How the market place works
The marketplace
What is a marketplace?
Producers
A marketplace is a place where people buy and sell goods and services. Remember, goods are things that help you that you can see and touch. Services are ways that people help each other. For a marketplace to be successful, people must buy and sell goods and services. The people who sell goods or services are called producers. The people who buy goods or services are called consumers. Click on each image on the right to see some examples.
Producers and consumers both play an important role in the marketplace. In this lesson, we will learn more about how a marketplace works.
Consumers
Going to the marketplace
How does a marketplace work?
Alex is going on a trip to the marketplace with his family. There are so many things to see at the marketplace! Let’s follow along to see what Alex finds. Click the button to learn more about the marketplace with Alex.
Start
At the marketplace, Alex sees people buying and selling all kinds of goods and services. You can get almost anything in the marketplace. Are you looking for a new outfit? Someone is selling clothes. Are you hungry? Someone is selling pizza, and someone else is selling muffins. Do you need a haircut? Someone is at the barber shop ready to cut your hair. Look at each image of the marketplace. What do you think each producer is selling? Click on each store bellow to check your answer.
This is a clothing store. It sells anything that you wear or that might go with an outfit like hats, scarves, and jewelry. These are all clothing goods.
This is a pizza shop. It makes and sells pizza. The pizza it sells is a good.
This is a barber shop. It provides the service of cutting hair and shaving beards.
This is a bakery shop. It sells breads, cakes, and cookies. These are all baked goods.
The marketplace is where people go to find the things they need. People also look for the things they want to have. The marketplace is for people who want to sell things, too. They might be selling items, or they might be selling a service. Some people could offer to walk your dog. Others might offer to clean your house. That is what makes the marketplace so exciting.
Alex sees people making things at the marketplace. A producer is someone who makes something. A producer creates something they can sell. Many different things can be created to sell in the marketplace. Think about the different jobs that are in the community. What kinds of goods do those jobs make? Click on the images below to see what goods that person produces.
A person who creates something is a producer. A producer is part of the marketplace.
Alex sees many people buying things at the marketplace. A consumer is someone who buys things. A consumer is part of the marketplace. The marketplace needs consumers. Producers need someone to buy their goods and services. Everyone is a consumer. Everyone needs to buy something from the marketplace. People buy things they cannot make for themselves.
Think about the things you need every day. You have to buy these things to use them. Hover on an image to see what goods you have to buy. Those goods make you a consumer!
Alex sees a lot of buying and selling going on at the marketplace. This is called economics. Economics is everything that is happening in the marketplace. It is also known as the economy. That is when you buy or sell things using money. When goods are bought and sold, that is economics. When people give money for services, that is economics. When someone decides to sell their bikes for a cheaper price, that is economics. When someone opens a new business, that is economics.
Telling people about the things that you sell is part of economics, too. You want people to know about all the things you are selling. What is the name of the thing you are selling? How many people like your items? Where do they need to go to buy your items? People want to know where to go buy things, so that is important information to put in ads.
Alex sees competition at the marketplace. Competition in the marketplace is great. Competition is when you try to do your very best to be the winner. Competition allows people to find the best prices for the things they want to get. People who are selling things decide on what price they want to sell their goods and services for. The person with the best item or the lowest price can be the winner. Consumers look for the best items. They look for low prices. This helps keep good competition in the marketplace. If there were no competition, then producers could sell their goods and services for any price they wanted. That is because people would still need to buy these things.
Let’s say you need to buy a loaf of bread. If there is only one baker in town, he could sell his bread for whatever price he wanted because there is no one else to buy bread from. You have to go to this one place to buy your bread. You would have to pay his price or go without bread.
But, if there are two bakers in the town, then there is competition. Both bakers want to be the best. They both want people to buy their bread. They both want their bread to taste the best. They both want their bread to sell at a low price so that people can afford to buy their bread. Competition helps the marketplace!
Sales are things that are happening in the marketplace. Sales are when someone buys a good. Let’s look at the example of the baker again. When someone buys bread from the bakery, that is a sale! The baker has sold his goods. You can also buy or sell services. Walking dogs is a service. You can pay someone to walk your dog. That would be a sale! All producers want to make sales.
When people are making sales, they are making money. Money is an important part of the marketplace. It helps to keep the economy going. Remember that the economy is when you buy or sell goods with money.
Alex is ready to buy something. He needs to buy some vegetables for a salad for dinner tonight. Alex decides to buy tomatoes. He really loves tomatoes. There are enough tomatoes to buy. There is plenty of lettuce and cucumbers, too. He gets both of those.
