International Buying: An Experiential Exercise

Abstract

"An experiential exercise designed to teach retailing students international buying skills is described. Increased foreign buying activities make it important for educators to integrate international buying strategies into the curriculum. Student teams represented one of four retail firms and bought merchandise from other students posing as foreign manufacturers. Each team completed market research to determine the economic, political, and cultural climate of a foreign country as well as business customs that might affect negotiation. A situation analysis of the retail firm was also conducted. Buying decisions were made regarding open- tobuy, pricing, shipping, delivery, method of payment, and stock assortment. Teams negotiated with representatives of foreign manufacturing firms to achieve predetermined buying goals. "