Supply and Demand

This week in economics, we've been focusing on the concept of supply and demand. The supply and demand different goods and services are constantly changing. Ever since we started learning about supply and demand, I've been more aware of the prevalent supply and demand changes all around me. For instance, there are two McDonald's locations close to my house. I noticed that one of the McDonald's increased the price of their ice cream cones, while the other McDonald's maintained their price of ice cream cones, which was lower than the new price of the first McDonald's. The two McDonald's locations act as substitutes, and because the price of the ice cream cones at the first McDonald's increased, the demand for those ice cream cones decreased, and my family (and probably other people) used the substitute of the other McDonald's, so the demand for their ice cream cones increased. I also observed a shift in the supply of a product recently. A lot of Conant students are part of the fan section at sporting events, called the "Cougar Crazies" and every year, the leaders of the Cougar Crazies order t-shirts for anybody who says they want one. This year, the leaders ordered a set amount of personally designed t-shirts for those of us in the Cougar Crazies. However, after the t-shirts arrived and we actually got them, a lot more students went to the leaders and said that they wanted shirts too. The leaders hadn't accounted for extra people who may want shirts, so their expectations were lower than the outcome. Therefore, they had more shirts made, and the supply of those t-shirts increased. These were just two simple examples of changes in supply and demand, but they show how many things that we see everyday can relate to economics.