Alex finds some fresh fruit in the marketplace. His favorite are strawberries. There are no strawberries available. They are all sold out. There are no more. That means strawberries are scarce. Alex will have to choose a different fruit or go home without any fruit. He decides to wait for his strawberries. When things are scarce, you have to be patient. The thing that you want will come back to the marketplace again. You just have to wait. Or you can choose something else.
Alex buys his vegetables. He decides to get black olives and feta cheese, too. This will be a great salad! Now, he is ready to go home to prepare salad for his family’s dinner.
Nick and the marketplace
What does Nick learn about marketplace at school?
Nick was starting his first day of first grade at a new school, Benton Elementary.
“Hello, Nicholas. It’s nice to meet you,” said Mrs. Garver, as the students walked through the door.
A smiling girl walked up to Nick.
“Hi, Nick. I’m Sana. I’m your class guide.”
“What’s that?” Nick asked.
“Every new student at Benton Elementary gets a guide. I’ll show you around, answer questions, and introduce you to classmates.”
“Oh, that’s good,” Nick said. “This place is huge. It’s way bigger than my old school.”
“I think you’ll like it here,” Sana told him. “We do a lot of fun things.”
“Fun things at school? Like what?” Nick asked.
The day after Shopping Day, the class talked about what went well. They made lists of products they had run out of, items that were very popular, and items that did not sell well. They discussed problems, and Mrs. Garver wrote down their suggestions of how to improve those areas. The parents in the PTO helped them with ideas on how to make their next Shopping Day a bigger success.
When they finished, Mrs. Garver explained, “Shopping Day is about helping you learn about our economy. You have learned about goods and services. Now you are learning about how things are bought and sold. You are learning about money and competition and how sellers get customers to buy goods. You are learning about economics! You will learn even more as the years go on and as you go into higher grades here at Benton.”
Nick raised his hand. “This was really fun, Mrs. Garver,” he said. “It was really hard work, but I know I learned a lot. I can’t wait until next month!”
“Mrs. Garver announced that the first Shopping Day would be on the third Thursday in October. That gives you time to learn how to run the marketplace. It also gives everyone time to earn Bison Bucks.”
“Sounds fun!” said Nick. “Do we get to shop, too?”
“Absolutely!” said Mrs. Garver. “Everyone gets a break for lunch and another break to visit the other booths.”
The class spent the next few days getting ready. They made signs for their booths and figured out how to set up their products. They also decided on prices. Mrs. Garver went over the rules and made sure the students knew which booths they were running.
Thursday finally came. It was shopping day. Nick worked with his partner Rijad. They had a huge selection of snacks at their booth. Lots of Bison Bucks were being traded for snacks that day.
When Nick had his break, he and Sana walked around the other booths. There was a spirit booth that sold clothes and items with the Benton Elementary logo and colors. They also saw an art booth. They were selling items they had made in art class. The cafeteria workers even had a cookie booth, where they were selling homemade cookies and brownies. “I wonder if that booth makes it harder for us to sell our snacks?” he said to Sana.
“Maybe,” she said, “but Mrs. Garver said some competition is good. Besides, it’s nice to have choices when you shop. Then you can spend your money on what you want, and not just on what’s there.”
They continued walking. Nick noticed a beverage stand, one that sold school supplies, and another selling small toys. There was a booth with handmade bracelets, necklaces, and other items. “There are a lot of things for sale here,” he said.
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“Like Shopping Day,” Sana answered.
“We get to go shopping?” Nick wondered.
“Yes! It’s for the whole school. Mrs. Garver is always in charge of it. Since she teaches first grade, our class gets to run the marketplace this year.”
“A marketplace? So, like a big mall?”
“A little bit. Our class will be responsible for making or bringing in things to sell. Then, once a month, kids come in and spend the Bison Bucks they earned.” She showed him a small slip of paper. “This is a Bison Buck. You can earn them for really good behavior, working hard, helping people, things like that.”“What kind of things do kids sell at the marketplace?” Nick asked.
“Usually things like bags of spirit clothes with our school colors, pencils, books, treats and snacks. Our school has a parent-teacher organization or PTO. They give us money, and we make a list of what to buy that we can sell.”
Subtítulo
Market place practice
What does Nick learn about marketplace at school?
Market place practice
What does Nick learn about marketplace at school?
Market place practice
What does Nick learn about marketplace at school?
Market place practice
What does Nick learn about marketplace at school?
Market place practice
What do marketplace sell?
When you visit different marketplaces, they each sell different types of products or services. Match the picture of the marketplace with the products that it sells.
Well done!
Producers
A producer is someone who grows or makes goods or someone who provides services. These farmers are growing delicious vegetables and meet to sell at a farmers market. The fisher has fresh fish. The lumberjack has wood to build furniture.
Consumers
A consumer is someone who buys goods or services for themselves. These people are buying the delicious farm products that the farmers grew.
