The Kite Runner/Life of Pi: the Foil

The Kite Runner/Life of Pi: The Foil In both The Kite Runner and Life of Pi, the relationship between the major character and a minor character—the foil—help to highlight the main character’s qualities, illuminating his traits to be seen in an extraordinary, nonstandard way. In The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini creates Hassan as the foil for Amir. Hassan’s character, as perfect as he is, causes Amir to pale in comparison, something that Amir channels throughout his life, governing his actions.Similarly, Yann Martel employs Richard Parker as the foil for Pi in Life of Pi. The strength and ferocity of the tiger emphasizes Pi’s hopelessness and fear. Pi utilizes these emotions to fight and continue living. In both novels, the foil character underlines the main protagonist’s characteristics and provokes certain feelings that ultimately determine his fate. In The Kite Runner, Hassan is Amir’s half-brother, best friend, and servant. His chara cter is nearly perfect—loyal, courageous, caring, kind, and selfless. He has no evil qualities.When compared to Hassan, Amir’s value and positive qualities fall flat and are seen as insignificant and mediocre. Even more, his bad features are amplified and made more prominent. Amir cannot live up to Hassan’s goodness. This inadequateness is put into words and exemplified through Baba, who declares that, â€Å"If I hadn’t seen the doctor pull [Amir] out of my wife with my own eyes, I’d never believe he’s my son† (Hosseini 23). Baba often treated Amir and Hassan equally, which was unusual because the Hazara was essentially their servant.If Amir asked for a big and fancy kite, Baba would buy it for him—but then he would buy it for Hassan as well (Hosseini 51). These displays of affection were later explained in that Baba was actually Hassan’s real father, but the effect they had had on Amir stuck. Amir was always desperately vying for his father’s love and approval. The fondness Baba treated Hassan with vexed and aggravated him. Without the knowledge of Hassan’s true parentage, Amir felt many flashes of jealousy and frustration—emotions that, compared with his own brother’s understanding and humility, projects him as criminal.The most prominent situation that highlights Amir’s character is when he witnesses Hassan being raped. The event leading up to the incident is of Hassan running after the final kite—just for Amir. He finds it, only to be cornered by Assef who demands the kite as retribution for the â€Å"rude manners† he showed him during and earlier incident (Hosseini 71). Hassan refuses, retorting back, â€Å"Amir agha won the tournament and I ran this kite for him. I ran it fairly. This is his kite† (Hosseini 72). He is assaulted in reply.Here, Hassan’s traits of extraordinary loyalty and courageousness are displayed; however, switc h the scope to Amir and the qualities revealed are the exact opposite. Amir witnessed the raping of his best friend and did nothing. He was afraid of getting hurt, afraid of losing Baba’s newly earned affections and simply ran away (Hosseini 77). When compared to Hassan, Amir’s qualities of selfishness and cowardice are highlighted and intensified. From the presence of Hassan, Amir’s selfishness and cowardice, in addition to his desire to be â€Å"good enough†, are not only emphasized, but acknowledged by Amir himself.These are the traits that ultimately drive him throughout his life. The recognition of the evil in himself coupled with his will to do good lead him to search for redemption—one of the main themes of the novel. With the immense guilt over Hassan’s rape pushing him forward, Amir lives his life stiffly until taking the move to America where he starts a new morally upright life, where he helps his father and marries a good woman, and then finally completely redeeming himself through returning to Afghanistan and saving Sohrab from Assef.By establishing Hassan as a foil character for Amir, Hosseini creates a domino effect in which his main character discovers himself, realizes he dislikes what he finds, and fights his way towards the â€Å"way to be good again†Ã¢â‚¬â€redemption. In Life of Pi, Pi’s fellow passenger throughout most of his time at sea is Richard Parker, a 450-pound Royal Bengal tiger. The wild, aggressive tiger initially places the sensitive, intelligent Pi in an immense state of fear. Pi is overwhelmed by terror over an animal known for its ferocity and power, an animal he’s seen viciously attack and devour a live goat (Martel 35).Richard Parker scares him witless. His main focus, then, is to survive this creature. Richard Parker’s intimidating nature at first reveals Pi’s initial sense of surrender and loss of faith and general humanity. â€Å"With a tiger on board, my life was over† (Martel 135). As he accepts the presence of the tiger, however, he becomes determined. Richard Parker’s animalistic nature rubbed off on Pi. In place of his slight loss of humanity arises a sense of instinctual will to live. â€Å"I will not die. I refuse it.I will make it through this nightmare† (Martel 148). He hatches â€Å"several plans to get rid of [Richard Parker]† and ultimately decides to tame him (Martel 157). The decision gives Pi a sense of purpose, a distraction from the hopelessness of his situation—stranded in the middle of ocean, completely and utterly alone. If he killed Richard Parker, Pi acknowledges that he â€Å"would be left alone with despair, a foe even more formidable than a tiger† (Martel 164). He declares, â€Å"It was Richard Parker who calmed me down.It is the irony of this story that the one who scared me witless to start with was the very same who brought me peace, purpose, I dare sa y even wholeness† (Martel 162). In the end, Pi was able to survive because of Richard Parker. He kept Pi from â€Å"thinking too much about [his] family and [his] tragic circumstances. He pushed [him] to go on living† (Martel 164). Richard Parker’s role as the foil character to Pi is characterized by the fear and determination that the tiger incites in Pi. Compared to the magnificent animal, Pi becomes a defenseless, hopeless human.But, motivated by the feeling of weakness, Pi’s inner animalistic nature reveals itself. Through the daunting presence of Richard Parker, Pi discovered within himself that he had â€Å"a fierce will to live† (Martel 148). Richard Parker’s, the foil character’s, relationship with Pi personifies one of the major themes of the novel: the will to live. The entire novel is centered on Pi’s struggle to survive in this seemingly impossible, dangerous, and depressing situation. Pi’s instinct to survive is represented by the tiger itself. The qualities of Richard Parker, of the animalistic characteristics, were crucial to his survival.Despite some hesitation, Pi ultimately learns to embrace Richard Parker. He learns to embrace that fierce will to live, learns to fight for survival and, in the end, makes it out alive. The Kite Runner and Life of Pi were both written with a foil character. In both novels, the character motivated and provoked the main protagonist into discovering himself. The fates of both main characters were determined by the ways their foil affected them. This relation between two characters not only significantly establishes the characters themselves, but illuminates the meaning of the work.

Psychological Manipulation and Physical Control in 1984 Essay

Through the years many governments have tried to control their people through many different ways. However, none of those civilizations came even close to the amount of control that the government displayed in George Orwell’s 1984 had over its’ people. The government of 1984 addressed the task of controlling the people through two main techniques. These two techniques the government used were psychological manipulation and physical control to rule over the people. The government (also known as Big Brother) bombards the people of the civilization with rules, regulations and other methodical methods that cause the people to be anti-individualistic. The people are so focused on fallowing the laws in order to prevent the harsh penalties for breaking the law. These penalties for breaking the law ranged anywhere from the death sentence to many different forms of psychological torture modus operandi. One crime that the people could commit was called a thought crime. A thought crime was any thought that was not in line with Big Brother’s ideology. Not only does this control the people directly through the people’s actual thoughts (psychological manipulation) but it also dictates them physically through how Big Brother determines if someone is committing the thought crime. Big Brother determines a thought crime through using cameras everywhere and they examine the reactions on the face of the people and what they say to find out how they feel about what Big Brother is doing. This physically controls the people because it makes them not display any opposition to the government. Another example that concerns to Big Brother controlling the people was by the way that Big Brother had children brought up. The government brought the children into the organization called the â€Å"Junior Spies†. Once the children were in this organization they were taught and trained to betray their parents by being additional eyes and ears for Big Brother. This form of control psychologically manipulates families not to talk about anything that would display individuality. In addition to the psychological manipulation, this form of government controls the people physically through the reformation of how families interact with each other. Yet another example of Big Brother controlling its’ people is by taking away the passion and the enjoyment out of the bedroom. In the society that Big Brother establishes sex as something that should only be used for the reproduction to keep the population up. Sex is supposed to not be enjoyed and only done by specified members of the inner party. Sex expresses individualism and free thought, so by psychologically manipulating the people to not like sex they are eliminating more individualism in their society. Big Brother also displays another example of controlling the people by instilling nationalism in them. Big Brother takes the problems in the society and uses them to say that other parties and cultures are the reasons for their faults. This creates hatred in the people and stirs up emotional responses against the other parties and cultures. The way that the government does this is very similar to the propaganda tactics used by Adolf Hitler in Nazi Germany and also by Joseph Stalin in Communist Russia. The nationalistic propaganda is how Big Brother psychologically manipulates the population of the civilization. One last example of Big Brother psychologically manipulating the people is observed through the posters that the government hangs up. All around the civilization you are able to find posters that say â€Å"Big Brother Is Watching You! † This is a scare tactic that the government uses. Big Brother uses fear by creating an environment in which the people are constantly reminded that that they are being watched for disloyalty to the almighty government. That is how Big Brother manages to use posters to psychologically manipulate the people. There are countless examples of how Big Brother dominates these people lives through the use of psychological manipulation and physical control. The government uses their totalitarian power to strictly enforce its’ ideological control over the people. The people are trapped in a government which is full of so much propaganda and other psychological/physically abusive tactics that the people have grown accustom to the society that Big Brother creates for them.

Foreclosure Crisis and Cities Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Foreclosure Crisis and Cities - Essay Example At the beginning of 2008, with the weakening of US economy and losing of jobs, these defaults became millions and many Americans with plain-vanilla prime mortgages were also in trouble for making the repayment. Some borrowers were compelled to give up the repayment, finding that they had paid inflated prices for houses while others were in trouble by borrowing against the equity in their homes. According to Federal Reserve, more than $1.1 trillion of equities were withdrawn in 2007-08. Even the borrowers who have stable jobs started to see these negative equities as reason for stopping the payments and by the beginning of 2009, one-sixth of the homeowners found default borrowers, culminating the foreclosure crisis (Immerdeck, 2009). A large number of foreclosed dwellings all around the country were left vacant when the owners just walked away from the properties as they were unable to repay the loans. These empty dwellings created blight and contributed to the deterioration of neighb orhood. This resulted in the drop of property value and increase of crimes.

