arms and her reaction was priceless. Her face lit up at the sight of how quickly the cosmetic was able to smooth her skin and remove dead cells. The man kindly said to her, “Now, because you are a very beautiful woman, I am going to give you a wonderful deal on this product. Normally you will find this online for at least $160 but I will give it to you for $70 because you are beautiful”. His foreign accent lingered on each syllable making the offer sound even better to my ears and also, apparently to hers, because she digs out her wallet from her purse and pays him for the product. This serves as an excellent example of an impersonal commodity exchange to me because the goods (in this case, the cosmetic product) were exchanged for money and the exchange partners (the older woman and the foreign man) will have nothing to do with one another now that she has bought the product.

The modern jungle is a market exchange; there are several different interconnected stores whose goods are exchanged for money and are influenced by the supply and demand system. Due to this, the type of customers demanding goods greatly influences which goods are available in which stores. For instance, as I noted in the past weeks of observations, several older woman seem to shop at Bee & Buzz Body Works and their preferences of products are determined by which are bought the most. Therefore, their demand is a major influence on what is supplied. They also are a major influence on several other stores in the modern jungle but this is the store I have paid the most attention to so far.

As I am leaving, the halls of the jungle are still full and active throughout the entire walkway. Business seems to be lively at the moment and people seem to be enjoying their social interactions with friends, family, and/or strangers.