How the marketplace works
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Created on April 9, 2026
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Transcript
How the market place works
The marketplace
What is a marketplace?
Producers
A marketplace is a place where people buy and sell goods and services. Remember, goods are things that help you that you can see and touch. Services are ways that people help each other. For a marketplace to be successful, people must buy and sell goods and services. The people who sell goods or services are called producers. The people who buy goods or services are called consumers. Click on each image on the right to see some examples. Producers and consumers both play an important role in the marketplace. In this lesson, we will learn more about how a marketplace works.
Consumers
Going to the marketplace
How does a marketplace work?
Alex is going on a trip to the marketplace with his family. There are so many things to see at the marketplace! Let’s follow along to see what Alex finds. Click the button to learn more about the marketplace with Alex.
Start
At the marketplace, Alex sees people buying and selling all kinds of goods and services. You can get almost anything in the marketplace. Are you looking for a new outfit? Someone is selling clothes. Are you hungry? Someone is selling pizza, and someone else is selling muffins. Do you need a haircut? Someone is at the barber shop ready to cut your hair. Look at each image of the marketplace. What do you think each producer is selling? Click on each store bellow to check your answer.
This is a clothing store. It sells anything that you wear or that might go with an outfit like hats, scarves, and jewelry. These are all clothing goods.
This is a pizza shop. It makes and sells pizza. The pizza it sells is a good.
This is a barber shop. It provides the service of cutting hair and shaving beards.
This is a bakery shop. It sells breads, cakes, and cookies. These are all baked goods.
The marketplace is where people go to find the things they need. People also look for the things they want to have. The marketplace is for people who want to sell things, too. They might be selling items, or they might be selling a service. Some people could offer to walk your dog. Others might offer to clean your house. That is what makes the marketplace so exciting.
Alex sees people making things at the marketplace. A producer is someone who makes something. A producer creates something they can sell. Many different things can be created to sell in the marketplace. Think about the different jobs that are in the community. What kinds of goods do those jobs make? Click on the images below to see what goods that person produces.
A person who creates something is a producer. A producer is part of the marketplace.
Alex sees many people buying things at the marketplace. A consumer is someone who buys things. A consumer is part of the marketplace. The marketplace needs consumers. Producers need someone to buy their goods and services. Everyone is a consumer. Everyone needs to buy something from the marketplace. People buy things they cannot make for themselves. Think about the things you need every day. You have to buy these things to use them. Hover on an image to see what goods you have to buy. Those goods make you a consumer!
Alex sees a lot of buying and selling going on at the marketplace. This is called economics. Economics is everything that is happening in the marketplace. It is also known as the economy. That is when you buy or sell things using money. When goods are bought and sold, that is economics. When people give money for services, that is economics. When someone decides to sell their bikes for a cheaper price, that is economics. When someone opens a new business, that is economics.
Telling people about the things that you sell is part of economics, too. You want people to know about all the things you are selling. What is the name of the thing you are selling? How many people like your items? Where do they need to go to buy your items? People want to know where to go buy things, so that is important information to put in ads.
Alex sees competition at the marketplace. Competition in the marketplace is great. Competition is when you try to do your very best to be the winner. Competition allows people to find the best prices for the things they want to get. People who are selling things decide on what price they want to sell their goods and services for. The person with the best item or the lowest price can be the winner. Consumers look for the best items. They look for low prices. This helps keep good competition in the marketplace. If there were no competition, then producers could sell their goods and services for any price they wanted. That is because people would still need to buy these things.
Let’s say you need to buy a loaf of bread. If there is only one baker in town, he could sell his bread for whatever price he wanted because there is no one else to buy bread from. You have to go to this one place to buy your bread. You would have to pay his price or go without bread. But, if there are two bakers in the town, then there is competition. Both bakers want to be the best. They both want people to buy their bread. They both want their bread to taste the best. They both want their bread to sell at a low price so that people can afford to buy their bread. Competition helps the marketplace!
Sales are things that are happening in the marketplace. Sales are when someone buys a good. Let’s look at the example of the baker again. When someone buys bread from the bakery, that is a sale! The baker has sold his goods. You can also buy or sell services. Walking dogs is a service. You can pay someone to walk your dog. That would be a sale! All producers want to make sales.
When people are making sales, they are making money. Money is an important part of the marketplace. It helps to keep the economy going. Remember that the economy is when you buy or sell goods with money.
Alex is ready to buy something. He needs to buy some vegetables for a salad for dinner tonight. Alex decides to buy tomatoes. He really loves tomatoes. There are enough tomatoes to buy. There is plenty of lettuce and cucumbers, too. He gets both of those.