Public policy discussion Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Public policy discussion - Assignment Example These environmental discussions are still held every year in chosen countries around the world. Part 1 The states have become an alternative avenue in the formulation of the environmental policy in two main ways. One is that the states are faced with varied environmental challenges. The states become an avenue through which the federal government collects data from the citizens of those states. The states are represented in the congress and therefore the issues they raise are heard by the federal government. The federal government uses this information from all the states to formulate a national environmental policy. In the same the federal uses the states to collect information, it is the same channel that the federal government in conjunction with the states governments implement the environmental policy (HarperCollins 56). This is the other function of the states in environmental matters. In addition to this, when the policy is being implemented, its effectiveness should be evalua ted in order to determine whether the desired results are being achieved. This determined through the officials deployed by the government in the states using various programmes. After the Clean Air Act of 1963, changes were made to the Water Pollu ­tion Control Act of 1948 (Robert. This is when Washington started pressing the states to set pollution standards and to come up with implementation frameworks which were based on the federal government's guidelines. Another perfect example is when the Congress gave way to the policy innovation at the end of 1969 when it passed the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). The act provided that it is the role of the Federal Government, in together with State and local governments, and other interested public and private institutions, to put in place achievable means and measures, not forgetting financial and technical support, in a way aimed to maintain and promote the general wellbeing, to develop and promote situations whereby human b eing and the environment could exist in beneficial harmony, and at the same time achieve the economic, and other needs of current and future off springs of Americans. Clinton is praised for his environmental appointments and for his strong government sup ­port for programmes like the restoration of the Florida Everglades and other decision based on new innovations and approaches to ecosystem management. Clinton reversed major decisions of the Reagan- and Bush-era that were highly criti ­cized by environmentalists (Hanna 53). He also increased government expenditure and spending on environ ­mental initiatives, initiatives towards green energy and conservation research, and international populace policies (MarianR 67). Government definitely is a major player in the environmental affairs, and the federal government will go on having unique roles, as will the fifty states and the 80,000 local governments across the United States. The involvement of states in environmental regulati ons crafted by the federal government varies from one state to another based on the environmental challenges they might be facing. In the past two decades, the states are coming up with their own environmental policies which are of course in line with the federal gover

Case Scenario Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Case Scenario - Assignment Example The scenario points out the massive flow of pollutants from the boatyard towards the sea. On the other hand the oil containers drips oil into the sea that is a big danger for the marine life. In the scenario, there is a massive flow of pollutant emerging from the marina and going towards the sea contaminating water and endangering the marine life. The people that visit marina complain about the pollutants and the drainage of oil from the oil containers. In this way, the major responsibility of mine is to stop the flow of pollutants into the outer environment. I will have to apply rules and regulation for the restaurant to utilize the closed container for discarding the waste material (National Pollution Prevention Roundtable 2007). The material and shape of the waste containers should in this way that it can hold the heavy storms that occur seasonally in the area. However, there are several methods to build and buy such containers, like utilizing some heavy material in the waste container would solve the problem. The material could be of non-corrosive metallic material or some other material that can resist the heavy winds and storms and even the animal activity. The other problem with the oil containers that lie on the marina can be solved by utilizing a bigger oil container on the marina instead of many 50 gallon oil containers. Moreover, the utilization of bigger tank ensures no oil leakage from the tank. The tank remains properly sealed so that no oil leaks from the tank. A proper oil pumping system would ensure that oil is filled in the boats and other vehicle properly. There is a need to consider the environmental aspect, in order to control the pollution. The problem of the loose waste from the restaurant can be solved by warning the restaurant management to keep an eye on the loose waste and make rules that fine will be imposed if the restaurant continues the act. The increase in the number of waste containers will solve the problem.

School Lunch Lady Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

School Lunch Lady - Essay Example Hence, the staff in those schools was extremely strict, especially the lunch lady, so that the students learn to adjust to the harder way of life. She used to make the same porridge everyday, and gave only fixed amounts of food to everyone, to keep the children away from any kind of luxury. Although the image of that lunch lady is still in the minds of children today, not one school has a lunch lady of that caliber. Today, children are not scared into doing something, but are politely made to understand between right and wrong, and their consequences. For instance, if children need to be stopped from eating a lot of candies, they cannot be forced or scared into doing it, but be explained the harmful effects of doing what they are doing. I believe that this image of the lunch lady should have been gone with the extinction of old boarding schools, but media was always there to save it from dying, and has still kept it alive. Fairy tales and other children's books have played a major role in keeping the lunch lady alive. The stereotype can be seen in stories like Hansel & Gretel, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, and others.

Organization theory and design Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 1

Organization theory and design - Essay Example In this aspect, any active organization has a specific structure that fits needs; the other role of organizational structure is facilitating efficiency through allocation of roles and responsibilities. The arrangement of different organizational activities also promotes efficiency as well as efficacy in production. The concept of organizational culture has been studied in various fields such as anthropology as well as sociology on a wide perspective. However, from these studies, no clear meaning of organizational culture has been provided; despite the lack of a clear meaning, several definitions have been provided such as: A set of commonly comprehended issues that an organization’s actions are undertaken, for instance; a form of language that applies to a specific organization. On the other hand, other social scientists have also described organizational culture as a benchmark formulated to perceive things, a system of skills commonly applied in an organization to promote evaluation of issues and processes. In addition, organizational culture plays a significant role by promoting reconceptualization of issues and process in different sectors: That is, to enhance the understanding of various stakeholders and the important role their organizations play within the society. It also enables stakeholders to a gain a deeper understanding of their goals, objectives as well as determining ways in which they relate to one another within and outside the organization. Organizational design, specifically organizational structure plays a key role in promoting the success of any organization. Poor organizational structure i.e. inappropriate methods of duties allocation, inappropriate methodologies applied to guide the flow of resources. Moreover, organization culture also plays a crucial role by promoting proper relationships among workers hence creating a harmonious working environment

Grievance Process Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Grievance Process - Assignment Example The research objective correlates with the desire and aim of management to develop productive and satisfactory procedures for improving service quality. The goal system of an organisation is based on the aspirations that drive the current practices, and the complex hierarchy of interconnected goals is defined by the desires and aims supported by other aims (Eden and Ackerman 1998). The aim of this research is to critically evaluate the grievance and disciplinary process to ensure that it is a viable and strategic management resource for understanding employee, management and organisation relationships (Davenport 1995). The outline of objectives is based on the following literature review. The literature review was used to first develop a framework for consistent theories in strategic management. Therefore, the objectives are approached from a human interaction standpoint and not a political, legal or implied quantitative position. The rational planning school defines the objective in advance by determining the current strategic position, and then using a prescriptive approach that exemplifies the strategic analysis, development and implementation (Lynch 2000). This is a strong foundation of the research proposal as the perspective approach is a systematic method that follows in sequence (Lynch 2000). This is used as a cyclic approach to a series of rationales instead of being sequential, and is most often seen in organisations where environment and strategy are constantly analysed (Lynch 2000). To find information regarding accounting management practices, qualitative data will be collected. This allows for an evaluation of the results to be made on the empirical views and new information to be gathered in a timely and inexpensive manner where other methods are based on information that is already in existence. Examining the components of the grievance process will collect qualitative data. Collection of information will be from theoretical management review and the relationship to Mersey Care NHS Trust grievance and disciplinary procedure. Outline of Key Concerns In the socially motivated health care industry, strategic management must look beyond functionality and towards a support system for innovation, developing core competencies and knowledge based communication. Breaking from the traditional mindset to incorporate a strategic plan that is focused on encouraging an employees knowledge-based value often includes training, reward systems, and encouragement (Harrison and Enz p45 2005). The grievance policy must deal with the process of the grievance and response as well as the people

1984 George Orwell Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

1984 George Orwell - Essay Example All privacy of the people is done away with. An individual cannot express, he is part of the collective conformity. Each citizen is required to be a loyal follower of the government. Physical and emotional tortures are the accepted procedures to achieve the reformation goals. The supreme leader eliminates the fundamental rights and freedom of expression of the citizens. They are like the dumb, driven cattle. Since each movement is monitored, people are afraid to exhibit even emotions. Human nature is suppressed. Youth is taught to rebel against the parents. "It was almost normal for people over thirty to be frightened of their own children." (Orwell n. d.) They are afraid of their shadows! Newspeak relates to domination of the thought process where in the State will command it in totality, with no scope for the opinion of others. It will remove all shades of meanings from the language that which is not conducive to the philosophy of the state. Thus, the vocabulary gets reduced every year and the words like rebellion, freedom etc., will vanish from the dictionary of the totalitarian state. The processes of destruction of words begin with the introduction and use of Newspeak to give a blow to logical thinking with a deliberate scheme to oppress the freedom-loving speakers. Its negative connotation is its ‘beauty.’ The government’s main aim is to know what is going on in the minds of the people, and telescreens are installed to watch their moves. News about false hopes is broadcasted. The tools like newspaper, print media and speakers give information, not truth, and what is convenient from the government point of view. Psychological principles are used to brainwash the people and to secure their commitment to the philosophy of the party. For example, they apply electrical shocks to subdue and weaken the spirit of Winston. The constant supervision makes the citizens the virtual prisoners in their daily lives in Oceania.

