Gap’s Piperlime Site Adds Designer Clothes to Shoe Racks
Piperlime is a shoe company, associated with Gap, 
that has just started to sell designer clothes on its website, as well as the shoe brands they already offered. This change was implemented because recent studies have shown that more buyers are interested in shopping online as opposed to taking the time out of their busy day to walk around stores and try and find what they are looking for, but not necessarily being guaranteed they will find it. This causes an increase in supply because the size of their market has now increased. Before, there buyers only consisted of the people who were interested in shopping online for shoes but by adding clothes to their website
they have now increased their buyers to people who are interested in shopping online for shoes and clothes. The graph to the left depicts this increase. Q1 was the supply curve for Piperlime before they added clothing to their website and Q2 represents the supply curve after they added clothes to their website. This shift to the right of the supply curve represents an increase in supply. Also, notice that with this increase in supply price stays the same at P1, but quantity increases from Q1 to Q2.
The Increasing Demand For Adidas Soccer Jerseys
Adidas was one of the first sporting goods companies to start making professional jerseys, worn by national and international teams, available to the average consumer. There has been a large increase in the sales of these jerseys, as of late, because so many people have started becoming avid fans of soccer, brought about partly by the FIFA World Cup in South Africa this past summer. This special event caused a change in taste and preferences which, in turn, caused a large increase in demand for the high quality uniforms, instead of the cheap replicas that were often considered satisfactory in the past. This increase in demand brought about some competition for the Adidas company because more companies are now willing to produce high quality jerseys now that they realize more consumers are interested in this product. However, even with this increase in the supply of the jerseys, Adidas still remains supreme in the production of high quality, professional soccer jerseys, because it offers a lower price than its competitors while still retaining its level of quality. The graph below depicts the demand curve for Adidas soccer jerseys. 
Curve D1 represents the demand for soccer jerseys before they started to become very popular. Curve D2 represents the increase in demand for their product do to an increase in popularity for the soccer jerseys. Point A, on curve D1 represents the price of the jerseys before the demand increased and Point B, on the D2 curve, represents the price of the jerseys after the demand increased. Notice, the prices of the jerseys remain the same but because there was a change in factors besides price, such as the popularity of the jerseys, the quantity that was sold at this price increases.
You may also want to view my VoiceThread on this topic.
Assessment Reflection #1
I have just received my first Economics assessment grade and I did very well. I think the IB Economics style of grading has certain criteria that it grades very harshly on and other criteria that is a little more loose in the ways in which it can be interpreted. For Economics assessments, the graphs and the definitions of the terms used are critiqued heavily, whereas opinions and points of view on a subject are widely accepted as long as they are defended well.
I enjoy the system that employs both formative and summative assessments. On my first two practice assessments for economics, I received an eight out of ten on the first and a nine out of ten on the second. This showed me that I was headed in the right direction but pointed out a few areas of weakness that could be improved for the final assessment. These first two were practice tests that then helped me to be able to achieve a ten out of ten on the summative assessment that counted towards my grade.
Production Possibility Curves
The company of Caterpillar has decided to build a new factory in the developing country of Brazil. I decided to try and illustrate this by using a production possibility curve (PPC). If you would like to see my PPC and VoiceThread on this topic, click here. If you would like to read the original article on this topic, which I found on the Peoria Journal Star website, click here.
Richard Branson – The Rebel Billionaire and Ultimate Multipreneur
Richard Branson is the best kind of entrepreneur. At 16, he was able to produce his first success by starting a student magazine. At the age of 20, he really started to branch out, by starting a record company called Virgin Records. At this point in his life, he had two realizations about himself, (1) he was a good risk taker and (2) he was not afraid of failure. His company, Virgin Records, soon started signing big names in the music industry, such as The Rolling Stones and Phil Collins, and it wasn’t long before these stores lined streets all over the world. After this first major success, Branson was able to add to his list of accomplishments by creating Virgin Atlantic Airlines, an airline that included many new features that had not been available to travelers before, and Virgin Mobile, a cellular phone company directed towards teenagers that gave them more options for their phone plans. Recently, Richard Branson has thought up a new idea; a company called Virgin Galactic. It will soon allow people to buy a ticket to ride in a space shuttle and experience weightlessness for a short amount of time. Branson says that the ideas for all of his companies were formed by looking at new ways to form old products and focusing on industries where the customers were unsatisfied and looking for an alternative.
There is no arguing that Richard Branson is a successful entrepreneur but when asked how he did it, he responded that while some skill was involved, he also had luck and good timing on his side. He also said, in an interview with Forbes in 2003, “I don’t think of work as work and play as play. It’s all just living.”
For more information on Richard Branson, click here.
If you like the photo in this blog post, click here.
Bridget's Economics Blog 