Shopping trends and how we spend money assignment

Shopping trends and how we spend money - Assignment Example Rather than buy separate ingredients (as in the case of the macaroni salad) and put them together ourselves, we simply go to the store and pay one price for a pre-packaged macaroni salad that someone has already put together for us. The trouble comes in the fact that this person has not done so out of the goodness of their heart – they have been paid to do this, and the cost that we pay for the salad reflects that. Another reason that the price is higher is the packaging. While the material of the packaging itself is probably no different than that of other foods, the bottom line is competition in this instance. The store is competing with other brands and ingredients to have you buy their prepackaged items, regardless of price. Do they want you to buy them? Of course! Therefore they must spend time and money on attractive packaging to make the consumer that is tired and hungry walking through the store say, â€Å"Oh. I’ll just grab this and we’ll have it with dinner.† On the whole, it came as no surprise to me that the average cost per pound of packaged food was higher than that of fresh fruit or vegetables. When packaged goods are offered to consumers, the price must reflect handling, shipping, packaging, and work needed to put together the

Why Did Eastern Europe Fall Under Communist Rule In The First Place Essay

Why Did Eastern Europe Fall Under Communist Rule In The First Place - Essay Example om potential capitalist oppression, providing assistance to the flourishing communist parties in central Europe and ensuring dictatorship of the proletariat in the conquered nations. In fact, most of the East European nations were willing to be part of the communist regime as they sought better security, protection and peace under the Soviet Union. This paper seeks to explore the various reasons and favourable conditions that contributed to Communist rule in Eastern Europe. Many of the Eastern European nations that suffered under Nazi occupation saw communism â€Å"as the best safeguard against the possibility of a revival of fascism in the future†; besides, â€Å"many of the Eastern European countries were liberated from Nazi Germany by the Russians† and â€Å"countries like Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary were in extreme financial hardship and communist policies would definitely have been attractive to them† (Communism after 1945: Background 2010). Similarly, many of the Eastern European countries expected a stable government under the Soviet governance which would make them powerful economically and politically. In the same way the Soviet forces were successful in developing a popular sentiment for socialism and communism (which was brought out by the demolition of Nazi and Fascist forces) in East Germany, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, Romania and Poland and they were immensely assisted by socialist movements such as the Soci alist Unity Party of Germany, the Hungarian Working Peoples Party, the Romanian Workers Party and the Polish United Workers Party in these countries. Brown (2010), in this respect, states that the Eastern European nations might have been attracted by the six essential defining characteristics that governed communism: â€Å"its political organisation: the monopoly of power of a Communist party and rigid discipline and strict hierarchy within that party†, â€Å"its centralised, command economy (with prices and output targets fixed