ECH125 T5CulturalInstructionalStrategies Essay Example for Free

ECH125 T5CulturalInstructionalStrategies Essay Perdew Maria SEVEN-YEAR-OLD MARIA IS AN OUTGOING, HAPPY SECOND-GRADER WITH STRONG LITERACY SKILLS; IN FACT, SHE IS BILINGUAL, SPANISH/ENGLISH. HER FAVORITE PART OF SCHOOL IS READING AND WRITING STORIES. SHE ALSO ENJOYS MATH. SHE IS VERY ACTIVE AND ENJOYS RECESS AND CREATING DANCE STEPS IN PE. SHE IS SENSITIVE AND CAN GET HER FEELINGS HURT EASILY. CULTURAL (ANTI-BIAS) AND INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGIES: ?CULTURAL USE THE READING AND WRITING LOVE AND HAVE READING AND WRITING ASSIGNMENTS/ACTIVITIES IN SPANISH AND ENGLISH. ?INSTRUCTIONAL INTRODUCE MORE COMPLEX READING LEVELS, WORK ONE ON ONE WITH HER TO BEGIN WRITING STORY SUMMARIES AND IDENTIFYING THE MAIN IDEA. RESULTS OF MENTOR TEACHER DISCUSSIONS: WE DISCUSSED THE IMPORTANCE OR REALLY HORNING IN ON STUDENT’S STRENGTHS TO PUSH HER TO ENSURE THE STUDENT IS LEARNING SOMETHING NEW. Ashley SIX-YEAR-OLD ASHLEY IS THE YOUNGEST OF FIVE CHILDREN. SHE IS VERY SHY AND CLINGS TO HER OLDER SISTER EACH DAY WHEN SHE BRINGS HER INTO THE FIRST GRADE CLASSROOM. ASHLEY IS CURIOUS; HER FAVORITE PART OF SCHOOL IS DOING SCIENCE EXPERIMENTS. SHE READS AT A PRIMER LEVEL, BUT ENJOYS HAVING PEOPLE READ TO HER. CULTURAL (ANTI-BIAS) AND INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGIES: ?CULTURAL INTRODUCE STRATEGIES FOR HER TO FOCUS IN ON HER CURIOSITY AND BLOSSOM THROUGH HER LOVE FOR SCIENCE. ?INSTRUCTIONAL TURN FOCUS TO SIGHT WORDS AT HER LEVEL AND START WORKING ON GETTING HER INTO A TITLE READING GROUP SO SHE CAN GET THE EXTRA WORK IN READING. RESULTS OF MENTOR TEACHER DISCUSSIONS: WE TALKED ABOUT THE IMPORTANCE OF IDENTIFY WHEN A CHILD NEEDS EXTRA WORK SUCH AND A TITLE READING GROUP AND ABOUT HOW EVEN THOUGH THEY ARE IN A OUTSIDE READING GROUP THEY STILL NEED TO BE INVOLVED IN THE CLASSROOM READINGS ASÂ  WELL. Xavier XAVIER IS A KINDERGARTENER WHO REALLY ENJOYS SPORTS, PARTICULARLY BASEBALL. HE HAS LOW LITERACY SKILLS. HE IS VERY SOCIAL AND ENJOYS INTERACTIONS WITH OTHER CHILDREN DURING RECESS, CLASS ACTIVITIES, AND AT THE COMPUTER. HE IS A HANDS-ON LEARNER, CONFIDENT, AND A RISK-TAKER. CULTURAL (ANTI-BIAS) AND INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGIES: ?CULTURAL USE HIS INTERESTS IN SPORTS AND COMPUTERS TO HELP KEEP HIM INTERESTED IN READING. ?INSTRUCTIONAL BUILD ON HIS CONFIDENCE AND HAVE HIM LEAD OTHERS STUDENTS WHEN Â © 2014. GRAND CANYON UNIVERSITY. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Feasibility of Online Shopping in UK Primark