Alex finds some fresh fruit in the marketplace. His favorite are strawberries. There are no strawberries available. They are all sold out. There are no more. That means strawberries are scarce. Alex will have to choose a different fruit or go home without any fruit. He decides to wait for his strawberries. When things are scarce, you have to be patient. The thing that you want will come back to the marketplace again. You just have to wait. Or you can choose something else.
Alex buys his vegetables. He decides to get black olives and feta cheese, too. This will be a great salad! Now, he is ready to go home to prepare salad for his family’s dinner.
Nick and the marketplace
What does Nick learn about marketplace at school?
Nick was starting his first day of first grade at a new school, Benton Elementary. “Hello, Nicholas. It’s nice to meet you,” said Mrs. Garver, as the students walked through the door. A smiling girl walked up to Nick. “Hi, Nick. I’m Sana. I’m your class guide.” “What’s that?” Nick asked. “Every new student at Benton Elementary gets a guide. I’ll show you around, answer questions, and introduce you to classmates.” “Oh, that’s good,” Nick said. “This place is huge. It’s way bigger than my old school.” “I think you’ll like it here,” Sana told him. “We do a lot of fun things.” “Fun things at school? Like what?” Nick asked.
The day after Shopping Day, the class talked about what went well. They made lists of products they had run out of, items that were very popular, and items that did not sell well. They discussed problems, and Mrs. Garver wrote down their suggestions of how to improve those areas. The parents in the PTO helped them with ideas on how to make their next Shopping Day a bigger success. When they finished, Mrs. Garver explained, “Shopping Day is about helping you learn about our economy. You have learned about goods and services. Now you are learning about how things are bought and sold. You are learning about money and competition and how sellers get customers to buy goods. You are learning about economics! You will learn even more as the years go on and as you go into higher grades here at Benton.” Nick raised his hand. “This was really fun, Mrs. Garver,” he said. “It was really hard work, but I know I learned a lot. I can’t wait until next month!”
“Mrs. Garver announced that the first Shopping Day would be on the third Thursday in October. That gives you time to learn how to run the marketplace. It also gives everyone time to earn Bison Bucks.” “Sounds fun!” said Nick. “Do we get to shop, too?” “Absolutely!” said Mrs. Garver. “Everyone gets a break for lunch and another break to visit the other booths.” The class spent the next few days getting ready. They made signs for their booths and figured out how to set up their products. They also decided on prices. Mrs. Garver went over the rules and made sure the students knew which booths they were running.
Thursday finally came. It was shopping day. Nick worked with his partner Rijad. They had a huge selection of snacks at their booth. Lots of Bison Bucks were being traded for snacks that day. When Nick had his break, he and Sana walked around the other booths. There was a spirit booth that sold clothes and items with the Benton Elementary logo and colors. They also saw an art booth. They were selling items they had made in art class. The cafeteria workers even had a cookie booth, where they were selling homemade cookies and brownies. “I wonder if that booth makes it harder for us to sell our snacks?” he said to Sana. “Maybe,” she said, “but Mrs. Garver said some competition is good. Besides, it’s nice to have choices when you shop. Then you can spend your money on what you want, and not just on what’s there.” They continued walking. Nick noticed a beverage stand, one that sold school supplies, and another selling small toys. There was a booth with handmade bracelets, necklaces, and other items. “There are a lot of things for sale here,” he said.
Título
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“Like Shopping Day,” Sana answered. “We get to go shopping?” Nick wondered. “Yes! It’s for the whole school. Mrs. Garver is always in charge of it. Since she teaches first grade, our class gets to run the marketplace this year.” “A marketplace? So, like a big mall?” “A little bit. Our class will be responsible for making or bringing in things to sell. Then, once a month, kids come in and spend the Bison Bucks they earned.” She showed him a small slip of paper. “This is a Bison Buck. You can earn them for really good behavior, working hard, helping people, things like that.”“What kind of things do kids sell at the marketplace?” Nick asked. “Usually things like bags of spirit clothes with our school colors, pencils, books, treats and snacks. Our school has a parent-teacher organization or PTO. They give us money, and we make a list of what to buy that we can sell.”
Subtítulo
Market place practice
What does Nick learn about marketplace at school?
Market place practice
What does Nick learn about marketplace at school?
Market place practice
What does Nick learn about marketplace at school?
Market place practice
What does Nick learn about marketplace at school?
Market place practice
What do marketplace sell?
When you visit different marketplaces, they each sell different types of products or services. Match the picture of the marketplace with the products that it sells.
Well done!
Producers
A producer is someone who grows or makes goods or someone who provides services. These farmers are growing delicious vegetables and meet to sell at a farmers market. The fisher has fresh fish. The lumberjack has wood to build furniture.
Consumers
A consumer is someone who buys goods or services for themselves. These people are buying the delicious farm products that the farmers grew.