Now that Kmart has the means to reach the outside world, they must purchase equipment, such as MagTek equipment, that would allow Kmart to use the Visa card allowing consumers to make a purchase on credit for goods that Kmart Provides. According to MagTek’s Website, “MagTek is a manufacturer of electronic devices and systems for the reliable issuance, reading, transmission and security of cards, checks, PINs and other identification documents.” Among the electronic devices, is a magnetic strip reader allowing consumers to use Visa credit cards to make purchases.
Kmart also has an agreement with Omnimedia, the owning entity of the Martha Stewart living products, and Craftsman, a company that makes tools for everyday use. This type of agreement is known an exclusive dealing arrangement. According to the Legal Information Institute at Cornell University, “Exclusive dealing arrangements are, essentially, requirement contracts in which a seller agrees to sell all or a substantial portion of its products or services to a particular buyer, or when a buyer similarly agrees to purchase all or a portion of its requirements of a product or service from a particular seller.” This means that Kmart buys all of its tools from craftsman or all of its household items from Omnimedia. The reverse to this, is that Craftsman or Omnimedia may have an exclusive dealing arrangement in which they agree not to sell their products to competing companies or franchises. As you can see, there is much more going on in behind the curtains of a typical day, so that the consumer is able to live their life. These are only a handful of examples of what parts of our lives contracts have an impact on. There are many more out there. The opposite of having a life filled with contracts, is having one without them, which would likely be a life filled with chaos. …show more content…
Imagine the same scenario in the last few pages, but without contracts binding the many parties involved. Our consumer would set out to buy a home which they decide to do business with K. Hovnanian. On a handshake and a smile K. Hovnanian agrees to build the home, but changes things that the consumer specifically said he wanted to alter the price of the home. After a couple of weeks K. Hovnanian contacts our consumer to let them know that they were able to secure the land, but the price will be higher. Reluctantly, the consumer agrees, after all this is a dream home that is being built. Another two weeks goes by, and K Hovnanian calls and says construction is right on schedule and that the house will be completed within the next couple of weeks. K Hovnanian and our consumer come to an agreement of money and the consumer has his bank give the money to K. Hovnanian as agreed. After a couple of Months of communication silence, the consumer gets agitated and goes to the lot where his house was being built. There is no house and no construction crew. He goes to the location where K. Hovnanian was only to find out they have closed their doors and left. After contacting some sources to find out the whereabouts of K. Hovnanian, the consumer finds out that the company he has been dealing with was not K. Hovnanian at all, just someone taking advantage of people using the K. Hovnanian name to get money for free. The one contract in all of this that our consumer did setup was with Bank of America for his Mortgage, which is now legally binding. The consumer cannot pay the mortgage and therefore his credit gets destroyed because of a failure to pay and a foreclosure on a home he never saw, which makes it so he never had a Visa card to pay for the purchases from Kmart. Because there was