Feasibility of Online Shopping in UK Primark Abstract The purpose of this research is to study the online shopping in UK clothing retail market, and how it will be helpful to the researcher to get the idea about the feasibility of Primark online shopping service. The research is divided in 5 chapters each chapter gives the reader some idea about online shopping and how it will be beneficial for the company and the consumer. Moreover, the researcher uses this chapter to explain his/her point of view by taking individual chapter. Each chapter has many sub divisions. The researcher plan her research on typical system like chapter vies start from introduction, literature review, methodology, implementation calculation and last conclusion. In this techno savvy world people are using the technology in their day to day life. Sometimes they are using directly and sometimes indirectly but now the situation is like that the person must have use the technology to make their life luxurious. The researcher writes about ecommerce, its advantages and disadvantages. In methodology, the researcher use the both type of data qualitative and quantitative. In quantitative the researcher collects both type of primary and secondary data by using interview and survey. The aim of the research is how Primark can increase its sell in this competitive market. And online shopping market is very strong in UK. Furthermore how the online shopping will be change the stores situation and what are the changes the company will get. 1. INTRODUCTION The researcher doing t CHAPTER 1 1.1. WHAT IS PRIMARK? Primark Stores Limited is an Irish clothing retailer. Its stores are located in various regions like United Kingdom, Ireland, and Spain. Within this area of responsibility, Primark stores outnumbered other clothing retailer business, with one hundred sixty one stores overall distributed in three major regions: one hundred twenty-five in the United Kingdom. The company positions itself as marketing fashionable at cutthroat prices. Primark is known for selling clothes at the budget end of the market. Its success is based on sourcing supply, making clothes with simple designs and fabrics and targets young, fashion-conscious individuals ages 35 below, offering them simple yet high quality clothes and apparels. The relevance of global trends and consumers demands on lifestyle made Primark Store Limited reinvent its business scheme and management structure. From the first penny store in Ireland to the latest flagship store in Liverpool, the Primark story has been one of continuing success founded on a unique combination and lean operations. Primark was opened their first Penney store in Mary Street Dublin in June 1969. During the one year time they added four more stores in Dublin. After continues success in Dublin, in next three year 1971, Primark opened their first store outside the Dublin in Cork and end of that year there were 11 more stores in Ireland and one in Northern Ireland. Furthermore, in 1973, the number of stores had reached 18 in Ireland and Primark Began trading in Great Britain with four out of-town stores. The following year saw the opening of the first UK high street store in Derby and Bristol. In ten more years Primark increase the number of stores in UK and Ireland both like 18 new store added in UK and 9 stores in in Ireland. And the management also expanded the number of the stores in UK and Ireland to 22 stores each. The most innovating thing of Primark was in ten years duration from 1984 to 1994 a further Like most of the Primark stores in high street so it is beneficial to them. Primark has so many strengths, weakness, opportunities and threats. Like 40 years experienced retailer, reasonable price seller of clothes, eco friendly carrier bags etc. Primark has so many weaknesses, weak public relationship, leak of services, no online facility for shopping. For promotional development Primark can introduce their own store cards, Self scan area and soon. Due to competitive market Primark provide cheapest clothes to customers. Its create threat for Primark to stay in these market. LIST OF STORE LOCATION IN LONDON Basildon Kingston-Upon-Thames Basingstoke Lewisham, Bedford Leytonstone, Bexleyheath London Brighton, Luton Bromley Maidstone Camberley Margate, Chatham Norwich Crawley Oxford Croydon Peckham Dartford Reading, Ealing Romford Eastbourne Slough, Eastham Southend Gravesend Stevenage Hackney Sutton Hammersmith Thurrock Harlow Tooting Harrow Watford Hemel Hempstead Wandsworth Hounslow Wembley Ipswich Woking Kilburn, Woolwich Table 1: Field work Primark store location in London Primark stores a privately held subsidiary of Associated British Foods, Is involved in opening departmental store. It owns and operated 188 departmental stores that provide products such as women wear, children wear, menswear, footwear, accessories, The children market in Britain is worth  £4.5bn. Five years ago, Primark had a 2.8% market share. By 2006 this had risen 5.4% and in 2007 to 6.2% this now places Primark fourth in terms of market share. (Sutherland Canwall, 2008) What is e-commerce? 1.2 Aim The researcher aim to do this research to increase the volume of sales at present Primark is leading clothing retailer in UK. Furthermore according to this techno savvy world, and to compete the all competitors Primark also have to be go ahead with some new innovation with them. 1.3 Objectives 1. To explore how online shopping can benefit Primark and boost its sales. 2. To calculate, agree and plan for the necessary resources for this project 3. To investigate the market for online shopping service in the UK competitors market. 4. To identify new segment to increase the market share CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1. ONLINE SHOPPING SERVICE The researcher wants to introduce new direct marketing strategy for Primark to increase the sales volume. Like other competitors, Primark does not have an online shopping facility. In this day and age of technological advancement, it becomes very essential for any organisation to establish oneself in the field of e-commerce. The researcher has found a gap in the market for such a technological need and would like to introduce a promotional strategy for the companys growth in this high tech savvy world. The e-commerce can be defined as a modern business methodology that addresses the needs of organization, merchants and consumers to cut costs while improving the quality of goods and services and increasing the speed of service delivery, by using Internet (Goal, 2007). According to Varley, (2006), since the start of the new millennium, shopping via a computer has moved from the something indulged by a niche market to commonplace activity amongst the population masses. Furthermore the n ew internet world provide the retail industry with a new and exciting way of enticing consumer to purchase the product from the comfort from their available place like from home, office or anywhere they can access the ‘virtual world. In fact in recent developments in personal mobile communications industry would suggest that before long we will be able to go shopping literally anywhere at any time. Since the more improvement in the online shopping service is providing more and more luxurious service day by day so the the home delivery option alongside stores as the retail industry has developed. According to Fletcher, Bell McNaughton, (2004) e-commerce involves electronically medicated exchanges with customers. According to Rosen, (2002). Electronic commerce or â€Å"e-commerce† covers the range of online business activities for products and services, both business-to-business and business-to-customers, through the Internet. E-commerce breaks into two components: On the other hand side online auction is straightforward yet revolutionary business concept. Brokage business model, auctions bring the buyers and sellers together in a virtual marketplace. ( Bidgoli, 2002)  · Online Shopping: The scope of information and activities that provides customers with the information to conduct business with you and to make informed buying decisions.  · Online Purchasing: The technology infrastructure for the exchange of data and the purchase of the product over the Internet. Online purchasing is a metaphor used in business-to-business e-commerce for providing customers with an online method of placing orders, submitting purchase orders, or requesting quotes ( Rosen, 2002) Estimates vary as to the size of the business-to-consumer e-commerce market. The International Data Corporation (IDC) estimates that the total purchases made over the web were $10 billion in 1997 and will be more than $220 billion in 2001 (Oliveria, Amorim and Vilao, 1999). These large s are put in a wider context by KPMG (1999) which reports that, â€Å"Direct sales are 5% of retail sales in the UK and 4#% in the US. Of this total, 16% US home sales and 1% of UK home sales are electronic.† Forrester Research (Tagliabue, 1999) whose 1999 research showed Selling goods and services online is also called ecommerce. Popular ecommerce Web sites include Amazon.com and eBay, yahoo shopping, etoys, the met store , smart shopper and so on. Ecommerce is not the sole province of large companies, however; many small businesses have found considerable success selling on the Internet. Like this research content the use of the technology so the researcher would like to discuss about e-commerce service, Electronic commerce or ecommerce is a term for any type of business, or commercial transaction, that involves the transfer of information across the Internet. The e-commerce can be defined as a modern business methodology that addresses the needs of organization, merchants and consumers to cut costs while improving the quality of goods and services and increasing the speed of service delivery, by using Internet (Goal, 2007). According to Forrester Research at, the European online retail market is expected to grow from Euro 40 billion in 2004 to Euro 167 billion by 2009 (Forrester, 2006) Cited in (Burdick, Coakley Richardson, 2006)). And what are the benefits of e-commerce service? But basically the people knows each and every coin has two side so when you get some benefits from the ecommerce on the other hand side you get some disadvantages of the ecommerce as well. Moreover, with the help of online shopping service people can save their time for the shopping, online shopping service is very flexible you can use it anytime. In the opposite side you cannot touch and feel it you cant get it immediately first you pass through the very long process of ordering and after some days limitation like after four days delivery or one week delivery your get you stuff. But nowadays the most of the market work with the online shopping service like all the clothing stores provide Online shopping service. For example MS, Next, Topshop, Matalan, Monsoon, and soon. These all the clothing company has very high share market value in the market and very huge turn over in the market as well. According to the issue published in The Guardian, (2007), The weather also effect the shopping from the store and the online like the number shows how much it effect the market online market sales. In July 2007, because of the wet weather the sales increased by  £4bn in a month for the first time at  £4.2bn up from  £2.3bn in July a year ago according to the Interactive Media in Retail Group (IMRG). 2.2 PRIMARK ONLINE SHOPPING SERVICE (STRATEGY) ADVANTAGES DISADVANTAGES Every new thing has its own pros and cons like online shopping service is advantageous as much as disadvantageous for the Primark. First the researcher would like to discuss the advantages of the online shopping service at Primark. According to the competitor of Primarks are MS, Matalan, Topshop, Next and so on. All of the competitors are providing very good and fast online shopping service for their customers. 2.2.1 Business Benefits According to the Rosen, (2002), by providing your customers with 24 hour-a-day,7-day-a-week (24 x 7) access to information, you can support sales, in some cases shorten the sales cycle, and cut your administrative costs, since customers have access to information when they want it. Some people believe that shown that FAQs on an online shopping site give customers a better idea of companys product and help them feel more comfortable making the decision to buy. E-commerce is a great way to get the business of these off- peak shoppers. For a very small amount of money, a company can have its â€Å"cyber-shop† open 24 hours a day and 7 days a week. Savings on customers service staff, savings on telephone operators and sales people, instant update of catalogues and prices, product targeting, active targeting , passive targeting, better overhead and inventory control, worldwide visibility, attractive option for the physically challenged (Shim, 2000). Further all the advantageous strategy for the any company who introduce their online shopping service. With the Internet reaching all corner of the world so by introducing the online shopping service Primark can be reach all around the world. Actually they can advertise themselves globally for very small price. When the online shopping service the company proved they give the all the detailed description of the products so the Primark have to be recruit the less staff for the customer service staff, telephone operators, and less sales staffs. Like the customers when makes a purchase online is one less using the companys telephone operators and salespeople. Product targeting and active targeting both are the very helpful for the company. Primark can be accomplished actively or passively on the Internet to make their any product targeting. For the company Active targeting for the product by their product targeting Product targeting is in the two different way like the Due to the further description of the 24 x 7 online shopping service is definitely very useful for the any company like MS, Next, Matalan, etc have the same selling hour like Primark but they are selling more product by providing online shopping service. Furthermore nowadays people are more busy and addicted to use the internet in their day- to- day life. The world Internet users are the 100% present day compare to the year 2000. (Internet world stats, 2009) Normally Primark is just getting the benefit of on-peak shoppers only because it does not have any online shopping service to provide their customers. With just the shopping hours the company is making very good volume of sales so think when the company launched their online shopping service it will be more beneficial for the company to increase the volume of sales. 2.2.2 Operational Management Benefits Better availability of Service which means conveniently allows customers to shop in their homes from anywhere online. More benefit of online shopping for the operational management is cost reduction in information processing like reduce the cost of processing and retrieving order and customer information. Better timeliness of service means online operations can offer customers 24-hour servicer for purchasing good and services. Initial cost of operation less expensive, basically the capital investment in e-commerce operation is considerably less than brick-and mortar operations. Improved product development by the ability to be online with research and development people from around the world can help to reduce the time-to -market for new products and the cost of their development. Improved scheduling which is help full to the business. The online ability to keep track of product or service activities allows schedulers to be more accurate and timely in scheduling and rescheduling prod uction activity, reducing costs (Heizer and Render 2001, p. 460; Laudon and Laudon 2002, pp.122-129; Kamarainen et al. 2001). 2.3 Disadvantages of online shopping service There are so many disadvantages of e commerce business for the consumers like, credit card fraud, products that Dont show well, Limit to the Market, Small companies unprepared for global selling and soon. According to Shim Anique (2000) Credit card number can be stolen by the disgruntled or criminal employee who has legitimate as well as illegitimate access to the company e-commerce system. There are so many disadvantageous of ecommerce possible capacity and bandwidth problems. Security issues are major concern for many consumers. Security issues and measures are expected to improve in coming years, through the use of media other than credit cards on the web, such as e-Wallet, e-cash and other payment systems, acceptance or digital signature, more widespread application and acceptance of encryption technology and greater awareness and understanding of customers concerns (Bidgoli, 2002b). The main disadvantageous for shoppers, in ranked order were ‘Availability; ‘Cant be in to receive delivery; ‘Premium charged for delivery; ‘Premium charged for delivery; and ‘Cant see or feel the merchandise.( Harris Dennis, 2002) 2.4 Marketing contribution to High turnover Introduce online shopping service Primark needs many promotional strategies for the promotion of new service. To attract the customers and to publish new service they need so many promotional strategies like direct marketing, Advertising, publicity, sales promotion, Exhibition and so on. Primark always focuses on low price high volume strategy to develop market. Specifically in this recession time, peoples also moves towards Primark low price value added products. To grab this opportunity they should have also low cost marketing strategy as well. In the modern world the Internet often becomes the best medium to communicate and search things around. As all competitors have Online shopping strategy they can easily grab the markets. Online shopping strategy helps to advertising the companys product. As a result of peoples awareness about internet and the young age groups tech savvy attitude, they can search their products, compare with others to make their orders online easily. 2.5 Market Share Value of Primark At present Primark is number one UK clothing retailer in high street. There are so many competitor of it like Topman, Miss Selfridge, Dorothy Perkins, MS, Tesco, ASDA, Matalan Mango, TK Max and soon. Primark has moved a step closer to toppling Marks Spencer from the top spot in clothing market share, after its volume share leapt to 10.1% ( Ana, 2008). IMRG expects internet retail sales to increase by 15 per cent this year, with customers predicted to spend an estimated  £13.16bn online in the lead up to Christmas. A new record for internet sales volumes was set last Monday typically the biggest trading day of the week online although in keeping with the wider economic gloom, sales values were flat (Guardian, 2008). Growth for retail industry till year 2013 is weakens and steadies, First Research forecasts are based on INFORUM forecasts that are licensed from the Interindustry Economic Research Fund, Inc. (IERF) in College Park, MD. INFORUMs interindustry-macro approach to modelling the economy captures the links between industries and the aggregate economy ( Hoovers, 2009). Due to Hoovers, 2008 Primark business was -3% but in next coming year 2009 it is 1% less than the last year. For next coming three years it will be increased by nearly 4% continuously. In year 2013, the business of Primark will be increased their business by 4%. ADVANTAGES  · Business can be going on 24 x 7 days a year.  · Increase the number of sales volume  · Well managed store all the time  · Less staff recruitment.  · Increase the Profit because less money spends on training and development.  · Easy publicity of the product and name. DISADVANTAGES  · Less rash of people in store.  · Promotional things cannot be sell easily in particular stores.  · Customers are not feel that secure as store shopping.  · Chances of the fraud of credit cards and bank details can be effect the reputation of the company. Table 2 : Advantage Disadvantages of online shopping service at Primark CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY This chapter described the methodology used to address the research issue . A summary of the methodology is then presented to provide the platform for the research. The methodology best suited to achieve the research issue aim is then affirmed, alongside discussion on other methodologies and why they were not felt appropriate for utilization with this research issue. 