Portobello Road: Place & Product

Credit: Harlan Spotts

Portobello Road: Place & Product

Portobello Road is located conveniently between Ladbroke Grove and Notting Hill Gate tube stations in London. Therefore giving shoppers ease of access to shop Portobello Road from end to end and swiftly make their way back onto the tube. The convenience of the locations of these two tube stations, being placed at either end of the Portobello Market stretch, helps to ease the stress of the shopping process. If there was only one station in the vicinity of Portobello Road, people wouldn’t be bothered to walk the entire stretch of Portobello Road to see all that the market has to offer just to walk back down again. This would put some vendors at a huge disadvantage because they wouldn’t be experiencing as much traffic as other vendors would, if there was only one station. Another advantage of Portobello Road is that frequent shopper can take advantage of the terrain. What I am referring to is the fact the Portobello Road has a slight grade, as it sits on a hill. Frequent visitors of Portobello Road will find that if they disembark at the Ladbroke Grove station and make their way down (south) Portobello Road they will find much more ease and effectiveness when shopping. Reason being that people do not like to exert a lot of energy when it comes to shopping. Consumers that disembark at Notting Hill Gate and want to make their way up Portobello Road will tend to be more tired because their shopping will take them uphill. A tired customer will not be a happy customer, and so I feel that vendors will be disadvantaged by these customers as they may not spend as much time at their stands. I feel as though there should be suggestions for visitors of Portobello Road to start their shopping at the northernmost point of Portobello Road and make their way south (downhill) in order to experience a more pleasurable shopping experience. As I walked along Portobello Road and surveyed the products for sale, I noticed that there were a lot of products that didn't have brand names. I feel that the reason for this is that the market in which the vendors shop in isn't the typical manufacturer or private label brand that you would find in your local retailer. Most channels of distribution deal with agents/brokers that negotiate the trade between the manufacturer and the wholesaler/retailer. However, in the case of all the vendors in the Portobello Market the middleman (the agent/broker) is cut out. The vendors must buy directly from the manufacturer in order to be able to afford the products that they buy. This maximizes on efficiency, because there are fewer transactions, and lowers the cost. The costs are lowered not only for the vendors, but are passed onto the customers of the Portobello Market. Most of the products can be considered to be knock-off as the quality of the items are lower and in the end you get what you pay for. Vendors aren't going to be able to buy from your typical merchandiser because they wouldn't be able to afford it, especially since they can't buy in volume. There must be second rate and third rate manufacturers that these vendors order from allowing them to afford to purchase a bulk of items to sell at the Portobello Market.

There is a large array of products that consumers can select from when they visit Portobello Road. From material goods such as antiques, to household essentials, to food, people can find it on Portobello Road. Since there is such a large selection of products in the Portobello market, consumers appreciate that they have high chances of finding what they want. There are two types of customers that shop for products in the marketplace (businesses and consumers) and you will not find businesses shopping on Portobello Road. All the customers shopping on Portobello Road are consumers, meaning that they use the products that they buy for themselves. Most of the products offered by vendors on Portobello Road are convenience items. Glasses, watches, shoes, purses, souvenirs make up a majority of the products found in the Portobello Market. A lot of the products are homogeneous and with these products, the customer is in control as vendors will compete to offer the lowest price in order to generate business for themselves. The customers shopping at Portobello Market know that they aren't getting the highest quality product, but the prices are so low they can risk making purchases.