Exploring economic values

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Introduction

There are multiple types of economic value added to products from their source to the retailers and, ultimately, the consumer. In one sense, the guest of a restaurant is paying for economic value by ordering a burger, because it is prepared in the form they want, delivered where they want it, at the time that they want, rather than having to go to the source for raw beef, vegetables, wheat, etc.

We typically discuss: Time, Form, Place, Information, and Services economic values.

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Directions
The purpose of this exercise is to explore these various types of economic value. For each product, identify the type of economic value and specify how that type is being added. If a type of economic value does not apply, write NA.

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Example

Product: Ground beef bought at grocery store

 Time
 Purchasing the meat when you want it, and not when the cows were ready. The ground beef has been stored in the supply chain and at the grocery store, ready for you to purchase it when you want.
 Form
 Purchasing the meat already ground, and packaged in the size you want. You didn’t have to buy the whole cow, have it processed, then deal with having all the different cuts of meat (upwards of 600 pounds of meat at a time). All you had to do was choose to buy a 1 pound roll of ground beef.
 Place
 Purchasing the meat from the local grocery store, not at the farm or processing plant (wherever that was in the world).
 Information
 Purchasing exactly what you wanted, and knowing that. For example you could have purchase exactly 25/75 ground beef. Rather than waiting to see how much fat was in the beef after buying the whole cow. The processing plant put this information on the package so you could use it to buy just what you wanted.
 Services
 Not applicable in some cases. It is possible that that package of ground beef has a QR code on it; if you scan it, it will pull up a recipe you can use for dinner. This is a pretty mediocre example of services, but it still counts.

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Application problems

Product: 80 quart Hobart stand mixer

 Time
 Form
 Place
 Information
 Services

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Product: 1 foot square slate floor tiles for guest bathrooms

 Time
 Form
 Place
 Information
 Services

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Product: 1 liter hand sanitizer bottles with pumps for front desk and other areas

 Time
 Form
 Place
 Information
 Services

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Product: 3 ounce hand sanitizer bottles for guest room amenities

 Time
 Form
 Place
 Information
 Services

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Product: King bed sheets

 Time
 Form
 Place
 Information
 Services

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Product: Sourdough French bread loaves

 Time
 Form
 Place
 Information
 Services

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Product: Hamburger buns

 Time
 Form
 Place
 Information
 Services

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Product: 5 lb spring mix

 Time
 Form
 Place
 Information
 Services

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Product: 10 pounds of cherry tomatoes

 Time
 Form
 Place
 Information
 Services

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Product: 5×6 slicer tomatoes

 Time
 Form
 Place
 Information
 Services

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Product: Russet potatoes, 14 ounces each

 Time
 Form
 Place
 Information
 Services

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Product: Ribeyes individually cryovac’d from Sysco

 Time
 Form
 Place
 Information
 Services

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Product: Towel service for kitchen, 20 bundles a week

 Time
 Form
 Place
 Information
 Services

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