3.1 Research Definition Research is not just a process of gathering information, as is sometimes suggested. Rather, it is about answering unanswered question or creating that which does not currently exist. Burns, (1994:2) defines research as ‘a systematic investigation to fins answers to problem. Bulmer (1977:5) states ‘Nevertheless sociological research , as research is primarily committed to established systematic, reliable and valid knowledge about the social world. Type of Research Research can be classified from three perspectives 1 application of the research study 2 objectives in undertaking the research 3 inquiry mode employed The researcher research is contain descriptive research type which is regarding the new service for the Primark company which has not any online shopping service. So the researcher will start new online shopping service at UK Primark. To finish this research the researcher need both kind of data qualitative data and quantitative data. And some of the data in both of categories contain primary data and secondary data. 3.2 What is the Qualitative and Quantitative research Academics confirmed that, in the main, two different research areas were distinguished: quantitative research, and qualitative research, (White, 2005; Saunders et al., 2007;Fisher, 2007). Quantitative research involved an objective way of studying things, whereas a qualitative approach assumed this was difficult and that the research was subjective, as the research issue clearly was in this instance. Distinctions between Quantitative and Qualitative data Quantitative data Qualitative data * Based on meaning derived from numbers * Collection results in numerical and standardised data * Analysis conducted through the use of diagrams and statistics * Based on meaning * Collection results in requiring classification * Analysis conducted through the use of concepetualisation Table 3 : Distinction between Quantitative data and Qualitative data sources Dey (1993)Harvey and Rawlinson (1994); authors experience, Adapted from Sunders M., Thornhill, Lewis, (2009) 3.3 Primary and secondary data Researchers usually start by gathering both the type of data Primary data and secondary data. But most probably first researcher would like to start collect the secondary data. The secondary data can easily available. According to Kotler, Armstrong, Wong Saunders, (2008) Secondary data consist of information that already exists somewhere, having been collected for another purpose. Primary data consist of information collected for the specific purpose at hand. Secondary data can easily available because company can buy that from anywhere. It is provide good starting point for the research and also help to define research problem and objectives. Primary data need to make sure that it will be relevant , accurate, current and unbiased. Primary data collection calls for the number of decisions on research approaches, contact methods, sampling plan and research instruments. Secondary data is more quickly and available at lower cost than primary data. Sometimes the secondary data cannot be collect by the individual company on its own. Primary data include observation, survey and experiments which is relevant people, actions and situations. 3.4 Interview Technique The interview is a qualitative tool of collecting primary data. There are various kinds of conducting interviews such as in-depth interview, semi-structured interview, group focus interview, structured interview, elite interview, ethnographic interview and phenomenological interview. The interviewers can adjust and rearrange questions according to the flow of the conversation. Moreover, there are mainly two types of interviews that can be taken up any researcher which are telephone interviews and personal interviews. Telephone interviews are used extensively is low cost form of personal interviewing that can be used to obtain information quickly. Administration of this approach is easy and has less interview bias problem. However, there are no human interactions, which can lead to interviewer bias or careless behaviour. However, to some extent personal interviews are also been used along with telephonic interviews. We would be conducting semi structured interviews as it suits explora tory research design. 3.5 Qualitative Data The researcher find this all the qusalitative data of strengths weakness, opportunities and threats of Primark by visiting the stores and observing the behaviour of the customers and staff and the management. The SWOT of Primark is highlighted in the table below: STRENGTHS  · Most Primark stores are on high streets or shopping malls  · Prices are reasonable  · All stores have large trading space.  · Good interiors, decor and proper signage  · Experienced retailer for over more than 40 years in operation  · It provides recyclable eco-friendly bags  · Frequent locator and international coverage WEAKNESSES * No online shopping facility available. * Weak public relation campaigns * Shops crowded and services are not up to standard * Mismanagement of clothes and accessories * Dependent on suppliers * Less promotional activity for stores and company * Less number of fitting rooms OPPORTUNITIES  · Primark can introduce their own store card  · Have an automatic self scan area  · Introduce new section like kitchen range, fragrance etc  · Primark can introduce a refreshment area/cafeteria  · More advertisement and promotion; Tie up and links with various other shops  · Give more range for 35 years and upwards  · Can introduce variety supplier and talent  · Online shopping can also be introduced THREATS * Unethical practice may jeopardise sales * Price competition * Inflation recession (decline in consumer confidence/low disposable income) * Other store selling for like products e.g.: H M, Matalan, Tesco etc. Table 4 : Fieldwork Primark SWOT Analyse 3.6 Quantitative Data The researcher was fortunately able to arrange some interview with some of the Primark managers and customers. The interviews contained both negative and positive replies. However most of the responses were positive. 3.6.1 Managers questioner interview The below primary data shows what are the opinion of the managers about the online shopping service in UK Primark. All the managers have similar view about this innovation skip to some of them. They are appreciating this innovation. The researcher was arrange 8 interviews with different different Primark managers like Lakeside, Watford, Harrow, Oxford street, Hammersmith. Interviews with the managers give the following responds to the researcher: The first part of the mangers interview questioner is (q1,q2,q3)give the idea about how much they are popular in the market. Averagely their is 10000 to 15000 people visit the store on a day to day basis. And the average spend per person is nearly  £10 to  £12. Second part of the managers interview questions (q4,q5) give the information about the company profit how much profit they are making ob year on year, their profit 112% on annual budget since inception 2006. In this credit crunch situation market is facing trouble but still Primark is increasing their profit on same level. Furthermore the third part of the managers interview questions (q6, q7) provides the details about competitors of Primark in the market. Due to the market situation Primark is the most famous retailers for like for like sales. According to all the managers opinion, competitors are New look, BHs, MS, ASDA, Tesco and so on. Primark also prove itself as own their original Moto ‘Look Good, Pay Less. So many managers says that the Primark is the only one place where people can just get scoks for  £2, pair of Mens jeans for  £8, and lots of thing people can find for very cheap price at Primark. Even whenever you pass though the high street you can see that most of the people hold Primark bags. Last part of the managers interview questions is part four(q8,q9), which is give us the information about the feasibility vice the online shopping service is good for the company or not. According to my all the 6 interviews with the managers like supervisor managers to HR managers. 70% response for the online shopping service UK Primark is positive, but 30% said that the company is not that much able to introduce the online shopping service. Furthermore interview with the managers showed that Primark is likely to benefit from the introduction of an online shopping service for their customers. Because the company can save the money and can make the money by introducing the online shopping service. Different ways to save the money due to the managers like the need less staff inside the store to manage the store clean and tide-up. Another reason is they need less HR expenses like less training, recruitment and soon. Primark can run their business for 24 hours, and make more money with fewer resources. 3.6.1 The second questioners survey of Customers The researcher did the survey of 50 people from the different part of the London. Thus survey also divided in two different groups Male and Female. Like Harrow, Hammersmith, Hayes, Uxbridge, Ilford and soon. The researcher was make 10 number of questions for the customers to get the positive or negative response to his/ her research. Each questions gives positive answer to the researcher just skip to the some. Furthermore, the researcher get the reply with the Q1, is about how frequently the customers are visiting the Primark, and the answer is positivistic and 100%. To added some more, all most people visiting a Primark ones a month but some people who are visiting Primark more than one it means they visit Primark twice , thrice and fourth. Going towards Q2, which give the ideas about people are shopping from the Primark is planned or unplanned? The response to this question is neutral like 24 people said it is unplanned shopping and 26 said it is planned shopping. The third question also gives the common opinion of the people about with whom they would like to visit the Primark. The researcher gets variety of answers in different kind of options like friends, family alone, others. According to the response most of the people prefer to visit the Primark with friends the survey gives number out of 50 people 24 prefer to visit the Primark with the friends. Second highest number for the fami ly which is 12. At last very less people prefer to Feasibility of Online Shopping in UK Primark Feasibility of Online Shopping in UK Primark Abstract The purpose of this research is to study the online shopping in UK clothing retail market, and how it will be helpful to the researcher to get the idea about the feasibility of Primark online shopping service. The research is divided in 5 chapters each chapter gives the reader some idea about online shopping and how it will be beneficial for the company and the consumer. Moreover, the researcher uses this chapter to explain his/her point of view by taking individual chapter. Each chapter has many sub divisions. The researcher plan her research on typical system like chapter vies start from introduction, literature review, methodology, implementation calculation and last conclusion. In this techno savvy world people are using the technology in their day to day life. Sometimes they are using directly and sometimes indirectly but now the situation is like that the person must have use the technology to make their life luxurious. The researcher writes about ecommerce, its advantages and disadvantages. In methodology, the researcher use the both type of data qualitative and quantitative. In quantitative the researcher collects both type of primary and secondary data by using interview and survey. The aim of the research is how Primark can increase its sell in this competitive market. And online shopping market is very strong in UK. Furthermore how the online shopping will be change the stores situation and what are the changes the company will get. 1. INTRODUCTION The researcher doing t CHAPTER 1 1.1. WHAT IS PRIMARK? Primark Stores Limited is an Irish clothing retailer. Its stores are located in various regions like United Kingdom, Ireland, and Spain. Within this area of responsibility, Primark stores outnumbered other clothing retailer business, with one hundred sixty one stores overall distributed in three major regions: one hundred twenty-five in the United Kingdom. The company positions itself as marketing fashionable at cutthroat prices. Primark is known for selling clothes at the budget end of the market. Its success is based on sourcing supply, making clothes with simple designs and fabrics and targets young, fashion-conscious individuals ages 35 below, offering them simple yet high quality clothes and apparels. The relevance of global trends and consumers demands on lifestyle made Primark Store Limited reinvent its business scheme and management structure. From the first penny store in Ireland to the latest flagship store in Liverpool, the Primark story has been one of continuing success founded on a unique combination and lean operations. Primark was opened their first Penney store in Mary Street Dublin in June 1969. During the one year time they added four more stores in Dublin. After continues success in Dublin, in next three year 1971, Primark opened their first store outside the Dublin in Cork and end of that year there were 11 more stores in Ireland and one in Northern Ireland. Furthermore, in 1973, the number of stores had reached 18 in Ireland and Primark Began trading in Great Britain with four out of-town stores. The following year saw the opening of the first UK high street store in Derby and Bristol. In ten more years Primark increase the number of stores in UK and Ireland both like 18 new store added in UK and 9 stores in in Ireland. And the management also expanded the number of the stores in UK and Ireland to 22 stores each. The most innovating thing of Primark was in ten years duration from 1984 to 1994 a further Like most of the Primark stores in high street so it is beneficial to them. Primark has so many strengths, weakness, opportunities and threats. Like 40 years experienced retailer, reasonable price seller of clothes, eco friendly carrier bags etc. Primark has so many weaknesses, weak public relationship, leak of services, no online facility for shopping. For promotional development Primark can introduce their own store cards, Self scan area and soon. Due to competitive market Primark provide cheapest clothes to customers. Its create threat for Primark to stay in these market. LIST OF STORE LOCATION IN LONDON Basildon Kingston-Upon-Thames Basingstoke Lewisham, Bedford Leytonstone, Bexleyheath London Brighton, Luton Bromley Maidstone Camberley Margate, Chatham Norwich Crawley Oxford Croydon Peckham Dartford Reading, Ealing Romford Eastbourne Slough, Eastham Southend Gravesend Stevenage Hackney Sutton Hammersmith Thurrock Harlow Tooting Harrow Watford Hemel Hempstead Wandsworth Hounslow Wembley Ipswich Woking Kilburn, Woolwich Table 1: Field work Primark store location in London Primark stores a privately held subsidiary of Associated British Foods, Is involved in opening departmental store. It owns and operated 188 departmental stores that provide products such as women wear, children wear, menswear, footwear, accessories, The children market in Britain is worth  £4.5bn. Five years ago, Primark had a 2.8% market share. By 2006 this had risen 5.4% and in 2007 to 6.2% this now places Primark fourth in terms of market share. (Sutherland Canwall, 2008) What is e-commerce? 1.2 Aim The researcher aim to do this research to increase the volume of sales at present Primark is leading clothing retailer in UK. Furthermore according to this techno savvy world, and to compete the all competitors Primark also have to be go ahead with some new innovation with them. 1.3 Objectives 1. To explore how online shopping can benefit Primark and boost its sales. 2. To calculate, agree and plan for the necessary resources for this project 3. To investigate the market for online shopping service in the UK competitors market. 4. To identify new segment to increase the market share CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1. ONLINE SHOPPING SERVICE The researcher wants to introduce new direct marketing strategy for Primark to increase the sales volume. Like other competitors, Primark does not have an online shopping facility. In this day and age of technological advancement, it becomes very essential for any organisation to establish oneself in the field of e-commerce. The researcher has found a gap in the market for such a technological need and would like to introduce a promotional strategy for the companys growth in this high tech savvy world. The e-commerce can be defined as a modern business methodology that addresses the needs of organization, merchants and consumers to cut costs while improving the quality of goods and services and increasing the speed of service delivery, by using Internet (Goal, 2007). According to Varley, (2006), since the start of the new millennium, shopping via a computer has moved from the something indulged by a niche market to commonplace activity amongst the population masses. Furthermore the n ew internet world provide the retail industry with a new and exciting way of enticing consumer to purchase the product from the comfort from their available place like from home, office or anywhere they can access the ‘virtual world. In fact in recent developments in personal mobile communications industry would suggest that before long we will be able to go shopping literally anywhere at any time. Since the more improvement in the online shopping service is providing more and more luxurious service day by day so the the home delivery option alongside stores as the retail industry has developed. According to Fletcher, Bell McNaughton, (2004) e-commerce involves electronically medicated exchanges with customers. According to Rosen, (2002). Electronic commerce or â€Å"e-commerce† covers the range of online business activities for products and services, both business-to-business and business-to-customers, through the Internet. E-commerce breaks into two components: On the other hand side online auction is straightforward yet revolutionary business concept. Brokage business model, auctions bring the buyers and sellers together in a virtual marketplace. ( Bidgoli, 2002)  · Online Shopping: The scope of information and activities that provides customers with the information to conduct business with you and to make informed buying decisions.  · Online Purchasing: The technology infrastructure for the exchange of data and the purchase of the product over the Internet. Online purchasing is a metaphor used in business-to-business e-commerce for providing customers with an online method of placing orders, submitting purchase orders, or requesting quotes ( Rosen, 2002) Estimates vary as to the size of the business-to-consumer e-commerce market. The International Data Corporation (IDC) estimates that the total purchases made over the web were $10 billion in 1997 and will be more than $220 billion in 2001 (Oliveria, Amorim and Vilao, 1999). These large s are put in a wider context by KPMG (1999) which reports that, â€Å"Direct sales are 5% of retail sales in the UK and 4#% in the US. Of this total, 16% US home sales and 1% of UK home sales are electronic.† Forrester Research (Tagliabue, 1999) whose 1999 research showed Selling goods and services online is also called ecommerce. Popular ecommerce Web sites include Amazon.com and eBay, yahoo shopping, etoys, the met store , smart shopper and so on. Ecommerce is not the sole province of large companies, however; many small businesses have found considerable success selling on the Internet. Like this research content the use of the technology so the researcher would like to discuss about e-commerce service, Electronic commerce or ecommerce is a term for any type of business, or commercial transaction, that involves the transfer of information across the Internet. The e-commerce can be defined as a modern business methodology that addresses the needs of organization, merchants and consumers to cut costs while improving the quality of goods and services and increasing the speed of service delivery, by using Internet (Goal, 2007). According to Forrester Research at, the European online retail market is expected to grow from Euro 40 billion in 2004 to Euro 167 billion by 2009 (Forrester, 2006) Cited in (Burdick, Coakley Richardson, 2006)). And what are the benefits of e-commerce service? But basically the people knows each and every coin has two side so when you get some benefits from the ecommerce on the other hand side you get some disadvantages of the ecommerce as well. Moreover, with the help of online shopping service people can save their time for the shopping, online shopping service is very flexible you can use it anytime. In the opposite side you cannot touch and feel it you cant get it immediately first you pass through the very long process of ordering and after some days limitation like after four days delivery or one week delivery your get you stuff. But nowadays the most of the market work with the online shopping service like all the clothing stores provide Online shopping service. For example MS, Next, Topshop, Matalan, Monsoon, and soon. These all the clothing company has very high share market value in the market and very huge turn over in the market as well. According to the issue published in The Guardian, (2007), The weather also effect the shopping from the store and the online like the number shows how much it effect the market online market sales. In July 2007, because of the wet weather the sales increased by  £4bn in a month for the first time at  £4.2bn up from  £2.3bn in July a year ago according to the Interactive Media in Retail Group (IMRG). 2.2 PRIMARK ONLINE SHOPPING SERVICE (STRATEGY) ADVANTAGES DISADVANTAGES Every new thing has its own pros and cons like online shopping service is advantageous as much as disadvantageous for the Primark. First the researcher would like to discuss the advantages of the online shopping service at Primark. According to the competitor of Primarks are MS, Matalan, Topshop, Next and so on. All of the competitors are providing very good and fast online shopping service for their customers. 2.2.1 Business Benefits According to the Rosen, (2002), by providing your customers with 24 hour-a-day,7-day-a-week (24 x 7) access to information, you can support sales, in some cases shorten the sales cycle, and cut your administrative costs, since customers have access to information when they want it. Some people believe that shown that FAQs on an online shopping site give customers a better idea of companys product and help them feel more comfortable making the decision to buy. E-commerce is a great way to get the business of these off- peak shoppers. For a very small amount of money, a company can have its â€Å"cyber-shop† open 24 hours a day and 7 days a week. Savings on customers service staff, savings on telephone operators and sales people, instant update of catalogues and prices, product targeting, active targeting , passive targeting, better overhead and inventory control, worldwide visibility, attractive option for the physically challenged (Shim, 2000). Further all the advantageous strategy for the any company who introduce their online shopping service. With the Internet reaching all corner of the world so by introducing the online shopping service Primark can be reach all around the world. Actually they can advertise themselves globally for very small price. When the online shopping service the company proved they give the all the detailed description of the products so the Primark have to be recruit the less staff for the customer service staff, telephone operators, and less sales staffs. Like the customers when makes a purchase online is one less using the companys telephone operators and salespeople. Product targeting and active targeting both are the very helpful for the company. Primark can be accomplished actively or passively on the Internet to make their any product targeting. For the company Active targeting for the product by their product targeting Product targeting is in the two different way like the Due to the further description of the 24 x 7 online shopping service is definitely very useful for the any company like MS, Next, Matalan, etc have the same selling hour like Primark but they are selling more product by providing online shopping service. Furthermore nowadays people are more busy and addicted to use the internet in their day- to- day life. The world Internet users are the 100% present day compare to the year 2000. (Internet world stats, 2009) Normally Primark is just getting the benefit of on-peak shoppers only because it does not have any online shopping service to provide their customers. With just the shopping hours the company is making very good volume of sales so think when the company launched their online shopping service it will be more beneficial for the company to increase the volume of sales. 2.2.2 Operational Management Benefits Better availability of Service which means conveniently allows customers to shop in their homes from anywhere online. More benefit of online shopping for the operational management is cost reduction in information processing like reduce the cost of processing and retrieving order and customer information. Better timeliness of service means online operations can offer customers 24-hour servicer for purchasing good and services. Initial cost of operation less expensive, basically the capital investment in e-commerce operation is considerably less than brick-and mortar operations. Improved product development by the ability to be online with research and development people from around the world can help to reduce the time-to -market for new products and the cost of their development. Improved scheduling which is help full to the business. The online ability to keep track of product or service activities allows schedulers to be more accurate and timely in scheduling and rescheduling prod uction activity, reducing costs (Heizer and Render 2001, p. 460; Laudon and Laudon 2002, pp.122-129; Kamarainen et al. 2001). 2.3 Disadvantages of online shopping service There are so many disadvantages of e commerce business for the consumers like, credit card fraud, products that Dont show well, Limit to the Market, Small companies unprepared for global selling and soon. According to Shim Anique (2000) Credit card number can be stolen by the disgruntled or criminal employee who has legitimate as well as illegitimate access to the company e-commerce system. There are so many disadvantageous of ecommerce possible capacity and bandwidth problems. Security issues are major concern for many consumers. Security issues and measures are expected to improve in coming years, through the use of media other than credit cards on the web, such as e-Wallet, e-cash and other payment systems, acceptance or digital signature, more widespread application and acceptance of encryption technology and greater awareness and understanding of customers concerns (Bidgoli, 2002b). The main disadvantageous for shoppers, in ranked order were ‘Availability; ‘Cant be in to receive delivery; ‘Premium charged for delivery; ‘Premium charged for delivery; and ‘Cant see or feel the merchandise.( Harris Dennis, 2002) 2.4 Marketing contribution to High turnover Introduce online shopping service Primark needs many promotional strategies for the promotion of new service. To attract the customers and to publish new service they need so many promotional strategies like direct marketing, Advertising, publicity, sales promotion, Exhibition and so on. Primark always focuses on low price high volume strategy to develop market. Specifically in this recession time, peoples also moves towards Primark low price value added products. To grab this opportunity they should have also low cost marketing strategy as well. In the modern world the Internet often becomes the best medium to communicate and search things around. As all competitors have Online shopping strategy they can easily grab the markets. Online shopping strategy helps to advertising the companys product. As a result of peoples awareness about internet and the young age groups tech savvy attitude, they can search their products, compare with others to make their orders online easily. 2.5 Market Share Value of Primark At present Primark is number one UK clothing retailer in high street. There are so many competitor of it like Topman, Miss Selfridge, Dorothy Perkins, MS, Tesco, ASDA, Matalan Mango, TK Max and soon. Primark has moved a step closer to toppling Marks Spencer from the top spot in clothing market share, after its volume share leapt to 10.1% ( Ana, 2008). IMRG expects internet retail sales to increase by 15 per cent this year, with customers predicted to spend an estimated  £13.16bn online in the lead up to Christmas. A new record for internet sales volumes was set last Monday typically the biggest trading day of the week online although in keeping with the wider economic gloom, sales values were flat (Guardian, 2008). Growth for retail industry till year 2013 is weakens and steadies, First Research forecasts are based on INFORUM forecasts that are licensed from the Interindustry Economic Research Fund, Inc. (IERF) in College Park, MD. INFORUMs interindustry-macro approach to modelling the economy captures the links between industries and the aggregate economy ( Hoovers, 2009). Due to Hoovers, 2008 Primark business was -3% but in next coming year 2009 it is 1% less than the last year. For next coming three years it will be increased by nearly 4% continuously. In year 2013, the business of Primark will be increased their business by 4%. ADVANTAGES  · Business can be going on 24 x 7 days a year.  · Increase the number of sales volume  · Well managed store all the time  · Less staff recruitment.  · Increase the Profit because less money spends on training and development.  · Easy publicity of the product and name. DISADVANTAGES  · Less rash of people in store.  · Promotional things cannot be sell easily in particular stores.  · Customers are not feel that secure as store shopping.  · Chances of the fraud of credit cards and bank details can be effect the reputation of the company. Table 2 : Advantage Disadvantages of online shopping service at Primark CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY This chapter described the methodology used to address the research issue . A summary of the methodology is then presented to provide the platform for the research. The methodology best suited to achieve the research issue aim is then affirmed, alongside discussion on other methodologies and why they were not felt appropriate for utilization with this research issue. 3.1 Research Definition Research is not just a process of gathering information, as is sometimes suggested. Rather, it is about answering unanswered question or creating that which does not currently exist. Burns, (1994:2) defines research as ‘a systematic investigation to fins answers to problem. Bulmer (1977:5) states ‘Nevertheless sociological research , as research is primarily committed to established systematic, reliable and valid knowledge about the social world. Type of Research Research can be classified from three perspectives 1 application of the research study 2 objectives in undertaking the research 3 inquiry mode employed The researcher research is contain descriptive research type which is regarding the new service for the Primark company which has not any online shopping service. So the researcher will start new online shopping service at UK Primark. To finish this research the researcher need both kind of data qualitative data and quantitative data. And some of the data in both of categories contain primary data and secondary data. 3.2 What is the Qualitative and Quantitative research Academics confirmed that, in the main, two different research areas were distinguished: quantitative research, and qualitative research, (White, 2005; Saunders et al., 2007;Fisher, 2007). Quantitative research involved an objective way of studying things, whereas a qualitative approach assumed this was difficult and that the research was subjective, as the research issue clearly was in this instance. Distinctions between Quantitative and Qualitative data Quantitative data Qualitative data * Based on meaning derived from numbers * Collection results in numerical and standardised data * Analysis conducted through the use of diagrams and statistics * Based on meaning * Collection results in requiring classification * Analysis conducted through the use of concepetualisation Table 3 : Distinction between Quantitative data and Qualitative data sources Dey (1993)Harvey and Rawlinson (1994); authors experience, Adapted from Sunders M., Thornhill, Lewis, (2009) 3.3 Primary and secondary data Researchers usually start by gathering both the type of data Primary data and secondary data. But most probably first researcher would like to start collect the secondary data. The secondary data can easily available. According to Kotler, Armstrong, Wong Saunders, (2008) Secondary data consist of information that already exists somewhere, having been collected for another purpose. Primary data consist of information collected for the specific purpose at hand. Secondary data can easily available because company can buy that from anywhere. It is provide good starting point for the research and also help to define research problem and objectives. Primary data need to make sure that it will be relevant , accurate, current and unbiased. Primary data collection calls for the number of decisions on research approaches, contact methods, sampling plan and research instruments. Secondary data is more quickly and available at lower cost than primary data. Sometimes the secondary data cannot be collect by the individual company on its own. Primary data include observation, survey and experiments which is relevant people, actions and situations. 3.4 Interview Technique The interview is a qualitative tool of collecting primary data. There are various kinds of conducting interviews such as in-depth interview, semi-structured interview, group focus interview, structured interview, elite interview, ethnographic interview and phenomenological interview. The interviewers can adjust and rearrange questions according to the flow of the conversation. Moreover, there are mainly two types of interviews that can be taken up any researcher which are telephone interviews and personal interviews. Telephone interviews are used extensively is low cost form of personal interviewing that can be used to obtain information quickly. Administration of this approach is easy and has less interview bias problem. However, there are no human interactions, which can lead to interviewer bias or careless behaviour. However, to some extent personal interviews are also been used along with telephonic interviews. We would be conducting semi structured interviews as it suits explora tory research design. 3.5 Qualitative Data The researcher find this all the qusalitative data of strengths weakness, opportunities and threats of Primark by visiting the stores and observing the behaviour of the customers and staff and the management. The SWOT of Primark is highlighted in the table below: STRENGTHS  · Most Primark stores are on high streets or shopping malls  · Prices are reasonable  · All stores have large trading space.  · Good interiors, decor and proper signage  · Experienced retailer for over more than 40 years in operation  · It provides recyclable eco-friendly bags  · Frequent locator and international coverage WEAKNESSES * No online shopping facility available. * Weak public relation campaigns * Shops crowded and services are not up to standard * Mismanagement of clothes and accessories * Dependent on suppliers * Less promotional activity for stores and company * Less number of fitting rooms OPPORTUNITIES  · Primark can introduce their own store card  · Have an automatic self scan area  · Introduce new section like kitchen range, fragrance etc  · Primark can introduce a refreshment area/cafeteria  · More advertisement and promotion; Tie up and links with various other shops  · Give more range for 35 years and upwards  · Can introduce variety supplier and talent  · Online shopping can also be introduced THREATS * Unethical practice may jeopardise sales * Price competition * Inflation recession (decline in consumer confidence/low disposable income) * Other store selling for like products e.g.: H M, Matalan, Tesco etc. Table 4 : Fieldwork Primark SWOT Analyse 3.6 Quantitative Data The researcher was fortunately able to arrange some interview with some of the Primark managers and customers. The interviews contained both negative and positive replies. However most of the responses were positive. 3.6.1 Managers questioner interview The below primary data shows what are the opinion of the managers about the online shopping service in UK Primark. All the managers have similar view about this innovation skip to some of them. They are appreciating this innovation. The researcher was arrange 8 interviews with different different Primark managers like Lakeside, Watford, Harrow, Oxford street, Hammersmith. Interviews with the managers give the following responds to the researcher: The first part of the mangers interview questioner is (q1,q2,q3)give the idea about how much they are popular in the market. Averagely their is 10000 to 15000 people visit the store on a day to day basis. And the average spend per person is nearly  £10 to  £12. Second part of the managers interview questions (q4,q5) give the information about the company profit how much profit they are making ob year on year, their profit 112% on annual budget since inception 2006. In this credit crunch situation market is facing trouble but still Primark is increasing their profit on same level. Furthermore the third part of the managers interview questions (q6, q7) provides the details about competitors of Primark in the market. Due to the market situation Primark is the most famous retailers for like for like sales. According to all the managers opinion, competitors are New look, BHs, MS, ASDA, Tesco and so on. Primark also prove itself as own their original Moto ‘Look Good, Pay Less. So many managers says that the Primark is the only one place where people can just get scoks for  £2, pair of Mens jeans for  £8, and lots of thing people can find for very cheap price at Primark. Even whenever you pass though the high street you can see that most of the people hold Primark bags. Last part of the managers interview questions is part four(q8,q9), which is give us the information about the feasibility vice the online shopping service is good for the company or not. According to my all the 6 interviews with the managers like supervisor managers to HR managers. 70% response for the online shopping service UK Primark is positive, but 30% said that the company is not that much able to introduce the online shopping service. Furthermore interview with the managers showed that Primark is likely to benefit from the introduction of an online shopping service for their customers. Because the company can save the money and can make the money by introducing the online shopping service. Different ways to save the money due to the managers like the need less staff inside the store to manage the store clean and tide-up. Another reason is they need less HR expenses like less training, recruitment and soon. Primark can run their business for 24 hours, and make more money with fewer resources. 3.6.1 The second questioners survey of Customers The researcher did the survey of 50 people from the different part of the London. Thus survey also divided in two different groups Male and Female. Like Harrow, Hammersmith, Hayes, Uxbridge, Ilford and soon. The researcher was make 10 number of questions for the customers to get the positive or negative response to his/ her research. Each questions gives positive answer to the researcher just skip to the some. Furthermore, the researcher get the reply with the Q1, is about how frequently the customers are visiting the Primark, and the answer is positivistic and 100%. To added some more, all most people visiting a Primark ones a month but some people who are visiting Primark more than one it means they visit Primark twice , thrice and fourth. Going towards Q2, which give the ideas about people are shopping from the Primark is planned or unplanned? The response to this question is neutral like 24 people said it is unplanned shopping and 26 said it is planned shopping. The third question also gives the common opinion of the people about with whom they would like to visit the Primark. The researcher gets variety of answers in different kind of options like friends, family alone, others. According to the response most of the people prefer to visit the Primark with friends the survey gives number out of 50 people 24 prefer to visit the Primark with the friends. Second highest number for the fami ly which is 12. At last very less people prefer to

America 1900 - 1930 :: American History

Throughout centuries, we as a society have come to realize American history's pros and cons. It has been both optimistic and unconstructive, throughout the late 18th century through the end of WWII. Politicians and business leaders showed us how our societies have eventually come together in the creation of modern society. It has been an extensive and tough struggle from the 1870's horizontal and vertical integration to the 1930s great depression and the ending of World War II. In this essay I will discuss how the government and big businesses impacted and intertwined with one other in the growth of modern society. In the early 1870s, people were eager to expand and control their society. It was around this time, which also showed us consumerism at its best. It was the start of the big business boom, which included different methods and parts, some even involving corrupt politicians in order to gain control. A man by the name of Andrew Carnegie led this era of the industrial society. Carnegie was ambitious and hard working which showed people that anyone could do it. He would work a low paying job and take classes at night like most of us citizens do today. Carnegie would just grow in the corporate world and gain knowledge by getting promoted in Pennsylvania Railroads. After years of developing his skills, he decided to build his own steel mill. He introduced us to vertical Integration, meaning purchasing all the products, which are needed. Carnegie would buy the mountain, create a melting device, hire cheap labor and initially create a factory. This form of integrated goods made the process a lot cheaper. Carnegie was in the steel production integration scene, which was used to create the railroads. (Boyer, P. 369). These railroads helped create a form of transportation for local businesses to transport goods. In "The Enduring Vision", the author explains by the 1900s, 193,000 miles of railroad track crisscrossed the United States. (Boyer, 369) Connecting every state in the union opening an internal market. This illustrates the relationship between railroad expansion and corporate America. It also was a start for John Rockefeller, a local oilman who believed in vertical integration and also created horizontal integration. Horizontal integration was a form of control, which meant buying out your competitor legally or illegally. His method was very similar to Carnegie's: cost cutting and efficiency. Rockefeller would use aggression and dishonesty to force out competitors.

The Emperors New Clothes :: essays research papers

Recently I read one of the Hans Christian Anderson's short stories, The Emperor's New Clothes. This Danish writer in his story made such a good picture of foolish kings and governors that now-a-days are much more before. Many years ago there was an emperor who was so excessively fond of new clothes that he spent all his money on them. He cared nothing about his army, nor for people and his country, except to showing off his new clothes. One day two swindlers came to castle and said to emperor that they can weave the most beautiful stuff imaginable. Not only were the colors and patterns unusually fine, but the clothes that were made of these stuffs had the peculiar quality of becoming invisible to every person who was not fit for the office he held, or if he was impossibly dull. Emperor thought that those must be magnificent clothes, besides he should be able to discover which men in his kingdom are unfitted for their posts. Therefore he ordered to those two swindlers to make it ready for next month ceremony. Two swindlers asked such a huge amount of pure gold thread, fine silk and expensive cottons. They started their work in a separated room. They did put up two looms and all the time they just pretend to make such a fine stuff. The day and night they were busy with empty looms, but time to time they asked precious materials for emperor's new clothes. After a time, emperor sent his old minister to see what's going on. The poor old minister went there but he could not see any thing. Firstly he was worry that he could not see that stuff, but when two swindlers asked about clothes, he answered that it's magnificent. Two swindlers started to describing great patters and originality of colors and old minister paid great attention on them. After that when he back to emperor, he just repeat all swindlers words. After some times again one another person was sent to that room, but the same story happened. After all in occasion day emperor and a number of his courtiers, among them, the two faithful officials who had already seen the imaginary stuff, went to visit new clothes. No one could see the stuff, but every one was pretend to see something. Emperor himself could not see any thing but he put on that invisible stuff and finally in the street one innocent boy shouted that emperor has no clothes!

Foundation and Empire 3. The Dead Hand

Bel Riose interrupted his annoyed stridings to look up hopefully when his aide entered. â€Å"Any word of the Starlet?† â€Å"None. The scouting party has quartered space, but the instruments have detected nothing. Commander Yume has reported that the Fleet is ready for an immediate attack in retaliation.† The general shook his head. â€Å"No, not for a patrol ship. Not yet. Tell him to double – Wait! I'll write out the message. Have it coded and transmitted by tight beam.† He wrote as he talked and thrust the paper at the waiting officer. â€Å"Has the Siwennian arrived yet?† â€Å"Not yet.† â€Å"Well, see to it that he is brought in here as soon as he does arrive.† The aide saluted crisply and left. Riose resumed his caged stride. When the door opened a second time, it was Ducem Barr that stood on the threshold. Slowly, in the footsteps of the ushering aide, he stepped into the garish room whose ceiling was an ornamented holographic model of the Galaxy, and in the center of which Bel Riose stood in field uniform. â€Å"Patrician, good day!† The general pushed forward a chair with his foot and gestured the aide away with a â€Å"That door is to stay closed till I open it.† He stood before the Siwennian, legs apart, hand grasping wrist behind his back, balancing himself slowly, thoughtfully, on the balls of his feet. Then, harshly, â€Å"Patrician, are you a loyal subject of the Emperor?† Barr, who had maintained an indifferent silence till then, wrinkled a noncommittal brow. â€Å"I have no cause to love Imperial rule.† â€Å"Which is a long way from saying that you would be a traitor.† â€Å"True. But the mere act of not being a traitor is also a long way from agreeing to be an active helper.† â€Å"Ordinarily also true. But to refuse your help at this point,† said Riose, deliberately, â€Å"will be considered treason and treated as such.† Barr's eyebrows drew together. â€Å"Save your verbal cudgels for your subordinates. A simple statement of your needs and wants will suffice me here.† Riose sat down and crossed his legs. â€Å"Barr, we had an earlier discussion half a year ago.† â€Å"About your magicians?† â€Å"Yes. You remember what I said I would do.† Barr nodded. His arms rested limply in his lap. â€Å"You were going to visit them in their haunts, and you've been away these four months. Did you find them?† â€Å"Find them? That I did,† cried Riose. His lips were stiff as he spoke. It seemed to require effort to refrain from grinding molars. â€Å"Patrician, they are not magicians; they are devils. It is as far from belief as the outer galaxies from here. Conceive it! It is a world the size of a handkerchief, of a fingernail; with resources so petty, power so minute, a population so microscopic as would never suffice the most backward worlds of the dusty prefects of the Dark Stars. Yet with that, a people so proud and ambitious as to dream quietly and methodically of Galactic rule. â€Å"Why, they are so sure of themselves that they do not even hurry. They move slowly, phlegmatically; they speak of necessary centuries. They swallow worlds at leisure; creep through systems with dawdling complacence. â€Å"And they succeed. There is no one to stop them. They have built up a filthy trading community that curls its tentacles about the systems further than their toy ships dare reach. For parsecs, their Traders – which is what their agents call themselves – penetrate.† Ducem Barr interrupted the angry flow. â€Å"How much of this information is definite; and how much is simply fury?† The soldier caught his breath and grew calmer. â€Å"My fury does not blind me. I tell you I was in worlds nearer to Siwenna than to the Foundation, where the Empire was a myth of the distance, and where Traders were living truths. We ourselves were mistaken for Traders.† â€Å"The Foundation itself told you they aimed at Galactic dominion?† â€Å"Told me!† Riose was violent again. â€Å"It was not a matter of telling me. The officials said nothing. They spoke business exclusively. But I spoke to ordinary men. I absorbed the ideas of the common folk; their ‘manifest destiny,' their calm acceptance of a great future. It is a thing that can't be hidden; a universal optimism they don't even try to hide.† The Siwennian openly displayed a certain quiet satisfaction. â€Å"You will notice that so far it would seem to bear out quite accurately my reconstruction of events from the paltry data on the subject that I have gathered.† â€Å"It is no doubt,† replied Riose with vexed sarcasm, â€Å"a tribute to your analytical powers. It is also a hearty and bumptious commentary on the growing danger to the domains of His Imperial Majesty.† Barr shrugged his unconcern, and Riose leaned forward suddenly, to seize the old man's shoulders and stare with curious gentleness into his eyes. He said, â€Å"Now, patrician, none of that. I have no desire to be barbaric. For my part, the legacy of Siwennian hostility to the Imperium is an odious burden, and one which I would do everything in my power to wipe out. But my province is the military and interference in civil affairs is impossible. It would bring about my recall and ruin my usefulness at once. You see that? I know you see that. Between yourself and myself then, let the atrocity of forty years ago be repaid by your vengeance upon its author and so forgotten. I need your help. I frankly admit it.† There was a world of urgency in the young man's voice, but Ducem Barr's head shook gently and deliberately in a negative gesture. Riose said pleadingly, â€Å"You don't understand, patrician, and I doubt my ability to make you. I can't argue on your ground. You're the scholar, not I. But this I can tell you. Whatever you think of the Empire, you will admit its great services. Its armed forces have committed isolated crimes, but in the main they have been a force for peace and civilization. It was the Imperial navy that created the Pax Imperium that ruled over all the Galaxy for thousands of years. Contrast the millennia of peace under the Sun-and-Spaceship of the Empire with the millennia of interstellar anarchy that preceded it. Consider the wars and devastations of those old days and tell me if, with all its faults, the Empire is not worth preserving. â€Å"Consider,† he drove on forcefully, â€Å"to what the outer fringe of the Galaxy is reduced in these days of their breakaway and independence, and ask yourself if for the sake of a petty revenge you would reduce Siwenna from its position as a province under the protection of a mighty Navy to a barbarian world in a barbarian Galaxy, all immersed in its fragmentary independence and its common degradation and misery.† â€Å"Is it so bad – so soon?† murmured the Siwennian. â€Å"No,† admitted Riose. â€Å"We would be safe ourselves no doubt, were our lifetimes quadrupled. But it is for the Empire I fight; that, and a military tradition which is something for myself alone, and which I can not transfer to you. It is a military tradition built on the Imperial institution which I serve.† â€Å"You are getting mystical, and I always find it difficult to penetrate another person's mysticism.† â€Å"No matter. You understand the danger of this Foundation.† â€Å"It was I who pointed out what you call the danger before ever you headed outward from Siwenna.† â€Å"Then you realize that it must be stopped in embryo or perhaps not at all. You have known of this Foundation before anyone had heard of it. You know more about it than anyone else in the Empire. You probably know how it might best be attacked; and you can probably forewarn me of its countermeasures. Come, let us be friends.† Ducem Barr rose. He said flatly, â€Å"Such help as I could give you means nothing. So I will make you free of it in the face of your strenuous demand.† â€Å"I will be the judge of its meaning.† â€Å"No, I am serious. Not all the might of the Empire could avail to crush this pygmy world.† â€Å"Why not?† Bel Riose's eyes glistened fiercely. â€Å"No, stay where you are. I'll tell you when you may leave. Why not? If you think I underestimate this enemy I have discovered, you are wrong. Patrician,† he spoke reluctantly, â€Å"I lost a ship on my return. I have no proof that it fell into the hands of the Foundation; but it has not been located since and were it merely an accident, its dead hulk should, certainly have been found along the route we took. It is not an important loss – less than the tenth part of a fleabite, but it may mean that the Foundation has already opened hostilities. Such eagerness and such disregard for consequences might mean secret forces of which I know nothing. Can you help me then by answering a specific question? What is their military power?† â€Å"I haven't any notion.† â€Å"Then explain yourself on your own terms. Why do you say the Empire can not defeat this small enemy?† The Siwennian seated himself once more and looked away from Riose's fixed glare. He spoke heavily, â€Å"Because I have faith in the principles of psychohistory. It is a strange science. It reached mathematical maturity with one man, Hari Seldon, and died with him, for no man since has been capable of manipulating its intricacies. But in that short period, it proved itself the most powerful instrument ever invented for the study of humanity. Without pretending to predict the actions of individual humans, it formulated definite laws capable of mathematical analysis and extrapolation to govern and predict the mass action of human groups.† â€Å"So-â€Å" â€Å"It was that psychohistory which Seldon and the group he worked with applied in full force to the establishment of the Foundation. The place, time, and conditions all conspire mathematically and so, inevitably, to the development of a Second Galactic Empire.† Riose's voice trembled with indignation. â€Å"You mean that this art of his predicts that I would attack the Foundation and lose such and such a battle for such and such a reason? You are trying to say that I am a silly robot following a predetermined course into destruction.† â€Å"No,† replied the old patrician, sharply. â€Å"I have already said that the science had nothing to do with individual actions. It is the vaster background that has been foreseen.† â€Å"Then we stand clasped tightly in the forcing hand of the Goddess of Historical Necessity.† â€Å"Of Psychohistorical Necessity,† prompted Barr, softly. â€Å"And if I exercise my prerogative of freewill? If I choose to attack next year, or not to attack at all? How pliable is the Goddess? How resourceful?† Barr shrugged. â€Å"Attack now or never; with a single ship, or all the force in the Empire; by military force or economic pressure; by candid declaration of war or by treacherous ambush. Do whatever you wish in your fullest exercise of freewill. You will still lose.† â€Å"Because of Hari Seldon's dead hand?† â€Å"Because of the dead hand of the mathematics of human behavior that can neither be stopped, swerved, nor delayed.† The two faced each other in deadlock, until the general stepped back. He said simply, â€Å"I'll take that challenge. It's a dead hand against a living will.†